Under der linden (Medieval German Song)
Channel: tuotilo
Date: 28/10/2020

First of all: I know that it's been a while since I uploaded anything but I haven't forgotten any of the requests/suggestions I've gotten and will get to them eventually (I'm just starting recording again after a long hiatus).

To start with, I felt like singing this song as it is one of my favorites. I kept the guitar accompaniment to a minimum since guitars as we have them today obviously didn't exist in the Middle Ages. (I'm also not at all an expert when it comes to performing early music, so this is just me wanting to sing it because I like it; not claiming any historicity.)

"Under der linden" was written by Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–1230) in Middle High German in the Minnesang tradition. The original melody has not survived directly but good arguments have been made that it may have been written as a contrafactum (i.e. a new text for an existing melody) for the old French song "En mai au douz tens novels." That melody is how it's usually sung and recorded in any case, so I stuck to it.

Since 'chords' were not exactly a thing in music theory of the Middle Ages, I hesitate to promote the use of chords - but obviously it makes accompaniment easier, so I put my capo on 4 and used Am, G, and Em throughout (if anyone is interested, I can write out more specifically in which order I played them). I suspect that the sound of the minor chords in particular is not very authentically medieval but in terms of a modern re-interpretation, I think it sounds nice.

The song is about a pair of lovers and written from the perspective of the woman. A modern English translation by Raymond Oliver (which is not very literal however) reads:

Under the lime tree
On the heather,
Where we had shared a place of rest,
Still you may find there,
Lovely together,
Flowers crushed and grass down-pressed.
Beside the forest in the vale,
Tándaradéi,
Sweetly sang the nightingale.

I came to meet him
At the green:
There was my truelove come before.
Such was I greeted —
Heaven's Queen! —
That I am glad for evermore.
Had he kisses? A thousand some:
Tándaradéi,
See how red my mouth's become.

There he had fashioned
For luxury
A bed from every kind of flower.
It sets to laughing
Delightedly
Whoever comes upon that bower;
By the roses well one may,
Tándaradéi,
Mark the spot my head once lay.

If any knew
He lay with me
(May God forbid!), for shame I'd die.
What did he do?
May none but he
Ever be sure of that — and I,
And one extremely tiny bird,
Tándaradéi,
Who will, I think, not say a word.

The original Middle High German reads:

Under der linden
an der heide,
dâ unser zweier bette was,
dâ muget ir vinden
schône beide
gebrochen bluomen unde gras.
vor dem walde in einem tal,
tandaradei,
schône sanc diu nahtegal.

Ich kam gegangen
zuo der ouwe:
dô was mîn friedel komen ê.
dâ wart ich empfangen
hêre frouwe
daz ich bin sælic iemer mê.
kust er mich? wol tûsentstunt:
tandaradei,
seht wie rôt mir ist der munt.

Dô hete er gemachet
alsô rîche
von bluomen eine bettestat.
des wirt noch gelachet
inneclîche,
kumt iemen an daz selbe pfat.
bî den rôsen er wol mac
tandaradei,
merken wâ mirz houbet lac.

Daz er bî mir læge,
wesse ez iemen
(nu enwelle got!), so schamte ich mich.
wes er mit mir pflæge,
niemer niemen
bevinde daz wan er und ich
und ein kleinez vogellîn:
tandaradei,
daz mac wol getriuwe sîn.

The picture that I used for the background is the depiction of Konrad von Altstetten in the Codex Manesse manuscript (c. 1300–1340), f. 249v.