Description
One of the main works of the famous French writer George Sand, “The Musicians’ Guild”, is now finally available in German! A novel that provides fascinating insights into the world of French bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy players in the mid-19th century.
The world-famous writer George Sand spent a large part of her life in Nohant, a small town in Berry, France. Although most of her novels have been translated into German, one of her major works, the novel “Les Maîtres Sonneurs”, published in 1853, has not yet been available in German.
During research, the editor Christoph Pelgen found a German translation of “Die Musikanten-Zunft” by Claire von Glümer from 1856, which is extremely successful, knowledgeable and coherent and which we have reproduced unchanged in this edition. The charming and easy-to-read language of Glümer’s translation perfectly emphasizes the atmosphere and fascination of the novel.
The novel “The Musicians’ Guild” about childhood friends Joseph, Steffen and Brülette is set in rural Berry in the late 18th century. George Sand tells of everyday peasant life in central France, of the code of honor of muleteers and woodcutters, of rival musicians and of her protagonists’ difficult search for happiness and their place in this world. The characters in the story, the landscape, the depiction of everyday life and the detailed descriptions of music, dance festivals, travel etc. cast a glance back to an era that has been lost forever.
“People there still believe in all seriousness what is still sometimes believed here,
namely that you have to dedicate your soul to the devil if you want to become a musician,
and that one day Satan will come and snatch the bagpipe out of the musician’s hands,
smashes them on his back and then forces him to harm himself.”
The original title of this book, “The Musicians’ Guild”, was the inspiration for one of the most important festivals for traditional bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy music in central France in the 20th century: The “Rencontres internationales des luthiers et maîtres sonneurs”, held just a few kilometers from Nohant in St. Chartier since 1976 and developed into a Mecca for musicians, instrument makers and dancers. There, the music and the old instruments were rediscovered and further developed, which George Sand writes about so wonderfully in this novel.
A detailed appendix with explanations and notes completes this edition.
