English Translation

Chestnuts along, towards the singing fountain, to the brass piper, also like to linger in the sight of the mythical scenes, the reliefs on the Belvedere — they speak of love and struggle — and stand once again on the edge of the balustrade. The golden band of music now wraps around the sites of the festival. It runs glinting from the capitoles of the Belvedere over to the chandelier glamour of the Spanish Hall and then throws its snares down to the princely loggia; but the whole of Prague experiences it, the pillars of the opera house and the vaults of the Rudolfinum, the idyll of the Bertramhof — and everything results in a single harmony — the German Prague. Otto Menzel DEUTSCHE MUSIK IN PRAG Since Prague has always belonged to the German cultural sphere, it is natural that German music, too, has always been an essential cultural factor as soon as it had something to offer. Already in 967 the first bishop, the Lower Saxony Dietmar, was received by the nobles with a German song and since then the Pschemislide Wenceslas I. German knights had opened the door and gate, even single Minne singers could be heard at the Prague court. Women's praise and the Taumbäuser liked to reside in Prague. King Wenceslas II even acted himself as German Minne Singer. A second Minne singer, which Prague produced, is Mülich von Prague, who, however, already belongs to the late days of this art and clearly shows the transition to the master song. That besides the Minnesänger also German playmates were very popular here is also attested. In the time of Charles IV. until deep into the sixteenth century, German music in Prague recedes for the simple reason that the multi-voiced German music only gradually developed and became independent at that time. With Emperor Rudolf's I., famous court chapel, German music is coming back to Prague, which thus became not only the political but also the musical centre of Germany. Since the Dutch still occupy a leading position in music at that time, we find them in the court chapel numerously represented, even though German names prevail. The Netherlands were the two Courts of Justice.