Germany: Singing in Joy and Suffering (Satis Shroff, Schriftführer, MGV-Kappel)
Tags: foret noire, lovely kappel, vorsitzender, klaus suetterle, black forest, MGV-Kappel, schwarzwald, satisshroff, schriftführer,
Singing in Joy and Suffering (Satis Shroff)
The Männergesangverein is a typical men’s choir from the Black Forest town of Kappel, which belongs to Freiburg. It’s motto is: In Freud und Leid, zum singen bereit, that is, ‘Ready with a Song, in Joy and Suffering.’
Singing is the most beautiful articulation of humans in the musical domain. When we sing in a choir, we come together. You can hear yourself, others and then hear all together in chorus. You seek the harmony, and you find this when you sing together. This feeling of togetherness binds us in a choir.
In Germany the men’s choir dates back to the times of Karl Friedrich Zelters (1758-1832) who founded the Liedertafel in Berlin in the year 1809, which was an association (verein) with 24 men. The aim was to promote singing and this verein served as a model for all choirs later.
In Kappel it was Karl Freßle who took the initiative and founded the Musikverein-Kappel in the year 1904. He was the chairman from 1912 till 1928, and he was the one who suggested at the general meeting on May 30,1920 that a men’s choir be initiated. The MGV-Kappel exists since 1920 and is ninety-two years old. The MGV-Kappel is of cultural importance in Kappel, just as the Musikverein. Between the Musikverein and the MGV-Kappel there’s a co-operation since the founding days and the two associations organise their concerts together, especially the Weihnachts (Christmas) Concert, which has become a tradition. The concerts are hosted by the two vereins alternatively each year.
‘When does the MGV-Kappel sing in public?’ you are inclined to ask.
It sings on White Sunday, at the Christmas Bazaar, during Weihnachten in the Kirche, as the church is called in German, and a lot of other occasions throughout the year. The MGV-Kappel ‘Liederkranz’ has often given evidence to the fact that it’s an active verein through its excursions with its members, ständerlesingen (singing on round birthdays and at funerals when a dear citizen or singer has passed away, after which the MGV renders the deceased the last accompaniment to the local graveyard in Kappel. Although the MGV-Kappel is a very tradition-conscious verein in Kappel and the Dreisam Valley, it has shown that it is open new impulses.
The conductor Johannes Söllner has at last returned to Freiburg from Leipzig where he’d gone for his further studies, and as a result had to shuttle between Freiburg and Leipzig. It might be mentioned that he’s the conductor of both choirs: MGV-Kappel and Intermezzo Ihringen. The latter is a mixed choir, since the elderly generation is dying out, and it is getting increasingly difficult to acquire new, young male members. There is a clash of interest and taste as far as the choice of songs are concerned. Whereas the elderly members want to stick to their olde German songs, the younger generation want rap, hip-hop and pop-songs and music from the UK and the US-charts. The MGV-Kappel has been increasing its international repertoire of songs with lyrics in Latin, Spanish, English, African, Hebrew and Russian languages.
According to Arthur Schopenhauer: music is the melody to which the world is the text. And it’s amazing how music and songs connect people. The MGV-Kappel has early this year staged a Brauchtumsabend (February 17, 2012) in which old and new traditional stories were told to the accompaniment of music and songs, because a society changes and goes with the influences of the times. This would have been different in the former conserved German societies of Schlesian and the Siebenburgen (Seven Hills) in Romania, where the ethnic Germans living in these countries wanted to preserve their culture from the Czechkoslovakian and Romanian mainstream. Elderly Germans who were repatriated to Germany later found that the German language and the country and its people had other norms and values. They’d just gone with the times, and as a result were suddenly strangers to their ethnic brethens from ‘conserved’ cultural backgrounds.
It’s a pity that Kappel doesn’t have a Trachtenverein.Oberried and St. Peter and many parts of the Schwarzwald have maintained their old traditional garb, pretty hats and other costumes and parade in such clothes on special days, which is not only a delight for the tourists but also for the cultural heritage of a country. In the Freiburger area alone there are 3500 vereins. The general meeting took place as usual at the Gasthaus Kreuz (Kappel) on March 2, 2012.
The MGV-Kappel was invited by the choir Intermezzo Ihringen on April 14,2012. We sang the following songs: Evening Rise (a Native American song), s’Herz, Heil Dir Heilige Himmelskönigin, Good News, Durchs Wieseltal gang i. Intermezzo Ihringen sang no wine songs, even though Ihringen lies in the sunniest area of Germany. Intermezzo shone with world hits in English, and borrowed a great deal from the Swedish group Abba to the delight of the audience. The songs Sana Sana and Evening Rise were sung together by the two choirs. It was a very pleasant evening.
(Article by: satis shroff,1. Vorstand,www.mgv-kappel.de)
http://schwarzwaldchroniclessatisshroff.blogspot.de/
+catmandu.jpg)
WELCOME to Creative Cappel (Kappel) the place where I live, where the sun shines when it's raining in downtown Freiburg, where the people greet you with 'Grüssgott!', where you can buy good, unpolluted vegetables from Herr Band and his dear Mom, where you can enjoy the badische cuisine at Gasthof Kreuz run by a man named Hug, where the Black Forest landscape is enhanced with the fantastic wooden sculptures of Thomas Rees, where the Ortsvorsteher sings Udo Lindenberg's 'Cello' on stage, where the river Brugga flows and joins the Dreisam, and where Richard Linder and Franz Lachmann take care of the fauna and flora, where Ernst Ehemann cares about the hill mining history and where Adolf Fressle sings in the men's choir and carries his father's tradition, and where Herr Winter, a burly, amiable Bavarian conducts the brass band. Ah, you feel so at home in this environment. It's like being in a holiday resort. If that isn't wellness, this Schwarzwald air that I breathe, the German, English songs that I sing. Yes, I could go on and on. Let me cite Germany's most prolific and creative bard:
'Man sollte alle Tage wenigstens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen.' Who said that? None other than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
