Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/95

 *fore, did not pass readily into forms of popular song. Its character and associations kept it mainly in the hands of a limited, aristocratic class. Its direct influence upon music in general was less than in the case of the Troubadours.

Yet there is evidence that it contributed to the early development of the Meistersinger movement, which belonged to the middle classes. Possibly, too, back of the Minnesong, particularly in Austria, lay forms of popular song, now lost.

The chronological limits of the Minnesinger period are somewhat disputed. Some include in it only poets of the later 12th century, ending the list with Heinrich von Meissen [Frauenlob] (d. 1318), while others add some names in the early 13th century.

41. The Meistersinger.—Following the Minnesinger came the Meistersinger. The exact relation between the two is not clear, though the Meistersinger were wont to look back to certain of their predecessors as authorities, and there is an evident kinship between the more formal Minnesongs and the mechanicalness of the typical Mastersongs.

The name Meistersinger came from the notion that only those who had won the technical title of 'masters' or experts were competent to fix the standard of verse and song. It also recalls the fact that among the Minnesinger a poet of less than noble rank was called Meister (in distinction from Ritter, knight).

Unlike their forerunners, the Meistersinger were wholly drawn from the rapidly rising burgher or tradesman class, often from the humblest and rudest artisans. Their prominence from the 14th to the 16th centuries was an incident in the evolution of society, when the old régime of country life under feudal conditions was being replaced by manufactures and trades in organized towns.

A striking characteristic of the Meistersinger was their custom of forming local societies, more or less secret and exclusive, like the many guilds or trades-unions into which craftsmen of every sort were beginning to be organized in the strong commercial towns of Germany. These clubs were governed by elaborate rules. Entrance was by a kind of initiation. The members were divided into classes, from the novices or 'scholars' up to the accepted 'masters,' and were presided over by several kinds of officers. Each guild had its hall, its insignia of membership, its special rules and traditional ceremony or procedure. Some of their gatherings were of the nature of drills or singing-schools, while others were formal contests or trials of skill. In the latter the function of the judges or 'markers' was important, since by their rulings