Schmeltzl, Wolfgang auch W. Schmältzl#
b. Kemnat (Germany), after 1500, d. St. Lorenzen am Steinfeld (municipality of Ternitz, Lower Austria), around 1561. Poet, pedagogue and musician. Taught at the Vienna Monastery of the Scottish Benedictines (Wiener Schottenstift) from at least 1540 to 1553, staged comedies on biblical themes there (7 preserved), thus founded the German-language didactic drama in Austria and continued the tradition started by K. Celtis and (B. Chelidonius with their religious and pedagogical emphasis on vernacular language. The epic poem "Der Christlich und Gewaltig Zug in das Hungerland" (1556) narrates Archduke Ferdinand's campaign against the Turks, in which S. himself had taken part. His "Lobspruch der Hochloeblichen weitberuembten Khuenigklichen Stat Wienn in Osterreich" (1547) is an important work of Viennese cultural history. S. collected Viennese folk songs and published them in the collection "Guter seltzamer un kuenstreicher teutscher Gesang" (1544, the only four-part songbook of the first half of the 16th century).
Further works#
Aussendung der Zwelffpoten, 1542; Comoedia Judith, 1542; Comoedia der Hochzeit Cana Galilee, 1543; Ein schoene kurtze und Christl. Comedi von dem plintgeborn Sonn, 1543; Comedia des verlornen Sons, 1545. - Edition: W. S. Der Wr. Hans Sachs, ed. by E. Triebnigg, 1915.Literature#
W. Salmen, Die literarische und musikhistorische Bedeutung von W. S., in: Die oe. Literatur, vol. 1, ed. by H. Zeman, 1986; M. Knedlik, W. S., in: Oesterreich in Geschichte und Literatur 37, 1993.