Music & songs in Tyrolean society and politics 1796-1848

The proposed project "Music and songs in the Tyrolian society and politics 1796-1848" aims at collecting and analysing a specific type of source that has not been rewarded with a lot of historiographical attention within the historical province of the Tyrol hitherto: Songs. Songs of varied character and origin that were composed in the Tyrol within the years 1796 until 1848 - a time that has been substantial not only for Europe but also for the Tyrol and its identity as a "nation" - will be looked upon from two scientific angles: the fusion of the musicological and the historical sciences promises new fruitful results. Within the time-frame of the Coalition Wars and the following rearrangement of Europe, the part of the Tyrol was not an insignificant one: partly successful self-organized fights against the French troops in 1796 and 1797, Tyrol`s cession from the Austrian empire, followed by the Bavarian reign 1806-1814 shortly interrupted in 1809, when the well-known Andreas Hofer, Tyrol`s "national hero", lead an uprising known as "die Tiroler Freiheitskämpfe". The people in Tyrol have produced a surprisingly large range of songs in order to agitate, motivate and unify the people in the Tyrolean fight against the French invaders and later on against the Bavarian administration, using this tool to inform and instruct the "public" (war- and soldier songs, songs of protest, songs describing grievances resulting from the alien reign), some of them newly composed, some texts and melodies adapted preferably by contemporary German poets and composers, some of them written and composed in the Tyrolean dialect, interestingly. The musicologists and historians involved aim at researching about the authors, the composers and singers (contextualisation). From the the historians` perspective, it is important to analyze the political language communicated within the songs - from the musicologist`s perpective the melody will be interpreted as a form of communication (communication of contents). Particular attention will be given to the immediate and mediate reception until the very presence: how was received? Which parts of the population received how? ("Nationalsänger", male fraternities etc.) In which economic dimensions were songs produced and distributed? How did the oral transmittion of songs work? Can we assume a certain "market" for songs in the time- frame of the research? Which other sources bear information about singing for a political reason? The need to put these songs in the focus of a scientific research project is obvious: These songs - taken as a form of political communication - and their immediate impact on the people, the songs` life in the aftermath, their place in the history of remembrance have never received appropriate attention and should now be put into the social, political and cultural context.

The project Music and songs in Tyrolean society and politics 17961848 was a multidisciplinary venture which took an in-dept look at Tyrolean political songs from 1796 to 1848 and aimed for a complete collection. Apart from this, one of the main outcomes of the research work was a detailed distinction of these songs, formerly just called Andreas Hofer Lieder, into different categories. The project also brought the important role of Tiroler Nationalsänger to light, who not only had had a representational character in foreign countries but also exported some political songs from Tyrol to England and even to the U.S. This new perception concerning the Tyrolean singing family will clearly make a contribution to a reevaluation of this phenomenon, which so far has only been judged as a kind of oddity. During their research work in various archives in Tyrol (North and South) and the southern German speaking regions, the project collaborators Sandra Hupfauf and Silvia Erber investigated approximately 300 songs from different resources: broadsides, diaries, travel reports, handwritten and printed songbooks. The least common denominator of these songs are: 1. They had been written between 1796 and 1848; 2. They have a clear connection to the political or social circumstances of these years and they offer a political significance through their content or the way they were produced, absorbed or performed; 3. They had been sung or it is supposed that they had been created for singing. The multidisciplinary research approach was essential, as a strictly historian study would have been as deficient as a strictly musicological one. The main challenge was to combine and adopt different perspectives and techniques concerning the resource song, which especially for historians is a quite new subject. So while the historian worked with quantitative and qualitative analysis of semantic aspects (frequency and meaning of important words), the musicologists research based on the historisch-kritische Liederlexikon des Deutschen Volksliedarchives (DVA). This new research approach works with the biography of songs. From the historical view the songs can be classified in six categories concerning form and content: 1. sozialkritische Lieder (sociocritical songs), 2. herrschaftskritische Lieder (sovereignty critical songs), 3. Loblieder (praise songs), 4. Jubel- bzw. Siegeslieder (peans), 5. Kampf- bzw. Kriegslieder (battle and war songs), 6. Spott- bzw. Scherzlieder (satirical songs). The musicological analysis works with different categories: 1. Lieder mit übernommenen Melodien (songs with adopted melodies), 2. kunstmusikalische Gelegenheitslieder (casual art songs), 3. Studentenlieder, Revolutionslieder, deutsche Befreiungskriegsdichtung und das Männerchorwesen (student songs, songs of the German liberty wars, male choirs), 4. Tiroler Sängergesellschaften (Tyrolean singing families), 5. authentische Lieder (authentic songs). The main goal of the research project was the combination of all results (historical and musicological) and a publication of a scientific book which would appeal to historians and musicologists similarly. The publication, called Liedgeschichten, includes 17 chapters, each section deals with one specific song, its history and characteristics. On the basis of this song one particular aspect of the whole theme is discussed, either from the musicological or historical point of view.