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Post "crusader music"
I think i posted here enough jihadi nasheed . time to give voice to the crusaders !
my favorite :
Palästinalied (Palestine Song) is a poem written in the early 13th century by Walther von der Vogelweide, the most celebrated German mediaeval lyric poet. It is the only song by Walter for which a melody has been recorded, the melody's oldest source being the Münster fragment, dated to the early 14th century.
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170 – c. 1230) is the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets.
The main sources of information about him are his own poems and occasional references by contemporary Minnesingers. He was a knight, but probably not a wealthy or landed one. His surname, von der Vogelweide, suggests that he had no grant of land, since die Vogelweide ("the bird-pasture") seems to refer to a general geographic feature, not a specific place. He probably was knighted for military bravery and was a retainer in a wealthy, noble household before beginning his travels.
Here it was that the young poet learned his craft under the renowned master Reinmar the Old, whose death he afterwards lamented in two of his most beautiful lyrics; and in the open-handed duke, he found his first patron. This happy period of his life, during which he produced the most charming and spontaneous of his love-lyrics, came to an end with the death of Duke Frederick in 1198. Henceforward Walther was a wanderer from court to court, singing for his lodging and his bread, and ever hoping that some patron would arise to save him from this "juggler's life" (gougel-fuore) and the shame of ever playing the guest. He had few if any possessions and depended on others for his food and lodging. His criticism of men and manners was scathing; and even when this did not touch his princely patrons, their underlings often took measures to rid themselves of so uncomfortable a censor.
From the moment when the death of the emperor Henry VI (1197) opened the fateful struggle between empire and papacy, Walther threw himself ardently into the fray on the side of German independence and unity. Although his religious poems sufficiently prove the sincerity of his Catholicism, he remained to the end of his days opposed to the extreme claims of the popes, whom he attacks with a bitterness which can be justified only by the strength of his patriotic feelings. His political poems begin with an appeal to Germany, written in 1198 at Vienna, against the disruptive ambitions of the princes: "Crown Philip with the Kaiser's crown And bid them vex thy peace no more."
He was present in 1198 at Philip's coronation at Mainz, and supported him till his victory was assured. After Philip's murder in 1208, he "said and sang" in support of Otto of Brunswick against the papal candidate Frederick of Hohenstaufen; and only when Otto's usefulness to Germany had been shattered by the Battle of Bouvines (1214) did he turn to the rising star of Frederick, now the sole representative of German majesty against pope and princes.
From the new emperor, Walther's genius and zeal for the empire finally received recognition: a small fief in Franconia was bestowed upon him, which — though he complained that its value was little — gave him the home and the fixed position he had so long desired. That Frederick gave him a further sign of favour by making him the tutor of his son Henry (VII), King of the Romans, is more than doubtful. The fact, in itself highly improbable, rests upon the evidence of only a single poem, the meaning of which can also be interpreted otherwise. Walther's restless spirit did not suffer him to remain long on his new property.
In 1217 he was once more at Vienna, and again in 1219 after the return of Duke Leopold VI from the crusade. About 1224 he seems to have settled on his fief near Würzburg. He was active in urging the German princes to take part in the crusade of 1228, and may have accompanied the crusading army at least as far as his native Tirol. In a poem he pictures in words the changes that had taken place in the scenes of his childhood, changes which made his life there seem to have been only a dream. He died about 1230, and was buried at Würzburg, after leaving instructions — according to the story — that the birds were to be fed at his tomb daily. His original gravestone with its Latin inscription has disappeared; but in 1843 a new monument was erected over the spot, called Lusamgärtchen (Lusam garden), today sheltered by the two major churches of the city. There is also a statue of the poet at Bolzano, unveiled in 1877, which is located in the middle of the Walther Von der Vogelweide-Platz (often shortened to Piazza Walther in Italian), a place named after him.
piazza walther :
http://www.bolzano.net/en/walther-square.html
Walther square was build in the year 1808 on a vineyard which was owned by the Bavarian royal family. King Maximilian sold it to Bolzano's town council for 3,000 florins on condition that it was made into a square.
The square's most distinctive feature is the monument erected in 1889 in memory of the great poet and bard Walther von der Vogelweide. It was removed during the fascist era (1935), then returned after the Second World War.
Originally Posted by al-Bosni
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