|
|
- From Zeller's operetta Der
Vogelhändler is a one minute
 "Live-Mitschnitte"
of Fröhlich'
Pfalz performed by Hilde Güden, as the Kurfürstin
arriving in Tirol from the Pfalz incognito .... but with
her singing entourage.
- Anton Karas [of "The
Third Man" fame] plays a 30 second extract of a
medley of Carl Michael Ziehrer's Wiener--Walzer
on the zither.
- An example of contemporary
Styrian folk music is the Jubiläumspolka
by the Skilehrermusi' in this high quality - but very
slow loading mp3 file, as much as 8 -10 minutes download
time with a dial-up modem.
- Marlene Dietrich sings "Johnny,
Wenn Du Geburtstag Hast" for 30 seconds in a fast
loading RA file.
- Leo Slezak sings the
opening minute of Ferdinand Raimund's "Das
Hobellied" on the futility of life. Marlene
Dietrich sings this Alt-Wiener Lied in a less
traditional version. To read the full text of Das
Hobellied, click
here
- That Er
heißt Waldemar was a major commercial success is not
surprising .. until you listen closely to the lyrics and
consider: the date, late 30s under the Nazi dictatorship;
singer, the foreign Swede,
Leander; the composer, Michael Jary, a Christian
categorized under Nazi law as a Jew; and the lyricist,
Bruno Balz, an open homosexual. Note Waldemar's Slavic
name; "wrong" hair and eye coloring and lack of
Nordic qualities and virtues; and particularly consider
the song's last line - unfortunately not contained in this
excerpt. [And also note the numerous doubles entendres
.... click for the song's full
text.] The unusually wide octave range of Leander's
voice can be glimpsed in this snippet of Jede
Nacht ein neues Glück.
- After the Golden Age of
operetta [von Suppé, Strauß, Millöcker] came the Silver
Age [Lehár, Kalmann, Oskar Straus]. From the next Age is
an extract from Robert Stolz' 1930s Leutnant,Warst
Du Einst Bei Den Husaren? sung by Liane in the
1950s in a fast loading RA file.
- The Puszta begins at the
Austrian border and this Styrian new-folksong Sissi
Melodien [named after the Empress Elisabeth who had a
close relationship with the Magyar aristocracy] by the
Grazer Jungsteirer reflects the influence of the East on
the West in this high quality and very slow loading mp3
file.
- A nine minute version of
Johann Strauß Sohns Wo
die Citronen blúh'n performed by the Wiener-Strauß-Solisten
in a MP3 file.
- In the late 1940s and the
1950s a German speaking world seeking escape from a
difficult reality turned to songs of exotic places
and of the sea. Freddy
 Quinn,
from landlocked Austria, became a Wahlhamburger and
the creator of a string of Seemannslieder hits, such
as Die
Gitarre und das Meer and Das
Friesenlied. As time and tastes changed Freddy
switched to German-language versions of US hillbilly and
neo-folk, such as Heimweh
[Memories are Made of This].
- In the middle 1950s Germany
began
 imitating
American pop teenage music. Peter Kraus sings an example
of this, Sugar
Baby , later used as a theme in the 1980's movie of
the same name, and Diana.
- Goethe's poem Der
Erlkönig was set to music by Schubert. Click the link
to listen to the opening stanza, a 30 second extract in
this high quality but large and very slow loading
WAV file [as much as 6 minutes download time]. To read the
full text of Erlkönig CLICK
here.
- ARD, one of the two major
German television "networks", has a site
containing two dozen audio and video extracts from its detective
and other series such as Tatort, Marienhof, Polizeiruf
. The first click takes you to the program page from where
you reach the clips. [The video extracts also play in the
Real Audio player.] Each extract has a run time of about 1
to 1½ minutes and each takes about 10 seconds to download
with a 56K modem.
|
