Großvatertanz
Großvatertanz
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Großvatertanz

The "Großvatertanz" (Grandfather Dance) is a 17th-century German traditional dance folk tune from the region of Saxony.

The song was first mentioned in print in 1717 by the German ballet master Gottfried Taubert (1670–1746), but it was known before.

New lyrics to the first part of the tune were written by Klamer Eberhard Karl Schmidt in 1794 and August Friedrich Ernst Langbein in 1812, both "lengthy and dull pieces of ornate poetry" (Franz Magnus Böhme, 1886). Carl Gottlieb Hering [de] (1766–1853) in 1823 composed a new tune to Langbein's lyrics, for which he has erroneously been claimed to be the real author.

For many years, it was regularly played and danced at the end of wedding celebrations, and became known as the Kehraus ("finale", lit. turn-out).

The original melody has three parts:

Source

And when grandfather took grandmother
grandfather was a groom,
and grandmother was a bride,
they were both married together.

With you and me into the featherbed,
with you and me into the hay;
no feather will pierce you there
nor will a flea bite you.

J. S. Bach quoted the fast part of the tune in the duet "Nu, Mieke, gib dein Guschel immer her" (Saxon dialect for "Now, Mary, give me your mouth") in the 1742 Bauernkantate (Peasant Cantata), BWV 212, to illustrate the girl's reservations about the man's presumed further intentions ("With you and me into the featherbed").

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