Neidhardt (Neidhart, Nithart) von Reuenthal

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Neidhardt (Neidhart, Nithart) von Reuenthal

German Minnesänger; b. c. 1180; d. c. 1240. Born into a knightly family, he was in the service of Duke Otto II of Bavaria in Landshut, then went to Austria (1232). He was in all probability the earliest German musician whose songs are extant. These are found in MS collections of the late 14th century; a complete list of sources is in Hagen’s Minnesinger (vol. 4; 1838). An ed. of Neidhardt’s songs, with facsimile reproductions and transcriptions in modern notation, was brought out by W. Schmieder in Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, LXXI, Jg. XXXVII (1930). Another collection, Neidhardt-Lieder, ed. by F. Gennrich, was publ. as no. 9 in the series Summa Musica Medii Aevi (Darmstadt, 1962).

Bibliography

S. Singer, Neidhartstudien (Tubingen, 1920); E. Wiessner, Kommentar zu Neidharts Liedern (Leipzig, 1954); idem, Vollständiges Wörterbuch zu Neidharts Liedern (Leipzig, 1954); A. Hatto and R. Taylor, The Songs of Neidhart von Reuental (Manchester, 1958); D. Boueke, Materialien zur Neidhart-Überlieferung (Munich, 1967).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire