Meistersingers

mis'ter-sing-ers, a name adopted by certain associations of German singers who flourished chiefly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These associations may be described as musical guilds formed on the pattern of craft guilds. They were formed by music-loving citizens of the Free Cities. Guilds of this sort arose in Strasburg, Augsburg, Mainz, Nuremberg, and other German cities. They appear to have been societies of would-be poets. They met originally, it may be, to listen to the songs of the minnesingers. They were people of poetical inclinations and were ambitious to compose poetry. The composition of a song, original in its make-up, if not in matter, was made a requisite for admission. Poets' clubs, literary clubs, these guilds may be called. The great mass of poetry produced was rude and of little value. The songs were lyrical and were sung to music. A code of thirty-two rules governing their composition has been preserved. The meistersingers were rather a convivial lot, given to freedom of discussion. They were not encouraged by the church. A guild existed at Ulm until 1839. The most celebrated meistersinger is Hans Sachs, a peasant shoemaker of Nuremberg. It was his pride that he had composed 4,275 meister songs. See Sachs