A German Children’s Songbook

In July 1902, Engelbert Humperdinck, who had been Head of the Academic Master School for Musical Composition at the Berlin Academy of Arts since 1900, and since 1901 also professor of composition at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, began a correspondence with Friedrich Andreas Perthes, owner of the eponymous publishing house in Gotha. By the following year 1903, the first edition of the German Children’s Song Book with a total of 72 songs had already been published. Wette and Humperdinck had included not only folk songs, but also pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Johann Adam Hiller and Carl Maria von Weber. New works were also included, and further stanzas added to traditional songs, with a simple, unmistakably Humperdinckian piano accompaniment gracing each one. It is not surprising that the children’s folk songs »Suse, liebe Suse« (Suse, dear Suse) and »Ein Männlein steht im Walde – Das Rätsel« (There Stands a Little Man – The Riddle), which had contributed so significantly to the popularity of »Hansel and Gretel« are found in the collection.