A medieval German song in Middle High German from about 1275, as it is written down in the Codex Manesse from the early 14th century. The performing artists here are Michael Posch and Ensemble Unicorn.
The man who wrote this song was called Friedri…
A medieval German song in Middle High German from about 1275, as it is written down in the Codex Manesse from the early 14th century. The performing artists here are Michael Posch and Ensemble Unicorn.
The man who wrote this song was called Friedrich von Sonnenburg: he probably hailed from Sonnenburg Castle in the Puster Valley, nowadays Südtirol/South Tyrol, Italy. His family probably was assigned to the posts of the ministerialis class, lower nobles in service of higher nobles vaguely comparable to high-ranking bureaucrats. Nevertheless, reading his songs/poems reveals that he seems to have lived as a travelling artist. 73 surviving and relatively long stanzas are attributed to him, the largest parts of which can be found in the famed Codex Manesse (26 stanzas), the Kleine Heidelberger Liederhandschrift A (10) and above all in the Jenaer Liederhandschrift J (62). In addition, five of his stanzas have survived in the Codex Sangallensis 857, a South Tyrolean manuscript. Four long "Sangspruch" songs (elaborate songs dealing with complex issues) are attributed to him, which were also adopted by other well-known singers, such as Konrad von Würzburg. In his songs, he dealt with all topics typical for his age, including religion and politics, but his greatest passion seems to have been singing about the life and use of a travelling artist like himself for the sake of culture, education, and entertainment.
He is assumed to have been active from ~1245 to ~1275, with his estimated death being between 1275 and 1287. Some songs may give a hint that he participated at a battle against the Magyars/Hungarians, which was led by Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1271. He also wrote about the coronation of Ottokar's rival Rudolf von Habsburg in ~1273.
In his cover image in the Codex Manesse, he is seen with two young boys, as if he is some sort of educator/teacher. Fittingly, this song seems to combine this trope with his aforementioned passion for singing about the use of singing as an..
