the German variants, known as Geisslerlieder (from Geißel, German for whip) were written down by
clerics who found the spontaneous fervor of the flagellants both inspiring and frightening.
Geisslerlieder borrowed their form not only from the laude spirituale but also from indigenous
pilgrimage and processional folk hymns known as Rufe (“calls”) or Leisen. In these, the refrain is
whittled down to a single call—often Kyrioleis! (from Kyrie eleison)—in the manner of a litany. These
are in fact actual folksongs, noted down (not for perpetuation in singing but as documentation) from actual
popular performance, chiefly by a Swabian priest named Hugo Spechtshart von Reutlingen in his
chronicle of the plague of 1349. Nowadays we would call such a transcriber an ethnomusicologist.
EX. 4-11 Flagellants’ song: Nu ist diu Betfart so here (Geisslerlied, transcribed by Hugo Spechtshart von Reutlingen)MINNESANG
By that date, however, there was already a large body of German courtly song. Originating as an imported
luxury item, it soon took on a distinctive coloration and underwent a vigorous indigenous development in
which many social classes participated. The eastward migration of the art of fine amours is often said to
begin with the wedding, in 1156, of Frederick I (known as Barbarossa, “Redbeard”), the Holy Roman
Emperor and German king, to the duchess Beatrice of Burgundy. A notable early trouvère, Guyot de
Provins, was a member of Beatrice’s retinue, and some of the earliest German Minnelieder, like the one
in Ex. 4-12, were set as contrafacta to melodies by Guyot.
EX. 4-12 Guyot de Provins, Ma joie premeraine, with German text (Ich denke under wilen) by Friedrich von Hausen