UNDER DER LINDEN

This week in our classes we venture to GERMANY! In the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, though Latin-language religious music was still all the rage in Germany, a number of aristocrats who traveled from court to court and had picked up music along the way began to compose and perform decidedly non-religious love songs. These performers, known as Minneseingers, eventually made way for middle-class craftsmen known as Meistersingers who studied music as their main profession. Enjoy 12th century minnesinger Walther von der Vogelweide’s “Under the Linden” with English subtitles (the singing starts at about 0:50).