GERMAN MUSIC.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 200, 11 December 1876, Page 2

GERMAN MUSIC.

By Enharmobtia.

" Die Wachb Am Rhein." This patriotic song of Gei-many, which, during the late war, spread like a prairie fire over the length and breadth of the Fatherland, -was written in November, 1740, by Max Schnekenburger, a native of Thalheim, Wurtemburgh.* When a young man of twenty-one, he was living at Berne. He first read the verses, soon after they had been written, to a circle of German friends (Professor Hundershagen being one of the number) then assembling occasionally at. Burgdorf, near Berne. The song has been set to music several times, but only one tune—the one now universally adopted, which lang through Germany and France, from the coast fires on the Baltic to the bivouacs of the Crown Prince of Prussia beyond Chalons —has become popular. The melody owes its origin to Carl Wilhelm, formerly Capelmeister at Crefield, Rhenish Prussia, and dates as far back as some years before 18-jO. Since its appearance, the song became more and more a favorite with the Choral Unions of Germany ; but, at the outbreak of the war, it suddenly became the favorite patriotic song —in fact, the song of the whole German nation, superseding even the old national hymn of M. Arndt, " Wa3 ist des Deutschen Vaterland." Carl Wilhelm, the composer, at the outbreak of the war, was a man of about fifty, sick, and in poverty, beginning to earn the fruits of the sudden popularity of his tune. His name was on every tongue, the illustrated papers gave his portrait, public subscriptions were successfully made, and the Queen of Prussia sent him a golden medal in acknowledgment of his merits. She intended to have conferred the same honor on the poet, but, alas ! poor Schneckenburger had long been in. his grave; but his son was th<?n in the field with the Wurtemberg Jagers, in the army of the Crown Prince of Prussia. The air itself is of a thoroughly popular cast, and one can easily understand how it has enabled he poem to reach the hearts of the people.

" When the Swallows Homeward Fly." This song, by Franz Abt, has had an extraordinary popularity among the nations, and now ranks as one of the German national airs. As a gentleman was passing through Amiens during the German occupation, his ear caught the familiar strains of the air as the train he was in crept into the railway station. A company of German officers were at mess in the re-freshment-room, and the band of their regiment was serenading them with this lovely air. The scene was most touching. The musicians handled the morsel tenderly, for it had been dear to them as boys, and now they had brought it far from home to a strange and hostile land, where none but themselves knew it and loved it. The Germans all around turned sad and thoughtful glances upon the band, the travellers listened in silence from the carriages of the train, and alone upon the evening stillness were borne the sweet and pleading strains of Abt's song. " The Lorelei," by Frederick Silcher, is, a charming little piece, both words and music. The subject is a dark rock which overhangs the swift-flowing Rhine, sending weird echoes back upon the passing voyager. At its foot a rapid and a whirl-

pool were,<M\plden times,: the terrSk v of the fishermen, and these simple men conjured up legends of a winning but wicked maiden who enticed them into the toils of boiling current by her syren voice. Mendelssbhn, going about in his fastidious search for the text of an operaf fixed at last upon, this legend as worthy of his genius, but death prevented the completion of the task he had begun. It is hard for us to understand how much the Germans love their national songs. They are heard everywhere, and under all conditions.