Page - 473 - in WeXel oder Die Musik einer Landschaft - Das Geistliche Lied, Volume 1

473 Summary In 1904 growing awareness of the traditional music in the Hapsburg empire led to the commission “Österreichisches Volksliedunternehmen” (Austrian Traditional Music Company) with specialists of german, slave125 and roman tongue under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Teaching. A planned edition of “Das Volkslied in Österreich” (Traditional Music in Austria) should consist of 30 volumes in german, 20 in slave and 10 in roman language, in total 60 volumes. The first volume should go into print as soon as the First World War would be over, two to three volumes yearly at a price of 30 crowns maximum were intended. A similar project had been initiated in the Empire of Hungary. In 1918 the prototype “Das Volkslied in Österreich. Volkspoesie und Volksmusik der in Österreich leben- den Völker. Herausgegeben vom k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht” with selected secular as well as religious traditional music was presented in Vienna.126 Yet history changed all publication plans. In 1951 Béla Bartók und Zoltán Kodály started the publication of “A Critical edition of all Hunga- rian traditional music – A magyar népzene tára” under the title of CMPH (Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae). In 1993 Gerlinde Haid (1943 – 2012) and Walter Deutsch (*1923) initiated with volume one “St. Pölten und Umgebung. Niederösterreich – St. Pölten and its surroundings. Lower Austria” the “encyclopedia of traditional Austrian music in a selected choice” COMPA (Corpus Musicae Popula- ris Austriacae). In 2013 – twenty years later – an encyclopedia of 21 volumes illuminates Austrian traditional music from the historical as well as the actual point of view, be it collections, genres or local scenes. The most recent volume COMPA 22 “WeXel oder Die Musik einer Landschaft” – WeXel or The music of a landscape” is dedicated to the traditional music of the Wechsel region (Lower Austria and Styria). Part 1 “Das Geistliche Lied – Religious Music” concentrates on the songs in the house of the deceased during the two-night corpse-watch at the bier. The bidding fare-well to the deceased in his own house and praying for his soul, the soul of his kin, his friends and those who will follow, is accom- panied by many-strophed songs. First the compendium gives with a short historical and geographical description of the Wechsel, a border region of the “Herzogthum Steyermark”, the duchy of Styria, and “Erzherzogthum Österreich unter der Enns, Viertel unter dem Wienerwald”, Austria. Contrary to the Semmering, “balcony” of the Viennese, and Reichenau, resort of the court, the Wechsel had been the turnstile of the crown-lands. The main part of this volume consists of the death-bed and burial traditions accompanied by the “Leichhüatlieder”, the songs at the bier. Burchard von Worms’ († 1025) condemnation of the corpse- watch as a “heathen cult” and song-sheets dating to the middle of the 17th century are the oldest 125 Arbeitsausschuss für das Volkslied in Slowenien, Obmann / Study Group for Traditional Music in Slovenia, chairman Dr. Karl Strekelj (Gorjansko pri Komlju 1859 – 1912 Graz). 126 Walter Deutsch und Eva Maria Hois: Das Volkslied in Österreich. Volkspoesie und Volksmusik der in Österreich lebenden Völker. Herausgegeben vom k. k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht. Wien 1918. Bearbeiteter und kommentierter Nachdruck, Wien 2004. / Traditional songs in Austria. Traditional poetry and traditional music of all the peoples living in Austria, ed. by the k. k. Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Vienna 1918, reprint Vienna 2004.