Changed for ever are the sounds of the fairground but they were their with their colour and movement, their drums and their pipes.
Music is another vital element on the fairground. The chants and responses of the medieval processions set the scene and told the story of and to a Christian people. There were deep-rooted traditions of popular music that found natural expression on the fairgrounds. Stories were told, reputations were damaged and love was revealed through song, while dancers could weave with the music to celebrate youth and spring or more sombre moments.
Popular festival in Carmstadt, autumn 1835. People listen to ballad singers. The woman uses a pointer to draw attention to the pictures that illustrate the lyrics sung by the hurdy-gurdy player. People could listen for free. Ballad singers earned their money with the sale of their lyrics.
The forerunners of the Bänkelsänger (ballad singers) were the Zeitungssinger (news singers or newspaper singers). In the 16th and 17th century, a time without newspapers, they were very popular. They sang songs about catastrophes, crimes and disasters. They also sold pamphlets with the lyrics. In the 18th century newspapers began to appear regularly and business of the itinerant news presenters plunged. But they adjusted to the new situation. They developed a new style. They presented Moritaten, songs about jealousy, murder, tears and tragedy (For instance The Robber’s Bride and The Father Who Let Starve His Children To Death). They performed them standing on a bench (Bänkel), which accounts for the name Bänkelsänger.
~The Bänkelsänger mostly performed as a pair, man and woman. Their songs were illustrated by large, flashy paintings on canvas. These Moritatentafeln were made by professional painters. They were paid per square metre. Some Bänkelsänger had more than fifty of those Moritatentafeln. The woman sang and pointed out the corresponding scenes. After every verse the man repeated the story in prose. The last verse, the Moral, was sung in a duet. Some ballad singers presented five to seven paintings at a time. They were exposed on a special scaffolding, forming a wall up to three metre high and ten metre long. The ballad singers disappeared with the emerging of the mass media, the last ones in the 1950s.