University of Bayreuth, Press Release No. 001/2025 – 02.01.2025
Social Media Around 1500
Researchers from the University of Bayreuth, in collaboration with international experts in German Studies, Dutch Studies, and Musicology, have demonstrated that songs on the threshold of the modern era served functions similar to today’s social networks on the internet. To achieve this, they investigated the social aspects of song culture in the German-speaking world of the 15th and 16th centuries. Their findings have now been published in a leading humanities publication series.
Songs have always been an integral part of human interaction. However, understanding how they were disseminated and in what media, as well as the roles they played in earlier societies, often requires thorough analysis of historical sources. The authors of a new anthology have undertaken a re-evaluation of the song culture of the 15th and 16th centuries. They introduce a research approach that situates songs of the early modern period within the context of community-building and identity-shaping practices.
The German-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries enjoyed a rich song culture. There was singing and music-making, to varying degrees of professionalism, at aristocratic courts, among urban bourgeois circles, and within student and university environments. Songs were transmitted orally, copied by hand, and even printed: song sheets existed before 1500, and the first printed songbook appeared in 1512.
“Songs, particularly love songs of the 15th and 16th centuries, have been largely overlooked by literary studies because they do not fit into the traditional canon of so-called high literature: they rarely have famous authors, are often anonymous, and are not particularly sophisticated from a literary perspective. Yet we show that they are nonetheless highly interesting,” says Prof. Dr. Cordula Kropik, Chair of Medieval German Studies at the University of Bayreuth.
The love songs of the 15th and 16th centuries were deeply embedded in social contexts. As such, they ‘belonged’ to the communities that used them. These songs were not only experienced in groups—via singing, listening, and dancing—but were also likely produced collectively. “These songs exhibit phenomena of collective authorship and creative reception, which we can see mirrored today in popular culture. For this reason, we speak of a ‘convivial song’,” explains Kropik.
Focusing on 'convivial song' opens up new perspectives on the love song of the 15th and 16th centuries. It centres research on the integration of songs into communities: where, how, and by whom were songs sung, written, and printed? For what purposes and on which occasions were they performed? What roles did individual actors such as lyricists, composers, audiences, and distributors play?
Together with Dr. Stefan Rosmer, Chair of Medieval German Studies at the University of Bayreuth, and international experts, Kropik has published an anthology that examines all these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Its contributions address, for example, the use of songs as New Year’s or wedding songs, explore the social function of songbooks, and analyse the development of repertoires at the intersection of German, Dutch, French, and Italian song cultures. Topics include the practices of monophonic and polyphonic singing, the poetics of adaptation and continuation, methods of collecting and recording, and processes of cultural exchange.
“Our findings provide a basis for re-evaluating the song culture of the 15th and 16th centuries. We propose a research approach that frames songs of the early modern period as a collective practice that operates in a manner akin to the principles of posting, liking, and sharing. In this sense, they could be described as the social media of the 15th and 16th centuries,” Kropik concludes.
The publication was supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Grant No. 60.24.0.015KU) and the Open Access Monograph Fund of the University of Bayreuth.
Source: Geselliger Sang: Poetik und Praxis des deutschen Liebesliedes im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, hg. von Cordula Kropik und Stefan Rosmer, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024 (Frühe Neuzeit 255).
Prof. Dr. Cordula KropikChair of German Medieval Studies
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-3613
E-mail: cordula.kropik@uni-bayreuth.de
Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth
Theresa HübnerDeputy Press & PR Manager
University of Bayreuth
University of Bayreuth
Phone: +49 (0) 921 / 55-5357
E-mail: theresa.huebner@uni-bayreuth.de