DIE GESÄNGE DER OLD ORDER AMISH IN KALONA, IOWA. BERICHT EINER FELDFORSCHUNG

In March 2005, the author conducted field studies at the Old Order Amish in Kalona, Iowa, in collaboration with James R. Dow. The Old Order Amish, a religious community which has been in existence since 1693, is an especially conservative group of Anabaptists who reject all technology. Their ancestors emigrated to North America between 1736 and 1914 from southwestern Germany, Alsace and Switzerland. Today they mainly live in the Midwestern and Eastern States of the U.S. For the first time in the history of Amish music, it proved possible to persuade a group of 30 people of both sexes and varying ages to perform for acoustic recordings. The singers recorded ten songs, a representative cross-section of their repertoire, on tape. Among the recordings are two SLOW TUNES, including the Lob Lied (»Song of Praise«) which is always sung as the second hymn at their church services. The tradition of SLOW TUNES is intimately associated with the Ausbund, the Amish hymnal which has been in print since 1583 without interruption. It has now been proven conclusively that the extremely melismatic SLOW TUNES, which were handed down primarily through oral tradition, do not trace back to Gregorian chant, but rather to spiritual and worldly songs of the Reformation and the 17th century. The FAST TUNES, which were also recorded during the field study in March 2005, are Anglo-American and German hymns of the 18th and 19th centuries sung in three and four vocal parts. This study also includes a short portrayal of Amish culture, a survey of scientific research of Amish music and a description of the Old Order Amish songbooks and Amish singing style, as well as of their singing occasions. In general, the Amish sing at home, both during their work and with their children, at their biweekly church services, at their biweekly »Sunday Schools«, in their school and at the so-called SINGINGS of the young people on Sunday evenings. Typical song exemplars of the Kalona field study round of this portrait. The ecological movement of the former Federal Republic of Germany was a phenomenon of high social and cultural significance. It has also created its own musical practice, closely related to the German Folk-Bewegung. Izaly Zemtsovsky's triad of narration, raspev (melodious singing style) and dance (»the three pillars of traditional music«) can be applied to the ethnomusicological study of this political and social environment as well. The first concerns the position of the »epic« singer, th