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- From Zeller's operetta Der
Vogelhändler is a one minute
 "Live-Mitschnitte"
of Fröhlich'
Pfalz performed by Hilde Güden, as the Kurfürstin
arriving in the Tyrol from the Pfalz incognito .... but
with her singing entourage.
- Anton Karas [of "The
Third Man" fame] plays a 30 second extract of a
medley of Carl Michael Ziehrer's Wiener--Walzer
on the zither.
- An example of contemporary
Styrian folk music is the Jubiläumspolka
by the Skilehrermusi' in this high quality - but very
slow loading mp3 file, as much as 8 -10 minutes download
time with a dial-up modem.
- Marlene Dietrich sings "Johnny,
Wenn Du Geburtstag Hast" for 30 seconds in a fast
loading RA file.
- Literarisches Kabarett, a
genre uncommon in the American world:
Mit satirischer Spottlust oder einfach nur unterhaltsam
blödelnd, zuweilen aber auch mit bitterem Ernst, in
Kneipen-Brettln und auf Theaterbühnen präsentierten
Dichter und Maler, Schauspieler und Musiker ihrem meist
bürgerlichen Publikum die Welt des Kaiserreichs als
Tingeltangel.; from 1964 the actress/cabarettist
Ursula Herking sings "Es
kommt immer darauf an" a witty commentary on
European social mores. To read the song's full text , click
here
- Georg Stern sings the
opening 30 seconds of Ferdinand Raimund's "Das
Hobellied" on the futility of life. Marlene
Dietrich sings this Alt-Wiener Lied in a less
traditional version. To read the full
text of Das Hobellied, click
here
- The
Comedian Harmonists flourished from the mid 1920s to
the mid 1930s and were perhaps the most
 famous
pop musical group in Europe. Semi-nonsense songs like Mein
kleiner grüner Kaktus alternated with straight songs
like Ein
Freund, ein guter Freund or Veronika,
der Lenz ist da and modernized versions of art songs, In
einem kühlen Grunde [the last in a slow loading WAV
format]. Here are the
lyrics for Kaktus,
Ein Freund and Veronika.
*Changing directionals have made the former RA vocal
files unreachable; temporarily, the links lead to melody
midis.
- That Er
heißt Waldemar was a major commercial success is not
surprising .. until you listen closely to the lyrics and
consider: the date, late 30s under the Nazi dictatorship;
singer, the foreign Swede,
Leander; the composer, Michael Jary, a Christian
categorized under Nazi law as a Jew; and the lyricist,
Bruno Balz, an open homosexual. Note Waldemar's Slavic
name; "wrong" hair and eye coloring and lack of
Nordic qualities and virtues; and particularly consider
the song's last line - unfortunately not contained in this
excerpt. [And also note the numerous doubles entendres
.... click for the song's full
text.] Here is the
complete song as an mp3, 4MB large and only practical
for listening over a broadband connection, not a dial up
connection; even with broadband, there may be a 3 - 4
minute download time. The unusually wide octave range of
Leander's voice can be glimpsed in this snippet of Jede
Nacht ein neues Glück.
- After the Golden Age of
operetta [von Suppé, Strauß, Millöcker] came the Silver
Age [Lehár, Kalmann, Oskar Straus]. From the next Age is
an extract from Robert Stolz' 1930s as
a pop tune in the 1930s in a fast loading RA file.
- The Puszta begins at the
Austrian border and this Styrian new-folksong Sissi
Melodien [named after the Empress Elisabeth who had a
close relationship with the Magyar aristocracy] by the
Grazer Jungsteirer reflects the influence of the East on
the West in this high quality and very slow loading mp3
file.
- A nine minute version of
Johann Strauß Sohns Wo
die Citronen blúh'n performed by the Wiener-Strauß-Solisten
in a MP3 file.
- In the late 1940s and the
1950s a German speaking world seeking escape from a
difficult reality turned to songs of exotic places
and of the sea. Freddy
 Quinn,
from landlocked Austria, became a Wahlhamburger and
the creator of a string of Seemannslieder hits, such
as Die
Gitarre und das Meer and Das
Friesenlied. As time and tastes changed Freddy
switched to German-language versions of US hillbilly and
neo-folk, such as Heimweh
[Memories are Made of This].
- In the middle 1950s Germany
began
 imitating
American pop teenage music. Peter Kraus sings an example
of this, Sugar
Baby , later used as a theme in the 1980's movie of
the same name, and Diana.
- Goethe's
poem Der Erlkönig was set
to music by Schubert. Click the link to listen to the
opening stanza, a 30 second extract in this high quality
but large and very slow loading WAV file [as much
as 6 minutes download time with a 56K dial up modem.]. To
read the full text of Erlkönig CLICK
here.
- ARD, one of the two major
German television "networks", has a site
containing two dozen audio and video extracts from its detective
and other series such as Tatort, Marienhof, Polizeiruf
. The first click takes you to the program page from where
you reach the clips. [The video extracts also play in the
Real Audio player.] Each extract has a run time of about 1
to 1½ minutes and each takes about 10 seconds to download
with a 56K modem.
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