Melody
The melody of the Deutschlandlied was originally adapted by Joseph Haydn in 1797 to provide music to the poem "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save Franz the Emperor") by Lorenz Leopold Haschka. The song was a birthday anthem to Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor of the House of Habsburg. The piece is Movement II (Poco adagio) of Opus 76 No. 3, a string quartet often called the "Emperor" or "Kaiser" quartet. The melody in this movement is also termed the "Emperor's Hymn." After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Francis continued to rule as Austrian Emperor. "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" became the official anthem of the emperor of the Austrian Empire and the subsequent Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the Austrian monarchy in 1918.
Haydn was instructed to compose an anthem which could rival in merit the British "God save the King". The words "God save Emperor Francis" were inspired by the British anthem, though not the melody, which is from the (Croatian) folk tradition. (A similar melody appears in Telemann.) The first line of the anthem changed with each new emperor until 1918. Austrian monarchists continued to use this anthem after 1918 in the hope of restoring the monarchy. The adoption of the hitherto Austrian anthem by Germany in 1922 was not opposed by Austria, as this helped the government in weakening the monarchist causes.
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Famous quotes containing the word melody:
“It’s a melody full of the laughter of children out after the rain.”
—Dorothy Fields (1904–1974)
“The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.”
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989)
“A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)