The sixteenth volume of the representative collected edition of folk music in Austria - Corpus Musicae Popularis
Austriacae - comprises children`s rhymes, games and songs collected in Lower Austria from the beginning of the
19th century up to the end of the 20th century.
A collection of poetic and musical forms from the world of Lower Austria`s children is presented here with 3000
selected numbers and more than 370 tunes bearing witness to the way these rhymes, games and songs are linked
with the lives of children past and present. Aspects peculiar to Lower Austria mix with those from elsewhere to
give a magnificent view of the world of rhymes and games so important for a child`s mental development.
The wealth of the collected material presented here is mainly determined by traditional forms whose neologisms
originate from local dialects. Attention was also paid to those rhymes, games and songs circulating since the middle
of the 2oth century which - by virtue of kindergartens, primary schools and childrens` books - have made their way
into children`s autonomous tradition.
Together, all these little expressions of poetry and music with their characteristics drawn from past and present
make up a fascinating panorama of "forms of usage" appropriate for children. Their traditional and innovative
elements are in a state of continual exchange, thus producing exemplary and remarkable variants until to the
present day.
Alongside the edition`s principle directed towards scholarship, an educational aspect is also linked with the
publication of this collection . The rhymes, games and songs from the wealth of poetical and musical treasure of a
federal province with their inherent reference to the lives of children and to specific situations when they are
playing can now be used by those accompanying children and youngsters as parents and teachers on their way
through life.