The collection of essays, “Ieglicher sang sein eigen ticht”, is the result of a symposium at the monastery Neustift near Brixen, where germanists and musicologists talked about song in the late Middle Ages. This interdisciplinary focus is reflected by this publication: Ten scholars take the commonplace remark, that lyric of the Middle Ages has to be sung, seriously and risk taking a look beyond the confines of their own discipline. One of the musicological main emphases are the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein, for which a hitherto unknown French model can be identified, and the existence of another canon can be shown (Isabel Kraft; Michael Shields). Questions of original and imitation, in the end the question of the concept of “work”, are dealt with in discussing the examples of the early German text “Hirsch und Hinde” and the “Schedelsches Liederbuch” (Michael Klaper; Martin Kirnbauer).
The view of German studies on songs of the late Middle Ages between tradition and improvisation is shown by bringing up the topics of deconstruction, reconstruction and recombination in various songs (Manfred Kern; Nicola Zotz). Starting from these considerations, aspects of diversity appear with regard to adaptions of the familiar and by analyzing song incipits (Gisela Kornrumpf). Furthermore, questions of typology i.e. considerations regarding song genres are discussed in Christoph März’s contribution. Finally, two essays deal with the transmission of musical texts: a catalogue of neumes in German texts and an essay on the sublime relationship of text and music (Ernst Hellgardt; Max Schiendorfer).