Romancero

A romance ( from the Spanish el romance = " in the Romance language written ") is a lyric- epic narrative poem, which comes from the Spanish literature.

Development

The romance was in Spain in the 14th century and was originally a folk song that told legends or historical events and was usually decorated in absurd 16 -syllable verses. Other theories of origins go early as the 10th to 12th century. Style and structure of the romance resemble a folk ballad.

Typically Spanish romances are distinguished by four fabric circles:

From the 16th century, art romances were sealed, including Lope de Vega. They are thematically broader than the original form. Around 1550 also came as another form of the vulgar romance that has similarities to Bänkelsang. In modern Spanish literature, the genre of Romance by Federico García Lorca was revived.

Reception in Germany

In Germany Spanish romances were read from the 18th century. A key role took a while Johann Gottfried Herder, who recorded some of them in his folk song collections. Used in his own romances Herder predominantly trochaic verses which were perceived in the German-speaking area to as typical for the genre, but do not occur in the original Spanish form.

In the romance the romance was in the German-speaking countries because of their presumed " naturalness " as a popular folk poetry. However, the reference to the Spanish origins went there with the time lost, which meant that the concept of romance from the 19th century is still difficult to define, since a clear distinction about the ballad is hardly possible. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about used these terms interchangeably. Significant German poets of the time who wrote explicitly romances, were Joseph von Eichendorff, Clemens Brentano and Ludwig Uhland. Basically a shorter, condensed into stanzas verse text was understood at this time under a romance that has narrative character; other formal restrictions it is not subject. Some of them were content separated from the ballad, for example by sorglosere mood and less fateful choice of topics; such a definition, took about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

From the mid-19th century, the romance lost in the German language in importance and was used for parodic purposes. Examples Heinrich Heine's Atta Troll apply. A Midsummer Night's Dream and Carl Leberecht Immermann Tulifäntchen. Heine's poetry collection Romanzero applies only in some parts as romance proper style.

The German and Spanish concept of romance is not to be confused with the English term romance, which is a general term for Middle English verse romances.