NORKA
  • Home
    • About
    • Reviews
    • Contact
  • People
    • Founders
    • Personal Histories
    • Notable Norkans
    • Stories
    • Photo Identification
    • Photo Gallery
  • Community
    • Village Life
    • Entertainment
    • Agriculture
    • Climate
    • Homesites
    • Geographical Description
    • Government
    • Social Structure
    • Health
    • Education
    • A Land of Ethnic Diversity
    • Cottage Industries >
      • Sarpinka
      • Mills
    • Language
    • Population
    • Military Service
    • Crime and Punishment
  • History
    • Timeline
    • Origins of the Colonists
    • Catherine's Manifesto 1763
    • Why go to Russia?
    • Recruitment 1766
    • Planning 1764-1766
    • Marriages Prior To Emigration 1766
    • Voyage to Russia 1766 >
      • Ship Transport 1766
    • Journey 1766-1767
    • Founding of Norka 1767
    • Early Years 1767-1769
    • Norka 1769
    • Pallas Report 1773
    • Pugachev Raid 1774
    • Norka 1775
    • Norka 1798
    • Norka 1811
    • Napoleons Soldiers
    • Norka 1834
    • Daughter Colonies 1850s >
      • Neu-Norka
      • Oberdorf
      • Brunnental
      • Rosenfeld (am Jeruslan)
      • Neu Hussenbach (Gaschon)
    • Privileges Lost 1871-1874
    • Immigration 1875-1924 >
      • To the United States >
        • Colorado
        • Ft Collins Colorado
        • Globeville Colorado
        • Mason City, Iowa
        • Culbertson, Nebraska
        • Lincoln, Nebraska
        • Sutton, Nebraska
        • Burlington, Oklahoma
        • Weatherford, Oklahoma
        • Canby, Oregon
        • Portland, Oregon
      • To Canada >
        • Duffield, Alberta
        • Ponoka, Alberta
        • Spruce Grove, Alberta
        • Stony Plain, Alberta
        • Vegreville, Alberta
        • Arcola, Saskatchewan
      • To Germany
      • To South America
    • Famine 1891-1892
    • Norka 1898
    • War & Turnoil 1904-1906
    • World War 1914-1918
    • Revolution & War 1917-1922
    • Soviet Rule 1918-1941
    • Famine 1921-1924
    • Famine 1932-1933
    • The Great Terror 1936-1938
    • Deportation 1941
    • Repression 1941-1956
    • Cultural Loss 1957-2006
    • A Culture in Peril
    • Recent Times
  • Traditions
    • Food and Drink
    • Clothing
    • Holidays >
      • New Year
      • Fastnacht
      • Lent
      • Easter
      • Ascension Day
      • Pentecost
      • Founder's Day
      • Harvest Festival
      • Jahrmarkt
      • Christmas
      • Anniversaries & Birthdays
    • Crafts
    • Games
    • Folk Medicine
    • Superstitions
    • Nicknames
    • Folk Music
    • Church Music
    • Prayers
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Communion
    • Weddings
    • Funerals and Burials
  • Religion
    • Planning and History >
      • Norka Reformed Church 1767-1864
      • 1909 Norka Parish Report
    • Pastors >
      • Johann Heinrich Fuchs
      • Johann Georg Herwig
      • Johannes Baptista Cattaneo
      • Lukas Cattaneo
      • Emanuel Grunauer
      • Friedrich Börner
      • Christian Gottlieb Hegele
      • Christoph H Bonwetsch
      • Gottlieb N Bonwetsch
      • Wilhelm Staerkel
      • Woldemar Sibbul
      • David Weigum
      • Friedrich Alexander Wacker
      • Emil Pfeiffer
    • Church Practices >
      • Parochial Certificates
    • Church Buildings
    • Church Organs
    • Bell Tower
    • Brethren Movement
  • Resources
    • Family Research
    • Research Resources >
      • Arrival Records 1766
      • Descendant Charts
      • German EWZ Records
      • Soviet Gulag Records
    • Maps
    • Glossary
    • Bibliography
    • Periodicals >
      • Die Welt-Post Letters
    • Related Links
Traditions > Folk Music

Folk Music

The original colonists brought with them the traditional folk music of their homelands.  There were no songbooks with notes in the Volga colonies, but they lived on in the memories of older people and were renewed through the singing of young single men.
We sang the song in friendship,
and who composed the tune?
All we Germans did it,
packed up from Germany.
-- Georg Schünemann
For young people, singing Gasse Lieder (street songs) was a primary form of recreation and amusement. The Gasse Lieder could often be playful and sometimes bawdy. Young men would gather at a street corner and take up a song and then proceed to a girl's house where they would sing the most beautiful songs they know including love songs and ballads. Then they would go to meet their girlfriends and continue the singing with continuous variations and embellishments. Some played the harmonica and there was often dancing with the girls until it was time to take them home. On warm summer evenings, the songs didn't end until the early morning. 
Homeland songs, maternal tones,
folksongs dear and trusted,
whether spun in distant land,
or in native homeland,
move so gently through your soul,
leave behind there deepest tracks.
-- Peter Sinner
Songs were exchanged when farmers from different colonies met for a rest in the fields or on the roads between villages. This practice made the number of songs and variations almost inexhaustible. 

Two of the favorite songs were In einem kühlen Grunde da geht ein Mühlenrad (Down in the Cool Meadows, a Mill Wheel Turns) and O Straßburg, O Straßburg, du wunderschöne Stadt (O Strassburg, O Strassburg, You Beautiful City) which were reminders of their ancestral homes.

Many of the religious holidays incorporated folk singing and dancing along with religious music. Young people as well as the older generations would dance fast polkas and the "skipping" waltz (known in North American settlements as the Dutch Hop).

Bands would play on festive occasions such as holidays and weddings. Commonly used instruments were the Hackbrett (hammered dulcimer), Zieharmonika (accordion), violin, and brass instruments. The accordion was invented about 1845 in Vienna, Austria and it would have taken some time for it to find its way to the lower Volga region. Prior to that time, the violin provided the primary structure to the music.
Picture
Painting of Volga German Musicians
George Dinges recorded the music and lyrics of many Volga German folksongs in his book titled Wolgadeutsche Lieder (Volga German Songs). Georg Schünemann also published a large number of folk songs in his book titled Das Lied der deutschen Kolonisten in Russland (The Song of the German Colonists in Russia).
Picture
A drawing from the book "Wolgadeutsche Volkslieder" (Volga German Folk Songs) by Georg Dinges, published in Berlin in 1932.
Traditional Volga German polka music and dance became known as Dutch Hop in the United States and Canada. The word Dutch is a misnomer that most likely came from a misunderstanding of the word Deutsch (German). Many Volga Germans say their ancestors deliberately ignored the misunderstanding because of the widespread anti-German sentiments they encountered during World War I. So, the music remains Dutch Hop to this day.
Balzer band 1906
Photograph of the brass band from the nearby colony of Balzer under the direction of H. Maul. Source: "Heimatbuch 1992-1994" published by the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland.


Sources

Dinges, G. Wolgadeutsche Volkslieder Mit Bildern Und Weisen (Volga German Folk Songs with Images and Ways). Berlin: W. De Gruyter, 1932. Print.

Erina, E. M., and V. E. Salʹkova. Obychai Povolzhskikh Nemt︠s︡ev = Sitten Und Bräuche Der Wolgadeutschen. Moskva: Gotika, 2000. Print.

Olson, Marie Miller, and Anna Miller Reisbick. Norka, a German Village in Russia. Lincoln, Nebraska: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1986. 22. Print.

Schünemann, Georg. Das Lied Der Deutschen Kolonisten in Russland. München: Drei Masken Verlag, 1923. Print.

Sinner, Peter. Germans in the Land of the Volga. Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1989. Print.

Walters, George J. Wir Wollen Deutsche Bleiben (We Want to Remain German): The Story of the Volga Germans. Kansas City, MO: Halcyon House, 1982. Pages 133-175. Print.
Last updated February 18, 2018.
Copyright © 2002-2023 Steven H. Schreiber
  • Home
    • About
    • Reviews
    • Contact
  • People
    • Founders
    • Personal Histories
    • Notable Norkans
    • Stories
    • Photo Identification
    • Photo Gallery
  • Community
    • Village Life
    • Entertainment
    • Agriculture
    • Climate
    • Homesites
    • Geographical Description
    • Government
    • Social Structure
    • Health
    • Education
    • A Land of Ethnic Diversity
    • Cottage Industries >
      • Sarpinka
      • Mills
    • Language
    • Population
    • Military Service
    • Crime and Punishment
  • History
    • Timeline
    • Origins of the Colonists
    • Catherine's Manifesto 1763
    • Why go to Russia?
    • Recruitment 1766
    • Planning 1764-1766
    • Marriages Prior To Emigration 1766
    • Voyage to Russia 1766 >
      • Ship Transport 1766
    • Journey 1766-1767
    • Founding of Norka 1767
    • Early Years 1767-1769
    • Norka 1769
    • Pallas Report 1773
    • Pugachev Raid 1774
    • Norka 1775
    • Norka 1798
    • Norka 1811
    • Napoleons Soldiers
    • Norka 1834
    • Daughter Colonies 1850s >
      • Neu-Norka
      • Oberdorf
      • Brunnental
      • Rosenfeld (am Jeruslan)
      • Neu Hussenbach (Gaschon)
    • Privileges Lost 1871-1874
    • Immigration 1875-1924 >
      • To the United States >
        • Colorado
        • Ft Collins Colorado
        • Globeville Colorado
        • Mason City, Iowa
        • Culbertson, Nebraska
        • Lincoln, Nebraska
        • Sutton, Nebraska
        • Burlington, Oklahoma
        • Weatherford, Oklahoma
        • Canby, Oregon
        • Portland, Oregon
      • To Canada >
        • Duffield, Alberta
        • Ponoka, Alberta
        • Spruce Grove, Alberta
        • Stony Plain, Alberta
        • Vegreville, Alberta
        • Arcola, Saskatchewan
      • To Germany
      • To South America
    • Famine 1891-1892
    • Norka 1898
    • War & Turnoil 1904-1906
    • World War 1914-1918
    • Revolution & War 1917-1922
    • Soviet Rule 1918-1941
    • Famine 1921-1924
    • Famine 1932-1933
    • The Great Terror 1936-1938
    • Deportation 1941
    • Repression 1941-1956
    • Cultural Loss 1957-2006
    • A Culture in Peril
    • Recent Times
  • Traditions
    • Food and Drink
    • Clothing
    • Holidays >
      • New Year
      • Fastnacht
      • Lent
      • Easter
      • Ascension Day
      • Pentecost
      • Founder's Day
      • Harvest Festival
      • Jahrmarkt
      • Christmas
      • Anniversaries & Birthdays
    • Crafts
    • Games
    • Folk Medicine
    • Superstitions
    • Nicknames
    • Folk Music
    • Church Music
    • Prayers
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Communion
    • Weddings
    • Funerals and Burials
  • Religion
    • Planning and History >
      • Norka Reformed Church 1767-1864
      • 1909 Norka Parish Report
    • Pastors >
      • Johann Heinrich Fuchs
      • Johann Georg Herwig
      • Johannes Baptista Cattaneo
      • Lukas Cattaneo
      • Emanuel Grunauer
      • Friedrich Börner
      • Christian Gottlieb Hegele
      • Christoph H Bonwetsch
      • Gottlieb N Bonwetsch
      • Wilhelm Staerkel
      • Woldemar Sibbul
      • David Weigum
      • Friedrich Alexander Wacker
      • Emil Pfeiffer
    • Church Practices >
      • Parochial Certificates
    • Church Buildings
    • Church Organs
    • Bell Tower
    • Brethren Movement
  • Resources
    • Family Research
    • Research Resources >
      • Arrival Records 1766
      • Descendant Charts
      • German EWZ Records
      • Soviet Gulag Records
    • Maps
    • Glossary
    • Bibliography
    • Periodicals >
      • Die Welt-Post Letters
    • Related Links