GERMANY AND THE LOW COUNTRIES 243

modern German lyric—were of texts alone. Ludwig Erk and Franz
Bohme, however, amassed a vast number of tunes from popular
traditional singing and from old books. So numerous are they, and
so securely anchored to specified times and places, that it is
possible only in the Deutscher Liederhort to embark on com-
parative studies of tune variations comparable to those of the texts.
These authors themselves assembled the melodies, without more
exactly studying them. John Meier, In a work still in progress,
restricting his view to the more famous narrative ballads, conducts
a systematic examination of the tunes. He Is able to draw on the
less regularly collected material of other countries. Tunes to be
compared are written in staff notation^ the one Immediately above
the other, so that one can follow at a glance? with more or less
accuracy, the editor's comments.1

To the musician there Is little to be gained by separating ballads
from other forms of traditional singing; Indeed, the melodies of
popular lyrics are often superior to the less venturesome narrative
airs. Erk and Bohme's collection, when compared with those of
Child and Grundtvig, Is markedly lyrical; only one half of their
materials are relevant to the present study. The connotation of
the words 'Lied' and 4Volkslied' Is very vague. One may distin-
guish more precisely 'Volkslied',' Ballade\ and 'Romanze* as lyric,
lyrical narrative, and narrative; but the distinction is liable to break
down In practice. Firstly, the German ballad Is stanzalc; It has a
lyrical origin, and there are lyrical elements present at all times.
It Is true that the narrative element Is marked In LmdemcJimidy
Agnes Bernauer, Stortebeker, and other masterpieces of the fifteenth
century. But this tradition also tends to become more and more
lyrical. In the ballads of landsknechts and relters In the sixteenth
century, the narrative Is used to suggest an emotion. A fine piece
like Franz von Sickingen exists not merely to describe the hero's
fall, but also as an outlet for Protestant grief. In modern military
ballads, such as Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz and Sedan there Is
little more narrative than is required to describe a pathetic situa-
tion ; the rest of the ballad is an appeal to a commonly felt emotion.
The German corpus is therefore both formally and Intrinsically
lyrical, and It has exerted this kind of influence upon Its Imitators.
The neighbouring lands have lyrics in abundance or lyrical narra-
tives, but few pure narratives. The relative weakness of the narrative
1 See Note I, p. 388.