| Description: | Malbrook
… in Low German means something like "dance devil", one who dances with wild abandon. Malbrook also is a well-known traditional melody in northern Europe; the spelling may vary.
The north of Germany and southern Scandinavia have for centuries shared a common heritage based on extensive ties of trade, knowledge and culture. This cross-fertilisation reached its fullest flower in the late mediaeval era, at the time of the Hanseatic League (a confederation of trading cities in northern Europe). In that period Low German was the most important language of commerce in northern Europe. It had a strong influence on the Scandinavian languages: nearly fifty per cent of the words in modern Swedish have a Low German origin. There was also a strong cultural exchange between northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. Many lyrics and melodies, as well as other cultural products dating from the late Middle Ages, are similar in both regions.
This was the starting point for the project "Malbrook". Wolfgang Meyering (North-Germany) had already been playing songs and music from northern Germany as both a musician and a radio journalist for more than 25 years. He chose traditional and/or original music mostly from northern Germany - songs about murder, jealousy and death, odd children's songs in polka style and a suite of three 'Schotsken' (a dance that is called Schottis in Sweden and Norway). The tunes were recorded with musicians from Sweden and with musicians from northern Germany with Scandinavian experience using a wide variety of instruments - mandola, mandolin, hurdy gurdy, German and Swedish bagpipe, Bohemian/German harp, flutes, fiddles, percussion, loops, sound samples and more. | |
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co-funded by the European Commission