Barzaz Breiz

The Barzaz Breiz ( in modern notation Barzhaz Breizh, such as " Breton songs and poetry collection " of bret. Barzhaz " poetry collection " and breizh " Brittany " ) is a collection of Breton folk songs collected by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué and published in 1839. It was compiled from oral traditions and includes traditional folk tales, legends and music. Hersart de la Villemarqué grew up on the estate Plessix on in Nixon, which is close to Pont -Aven. He himself was half Breton.

Importance

The collection was published in Breton with French translation. The book reached a widespread deployment, since it is the Romantic generation in France, which "discovered" the Basque language was curious at this time on the rural cultures of Europe and the supposedly pagan remnants beneath the surface of popular Catholicism. The Barzaz Breiz brought the Breton folk culture for the first time in the European consciousness. One of the oldest of the collected songs is the legend of Ys. La Villemarqué drew on not only the melodies of the ballads but also the lyrics. This was apart of hymns, one of the first attempts to collect traditional Breton music, and print.

Up to this publication, the Breton legends only of references from French romances of the 13th and 14th centuries were known in which many cultural aspects of the French listeners were adjusted.

The first part of the book contains ballads about historical legends and heroic deeds Breton leaders, including Nominoë, Erispoë and the warriors of the struggle of the Thirty. The second part deals with the local culture and focuses on religious festivals and seasonal events.

Authenticity

Was the publication of traditional literature at that time controversial because of the discussion of the best known of these collections, James Macpherson's "The Poems of Ossian ," ostensibly the translation of ancient Gaelic traditions, which were, however, strongly modified by Macpherson and partly invented. Following the publication of this Barzaz Breiz by François -Marie Luzel (1826-1895) was criticized at a scientific conference in 1868. At the congress of the Breton company in 1872 in Saint- Brieuc, he claimed the songs were completely produced in the manner Macpherson, because, as he said he was never so elegant ballads in the Breton language, freely met by French loanwords. Villemarqués refused other scientists to grant access to his notebooks.

The dispute continued until continued into the twentieth century. 1960 Francis Gourvil claimed in his doctoral thesis that the Barzaz Breiz is a forgery. These accusations were in 1974, thanks to the 1964 found Notebooks Villemarqués of Donatien Laurent refuted in part. Laurent's research was published in 1989. Laurent summarized that Villemarqué rearranged the collected material he to order the lyrics and the music and revive. At this time, however, this was common practice, comparable to the work of the Brothers Grimm.

Expenditure

The first edition was published in Paris in 1839 by Éditions Delloye as " Folio 8" ( 8 per folio per bond). Reprinted 1840, 1845 by Didier et Cie. 1846, the book was then published in Paris in 1867.

1852 took Moritz Hartmann and Ludwig Pfau a translation into German attack, the " Breton Folk Songs" was published in 1858 under the title. The two translators had Villemarqué 1852 in Brittany visited, what Hartmann writes in his travel records. Each of the two translators worked each about a third of the songs, the remaining final third they transferred together into German.

1865, the standard English translation by Tom Taylor, under the title " Ballads and Songs of Brittany " was released. This edition contained some of the original tunes, "by Mrs. Tom Taylor harmonized ", but left some ballads.

The edition of 1867 was subsequently reprinted to this day by the scientific library Perrin often, it does not include the numerous English ( Taylor, Fleay, ...), and German (Keller - Seckendorf ), Italian ( Pascoli ) and Polish translations, etc.

In 1981 a paperback edition.

In 1989, the Breton Publisher Mouladurioù Hor Yezh out a Barzhaz Breizh, which contained only the Breton text in modern spelling and the notes.

In 1996, the publishing Coop Breizh a paperback edition with only the French text out.

1999 by Éditions du Layeur a reprint of the edition of 1867 by Yann- Fañch Kemener, a singer and collector, edited. Besides the preface, which contains the output of 1845 Breton and French versions of the poems, which was taken heavily on readability. An accompanying CD contains the recordings of twelve of the songs of Yann- Fañch Kemener and " Maîtrise de Bretagne ", both solo and duo.