#waldteufel

-waltzing in a golden ballroom, dress skimming the floor

here beneath a northern star: wedding waltz of akseli and elina-aaltolia

sonne und erde: winter: walzer-bayer

symphonie fantastique: ii. un bal (valse): allegro non troppo-berloiz

divertimento: ii. waltz: allegretto con grazia-bernstein

minute waltz-chopin

the venus waltz-goodwin

boston waltz-glière

entr’acte valse-hellmesberger jr

merry go round of life-hisaishi

komedianti: waltz-kabalevsky

edelweiss waltz-kostal

la parfum de fleurs-matsushiba

the embassy waltz-previn

waltz suite: happiness-prokofiev

musetta’s waltz-puccini

cinderella waltz-rodgers & hammerstein

the carousel waltz-rodgers & hammerstein

jazz suite no. ii: waltz ii-shostakovich

ballroom waltz-steiner

the blue danube-strauss ii

voices of spring-strauss ii

lagoon waltz-strauss ii

waltz of the flowers-tchaikovsky

the sleeping beauty: valse-tchaikovsky

serenade for strings in c major: walzer-tchaikovsky

les patineurs: waltz-waldteufel

Pictured here is Sturmpercht "Geister im Waldgebirg". In my view, it stands among the strongest neofolk releases of the post 2000 era, capturing Alpine traditions and atmosphere like few bands have. The album incorporates poems by several known writers/poets (Hielscher, Trakl, etc) as well as featuring musical contributions from Markus Wolff of Waldteufel, Gerhard of Allerseelen and Sangre Cavallum.

Above: pages from CD booklet of Waldteufel “Heimliches Deutschland” for the song “Wodans Wilde Jagd”. Lyrics originally by poet Theodor Körner written in 1813.

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In his “Deutsche Mythologie” Jacob Grimm describes the Wild Hunt as “The natural phenomenon of howling and wind is attributed to Wodan’s Wagon. With noise at night (…) Odin is passing by.”

Wotan would lead a group of supernatural beings, sometimes ancestors or warriors, with great noise in the night sky. The folk would not view it, facedown and hoping for no harm or to be swept away. In parts of Germany and Austria, well into the 1800’s, there were some still frightened of the Wild Hunt. The book The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil references an 1832 German newspaper which stated “our agrarian laborers (…) were so terrified by the wild hunt they would barely dare go into the fields”.

There was a small fictional story written by Hermann Löns (1866-1914) called The Red Brook (translated by Markus Wolff in 2001) set during the Saxon wars. The story of the Saxon Wars (which took place 772-804), like most major conflicts, is long and complicated, where the Saxon pagans and rebel Widukind had fought bravely but ultimately succumbed to Charlemagne and his armies. Hermann Löns was extremely critical of historical figure Charlemagne, labeling him the butcher of the Saxons. Charlemagne destroyed the Irminsul and forced the Saxons to convert under the threat of death.