Wolfram von Eschenbach, the minnesinger, visited the courts and sang in many tournaments. Giving Wagner a character for the opera Tannhäuser was not all he did as Eschenbach wrote a poem from which Wagner drew the story for his Parsifal.
Walther von der Vogelweide, one of the most famous minnesingers, was so fond of birds, that when dying he asked for food and drink to be placed on his tomb every day for the birds. There are four holes carved in the tombstone; and pilgrims today, when they visit this singer’s grave, still scatter crumbs for them, who probably in their bird histories record that Walther loved song even as they!
Prince Conrad, Konradin he was called, son of the last Swabian King, was the last famous minnesinger. Everyone battled for other people’s countries and lands then, and so Conrad, heir to the crown, joined a Sicilian rebellion against France, and was killed by a troubadour, the Duke of Anjou.
Mastersingers
After poor Conrad’s time, the art of minnesinging declined, but as people must have music, a new activity sprang up among the people or “folk” instead of among the gentry and knights. The folk who took part in this were called the Meistersingers or mastersingers and their story is very thrilling and picturesque.
This was the day of the Robber Baron, when Germany was broken up into little kingdoms and principalities. Any rich and powerful noble could start a war to steal away the rights of another ruler, and become ruler himself. This was no pleasant state of affairs for the people, for they were in constant terror of death, of the destruction of their crops, or new taxes. Life became so perilous that people left the farms and went to the cities for protection. The feudal system began to fail, for the people would no longer be slaves, and gradually took up trades and formed themselves into guilds. The warring nobles had neglected music for conquest, so these workers and artisans, hungry for it, formed music guilds as well as trade guilds, drew up rules for making music and poetry, and held prize competitions. In these music guilds there were six grades of membership: first, member; second, scholar or apprentice; then, friends of the school; singer, poet, and finally mastersinger or Meistersinger. You can get a real picture of their day in the greatest comic opera ever written, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, and you can make the acquaintance of Hans Sachs, the most famous Meistersinger (1494–1576).
Heinrich von Meissen, known as Frauenlob (Praise of Women), is said to have founded the Meistersinger movement over a hundred years before Hans Sachs’ time.
Til Eulenspiegel, whose merry pranks have been delightfully told in music by Richard Strauss, a present day composer, was also a Meistersinger.
The origin of the name “Meistersinger” is disputed. One historian tells us that it was given to every minnesinger who was not a noble,—in other words, a burgher-minstrel. The other historian claims that the title Meister or master was given to any one who excelled in any act or trade, and afterwards came to mean all the guild members.
From the 14th century to the 16th, hardly a town in Germany was without music guilds and Meistersingers. Although they lost power then, the last guilds did not disappear until 1830, and the last member died in 1876. They must have passed the long winter evenings pleasantly for they met, and read or sang poems of the minnesingers or new ones composed by the members themselves. These guilds must have been great fun, for they had badges and initiation ceremonies and the kind of celebrations one loves in a club.