Neidhart [Nîthart] ‘von Reuental’ [‘der von Riuwental’]

(b ?c1190; d after 1236). German Minnesinger. The only indisputable fact about Neidhart's life – his social origins are unknown – is that he sang in Vienna for Duke Friedrich II ‘der Streitbare’. He was probably active before this in Bavaria. Reference in his songs to the arrival of Emperor Frederick II in Vienna (1236/7) provide one unequivocal date. The first mention of ‘Her Nîthart’ is in Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic Willehalm (dated 1210–20; line 312,12). Contemporaries did not call him ‘von Riuwental’; this is the allegorical name (meaning ‘vale of tears’) of the impoverished knight whose identity Neidhart convincingly portrayed. In the begging songs (he asked the duke for a house in Lengenbach, near Vienna) Neidhart presumably identified completely with his role. Generally, the songs suit urban tastes – prosperous peasants and their rivals, the rural noblemen, are satirized equally. This may explain why a tradition of ‘Neidhart’ songs (some of them original), plays and comic texts (Schwänke) remained popular into the 16th century. Their association with dance may also have been a factor.

Neidhart's songs fall into two types, representing psychological extremes. In the Sommerlieder, ‘der von Riuwental’ is a powerful figure who can realize his male fantasies on the dance-floor; the scathingly self-ironic Winterlieder analyse the frustrations of impoverished knighthood using a pastiche of courtly Minnesang. Both types are also musical types. The Sommerlieder (called reien in the sources; see Reigenlied) simulate May dance situations and must have been based to some degree on the peasant dances they evoke; the indoor Winterlieder adopt a contrasting, declamatory style (canzone form, often with unusually long Stollen) that uses free, open-ended melodic phrases (for example in Sumer unde winder; Nû klag ich die bluomen) alongside the clearly-defined pentatonic units that are a general feature of the songs.

55 melodies (more than for any other Minnesinger) survive to texts ascribed to Neidhart, but 38 of these are excluded from the standard edition by Haupt, as they are not attested before 1400. Some of the ‘pseudo-Neidhart’ texts must be genuine; musically, the groups are indistinguishable. Unfortunately only five melodies survive in a 14th-century source, the Frankfurt fragment (D-F germ.oct.18). The other sources, D-Bsb Mgf 779, A-Wn s.n.3344, I-STE and D-Mbs Cgm 4997, are from the 15th century. Comparison of the three melodies preserved in both the Frankfurt fragment and D-Bsb 779 shows a reasonably close correspondence between the two versions, but the former favours greater melismatic variety, wider ambitus and more diverse finales. Rhythmically, two of the three songs (Sinc an, guldîn huon!, v.12; Mirst von herzen leide, v.10) appear to be intended for performance in triple (? dance) time in D-Bsb 779, but for a freer, more text-orientated performance in the Frankfurt fragment. Melodic phrasing corresponds particularly well with text syntax in this source (Sumer unde winder, all stanzas). In one song, Nû klag ich die bluomen, the pitch of the second Stollen diverges widely from that of the first; editors have tended to dismiss this and similar divagations as scribal errors, though they may reflect expressive intentions, or a conception of melodic identity in which pitch intervals played a secondary role.

If the other melodies of ‘genuine’ songs preserved in D-Bsb779 and the other late manuscripts have been adapted in similar ways, the information they can provide about the function of 13th-century melodies is limited. These sources are best approached as 15th-century corpora, though some recurring melodies do strongly resemble those found in the Frankfurt fragment (cf Ich wen ein zagen, Owê dirre nôt and Nû klag ich die bluomen). Others belong stylistically to a later period: those of Winter nu ist dein zeit and Urlaub hab der winter both resemble the anonymous autumn song Iam en trena plena (I-STE, ff.35v–36r; ed. Röll, 70–80).

WORKS

Music editions: Lieder von Neidhart (von Reuental), ed. W. Schmieder, DTÖ, lxxi, Jg.xxxvii (1930/R) [S]Die Lieder Neidharts, ed. E. Wiessner (Tübingen, 1955, rev. 2/1963 by H. Fischer, 4/1984 by P. Sappler, with music ed. by H. Lomnitzer) [L]The Songs of Neidhart von Reuental, ed. A. Hatto and R.J. Taylor (Manchester, 1958) [HT]Neidhart-Lieder: kritische Ausgabe der Neidhart von Reuental zugeschriebenen Melodien, ed. F. Gennrich, SMM, ix (1962)Neidharts Sangweisen, ed. E. Rohloff (Berlin, 1962) [R]Neidhart von Reuental: Lieder, ed. H. Lomnitzer (Stuttgart, 1966)The Art of the Minnesinger, ed. R.J. Taylor (Cardiff, 1968) [T]Die Lieder Neidharts, ed. S. Beyschlag and H. Brunner (Darmstadt, 1975) [Bi]Die Berliner Neidhart-Handschrift c (mgf 779): Transkription der Texte und Melodien, ed. I. Bennewitz-Behr and U. Müller (Göppingen, 1981) [BMc]Die Wiener Neidhart-Handschrift w (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Wien, series nova 3344), ed. I. Bennewitz-Behr and U. Müller (Göppingen, 1984) [BMw]Herr Neidhart diesen Reihen sang: die Texte und Melodien der Neidhartlieder mit Übersetzungen und Kommentaren, ed. S. Beyschlag and H. Brunner (Göppingen, 1989) [Bii]

Text editions: Neidhart von Reuental, ed. M. Haupt (Leipzig, 1858, rev. 2/1923 by E. Wiessner as Neidharts Lieder; both edns R1986 with additions by U. Müller, I. Bennewitz-Behr and F.V. Spechtler)M. Zimmermann: Die Sterzinger Miszellaneen-Handschrift: kommentierte Edition der deutschen Dichtungen (Innsbruck, 1980)Facsimiles: Abbildungen zur Neidhart-Überlieferung, i: Die Berliner Neidhart-Handschrift R und die Pergamentfragmente Cb, K, O und M, ed. G. Fritz; ii: Die Berliner Neidhart-Handschrift c (mgf 779), ed. E. Wenzel (Göppingen, 1973–6)Die Sterzinger Miszellaneen-Handschrift, in Abbildungen herausgegeben, ed. E. Thurnher and M. Zimmermann (Göppingen, 1980)c – D-Bsb germ.fol.779O – D-F germ.oct.18s – I-STEt – D-Mbs Cgm 4997w – A-Wn s.n.3344

melodies to ‘authentic’ texts

melodies to ‘pseudo-neidhart’ texts

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MGG1 (U. Aarburg)

W. Schmieder: ‘Zur Melodiebildung in Liedern von Neidhart (von Reuental)’, SMw, xvii (1930), 3–20; repr. in Brunner (1986), 12–36

K. Bertau: ‘Neidharts Lieder mit ihren Melodien’, Etudes germaniques, xv (1960), 251–4 [review of edn by Hatto and Taylor]

W. Müller-Blattau: ‘Melodietypen bei Neidhart von Reuental’, Annales universitatis Saraviensis: Philosophies-lettres, ix/1 (1960), 65–74

H. Lomnitzer: ‘Kritisches zu neueren Neidhart-Übertragungen’, Festschrift Hans Engel zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. H. Heussner (Kassel, 1964), 231–44

H. Lomnitzer: Review of E. Rohloff, ed.: Neidharts Sangweisen (Berlin, 1962), and E. Jammers, ed.: Ausgewählte Melodien des Minnesangs (Tübingen, 1963), Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, lxxxiv (1965), 290–97

F. Kur: Reviews of A. Hatto and R.J. Taylor, eds.: The Songs of Neidhart von Reuental (Manchester, 1958), and E. Rohloff, ed.: Neidharts Sangweisen (Berlin, 1962), Archiv für deutsches Altertum, lxxvii (1966), 63–7, 68–73

E. Simon: Neidhart von Reuental: Geschichte der Forschung und Bibliographie (The Hague, 1968)

K.H. Kohrs: ‘Zum Verhältnis von Sprache und Musik in den Liedern Neidharts von Reuental’, DVLG, xliii (1969), 604–21; repr. in Brunner (1986), 121–42

H. Lomnitzer: ‘Liebhard Eghenvelders Liederbuch: Neues zum lyrischen Teil der sog. Schatschen Hs.’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, xc (1971), suppl., 190–216

A. Harding: An Investigation into the Use and Meaning of Medieval German Dancing Terms (Göppingen,1973)

E. Rohloff: ‘Gedanken zu Neidharts Sangweisen’, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg: gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe, xxii/1 (1973), 51–2

W. Röll: Vom Hof zur Singschule: Überlieferung und Rezeption eines Tones im 14.–17. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1976)

S. Beyschlag: ‘Neidhart und die Neidhartianer’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)

E. Rohloff: ‘Zu den Neidhartmelodien: Rückerinnerung und neue Informationen’, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg: gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe, xxviii/1 (1979), 125–35

I. Rainer: ‘Zum gegenwärtigen Versuch einer immanent musikalischen Rekonstruktion der Neidhart-Lieder’, Neidhart von Reuental: Aspekte einer Neubewertung, ed. H. Birkhan (Vienna, 1983), 155–88

U. Müller: ‘Neidhart (“von Reuental”): Probleme der Edition und der modernen Aufführung’, SMH, xxvii (1985), 223–37

H. Brunner, ed.: Neidhart (Darmstadt, 1986) [collection of important essays with bibliography, 1967–85]

J. Rettelbach: ‘Eine neue Neidhartmelodie’, ZDADL, cxviii (1989), 43–9

G. Schweikle: Neidhart (Stuttgart, 1990)

MICHAEL SHIELDS