Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit

Elspie (Year 10) tells us about the German musical heritage project they did in class and talks about the discoveries she and her classmates have made.

As the summer term drew to a close, our class was given a project in German. The project was titled Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit (On the trail of the past). And so over the two weeks that followed, we were plunged into the world of German music.

Our project was introduced by a sing-along from a book found in the German department store room called “Deutsche Heimat” published in 1936. The book comprised hymns, folk songs, children’s songs and battle songs  and as we worked our way through these, we thought about the heritage and history of German music as well as the students who had listened to these songs before our time.

The main project itself consisted of researching and presenting various aspects of German music culture, including Deutsche Kinderlieder (German children’s songs), Das Sandmännchen und Schlaflieder (German lullabies), Die Lorelei (a German legend and song), Deutsche Lieder (art songs) and Volkslieder (folk music).

I chose the aspect of Deutsche Lieder. This had a deep connection to German heritage as the Lieder genre was mostly written during the romantic period and used poetry for inspiration and lyrics. This gave my partner and me insight into historical poetry and a means to further develop our German language skills.

We researched classic German Lieder composers such as Schumann and Schubert and analysed some of their work for instance An die Musik, which I performed live on the viola. My partner Alice and I, while considering the piece, concluded that the song centres on the power of music and its ability to take us to a different world. As a musician who had been playing Deutsche Lieder as part of my repertoire without knowing for many years, discovering the genre was very important to me. Investigating the poem which the music accompanied was extremely helpful and allowed me as a musician to achieve more meaningful playing.

Other groups chose other aspects of German music, creating an exciting atmosphere as we presented our projects to the class. Most projects included a musical example of their genre as can be heard below, producing an environment where German heritage and culture was explored in depth.