120 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters. 
APPENDIX 
Extracts from G. G. Gervinus, Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung, 
2. Band, 4. Auflage, Leipzig 1853. # 
Chapter VI. Decline of Knightly Poetry and Transition to 
Popular Poetry. 10. Mastersong. 
(Page 245.) But it may be wrong to look at these songs at all 
from the viewpoint of poetry. For historical purposes it suffices 
to have shown that their poetic texts mark the uttermost decline 
of the old lyric poetry. These songs were not meant for publicity, 
let alone immortality, they remained consequently unprinted in 
their obscurity, and history had better let them rest there. Even 
in the case of minnesong we disdained a too searching analysis, 
and here the analytic method would be still less proper. A more 
accurate characterization of mastersong would incontestably be the 
task of the historian of music, if indeed its music were preserved. 
The mastersingers, in the period when they had established real 
singing schools, let themselves be heard only as singers. With 
them, as well as with the French and Dutch rhetoricians, the high¬ 
est achievement was the invention of a new tune; in their tunes, 
however, melody was the essential thing. Little depended on the 
text; it was permissible to render the same text in different tunes; 
only in melody were they inventive; and this must not encroach 
on the tunes of other mastersingers to the extent of four syllables, 
but melody and fioriture were to be entirely original. And so in 
the examination of such new tunes great emphasis was laid on the 
musical rendition. . . . If it was found that the melody did 
not encroach on any other tune to the extent of four syllables, it 
was registered, its parent had it christened and invited sponsors 
to the ceremony. 
(Page 246). We deemed the relation of minnesong to the moral 
status of the people far more significant than its aesthetic side, 
and we do this also in the case of the mastersong. There we had 
* Sincere thanks are due to Professor B. Q. Morgan for generous help in the 
preparation of this translation as well as for the revision of the entire manu¬ 
script. 
