Österreichisches Volksliedwerk

The Österreichisches Volksliedwerk (Austrian Folk Song Association) is the umbrella organization of the provincial folk song associations (Volksliedwerke) of Austria's federal states. Founded in 1904 as the Österreichisches Volkslied-Unternehmen, it has been dedicated for more than a century to the collection, documentation, research and mediation of folk song, folk music and folk dance in their historical and contemporary forms. Its work is carried out in cooperation with the responsible organizations in Burgenland, Lower Austria, Carinthia, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna, with the aim of preserving and enlivening Austria's intangible cultural heritage. The association manages and archives tens of thousands of folk song, folk music and folk dance recordings from all of Austria. Its central archive, affiliated with the Austrian National Library, holds handwritten records of texts and melodies, and possesses the largest stock of books and periodicals on folk song, folk music, folk dance and folk poetry in Austria. Holdings include approximately 15,000 books and periodicals, 18,000 handwritten records, 6,000 song broadsheets, 15,000 pictorial documents and 6,000 sound recordings, with many thousands more documents in the provincial archives linked through a virtual database. The sound collection ranges from shellac records and LPs to tapes, cassettes, digital tapes and CDs, including unique field recordings. Since 1952 the organization has published an annual yearbook with scholarly articles, the Jahrbuch des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes, successor to the journal Das deutsche Volkslied founded by Josef Pommer in 1899. It also publishes the scholarly series Corpus Musicae Popularis Austriacae (COMPA), whose first volume appeared in 1992. In addition to publications, the association organizes symposia, workshops, lectures, archive tours and networking projects, and maintains the Treffpunkt in Vienna. Its activities include the annual Klezmer workshops at the KlezMore Festival Vienna and cooperation with museums and academic institutions. The Österreichisches Volksliedwerk remains an active cultural organization headquartered in Vienna.

The origins of the Österreichisches Volksliedwerk lie in the ambitious cultural project 'Das Volkslied in Österreich' (Folk Song in Austria), initiated in 1904 on behalf of the Imperial and Royal (k.k.) Ministry for Culture and Education under Minister Wilhelm Ritter von Hartel. A commission of philologists, folklorists, musicologists and folk song researchers was established, with the involvement of leading music publishers, to produce a representative edition of Austrian folk songs. The patriotic enterprise aimed not only to collect and conserve but also to stimulate the cultivation of national cultural heritage, promote regional characteristics, and foster a supra-national sense of identity and mutual understanding within the multi-ethnic empire, against the backdrop of the looming disintegration of the Danube Monarchy and rising nationalisms among its peoples. A main committee issued guidelines, and working committees were set up in the individual crown lands according to national and territorial criteria, tasked with organizing collections and publishing them in their respective languages. Central figures included the grammar school professor and Reichsrat deputy Josef Pommer, the Moravian composer Leoš Janáček, the Prague Germanist Adolf Hauffen, and the Slovene song researcher Karl Štrekelj. Pommer, who saw himself as both a folk music researcher and a German-national antisemitic politician, was a driving planner and sought to position the German working committees prominently. All efforts to publish a unified work based on consensus ultimately failed due to national conflicts, and the First World War prevented the project from being carried out. In 1918 only a trial volume with 150 songs and dances appeared, intended as a model for the format and typeface of all planned volumes in German, Slavic and Romance languages. The first actual volumes of the series, under the title Corpus Musicae Popularis Austriacae (COMPA), were published only from 1992 onward, beginning with 'Volksmusik in Niederösterreich, St. Pölten und Umgebung'. After the upheavals of 1918–1946, the organization continued its work. Since 1952 it has published the Jahrbuch des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes, successor to Pommer's journal Das deutsche Volkslied (founded 1899). Over the decades the association built up its central archive, which is affiliated with the Austrian National Library and holds the largest collection of books and periodicals on folk song, folk music, folk dance and folk poetry in Austria, including major collections such as those of Georg Kotek and Raimund Zoder. The COMPA series has continued to publish scholarly volumes on regional folk music traditions, with volumes appearing regularly from 1992 through at least 2016. The organization has also expanded its public-facing activities, including symposia, workshops, archive tours and collaborations with festivals and museums. In recent years, leadership has passed from Sepp Gmasz to Josef Pühringer as president, with Konrad Köstlin as vice president and Walter Deutsch as honorary president.

• 2016

  COMPA volume 21 published: 'Volksmusik in der Steiermark – Weststeirisches Musikantentum' by Max Rosenzopf.

• 2004

  Special volume of COMPA: reprint of the 1918 trial volume 'Das Volkslied in Österreich'.

• 1992

  First volume of the Corpus Musicae Popularis Austriacae (COMPA) series published: 'Volksmusik in Niederösterreich, St. Pölten und Umgebung'.

• 1952

  First publication of the Jahrbuch des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes, successor to Das deutsche Volkslied (founded 1899).

• 1918

  Trial volume with 150 songs and dances published as a model for the planned series.

• 1904

  Commission 'Das Volkslied in Österreich' established by the k.k. Ministry for Culture and Education; organization founded as Österreichisches Volkslied-Unternehmen.

A non-profit cultural umbrella organization and scholarly archive dedicated to the preservation, research and living mediation of Austria's folk music heritage.

• Jahrbuch des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes

  Annual scholarly yearbook published since 1952.

• Corpus Musicae Popularis Austriacae (COMPA)

  Scholarly series of volumes on regional folk music, published since 1992.

• Zentralarchiv

  Central archive affiliated with the Austrian National Library, holding extensive collections of folk song, music and dance documents.

1. 1Volksmusik (er)leben – official website homepagevolksliedwerk.at
2. 2Über uns – official websitevolksliedwerk.at
3. 3Geschichte – official websitevolksliedwerk.at
4. 4Österreichisches Volksliedwerk – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org
5. 5Österreichisches Volksliedwerk – Wikidatawikidata.org