The Guten Tag Hop Clop and Hansel and Gretel
I believe I have done a great service to the world in unearthing the provenance of Mel Brooks’ immortal “Guten Tag Hop Clop” from the musical version of “The Producers.”
You may have thought it was merely a ridiculous German song and dance, featuring that famous German song-and-dance man, Will Ferrel (in the movie) wearing lederhosen and a helmet, and slapping himself and others silly. But did you know it drew its inspiration from a popular opera (hint: one I wrote about the other day)?
Here, in case you haven’t committed it to memory and your recall needs refreshing, is the Brooks song:
And now please observe Exhibit B, the song known in English as “Brother, Come and Dance With Me” (and in German as “Bré¼derchen, Komm Tanz Mit Mir”) from the Humperdinck opera “Hansel and Gretel:”
And here’s is the original folk version (minus the lederhosen); you can see how much Humperdinck added to it:
Speaking of Opera, Operas are not my favorite forms of entertainment, and their mystique–like that of high-brow German Lieder–was forever destroyed for me when what I thought were their profound thoughts and expressions of feeling were translated into English, and I discovered just how pedestrian they really were; some Lieder appearing to me to be no more profound than a shopping list for Bratwurst and Beer (and I say this as someone of partly German extraction).
Credit Brooks for such a better reaction against German culture than what the highbrow progressives like Woodrow Wilson did. Humour, not censorship; satire, not prison; keeps the twinkle twinkle in our little stars.
That’s what is great about both Palin and Christie.
Wie gehts? 😉
As a lover of classical German poetry and music I have to disagree with Wolla Dalbo.
There is an “Innigkeit”, a deep sense of wonder, innocence and intimacy in this art, that you can find almost nowhere else. And it is indeed the very opposite of the jadedness that you find today.
Also: this subtle ‘mysterious and sacred simplicity’, as you can find in ‘die Lieder’ of Schubert, is often lost in -to my taste- crude English translations. The French and Dutch translations are no better either. The typical beauty of the best of German poetry is almost impossible to translate. This poetry is deeply philosophical and at the same time simple as child-songs. I always get ‘goosebumps’ when I listen to Schubert or when I read Novalis.
My grandmother helped foster in me a fondness for German folk culture when she gave me an album of the Obernkirchen Children’s Choir for Christmas one year. Several years later I heard them in concert.
In the 19th century, German and Czech immigrants brought polkas and schottisches played on the accordion to Texas. The Hispanics already resident in Texas hybridized this into Tex Mex music.
The Jiménez family of San Antonio has long been associated with the accordion. Santiago Sr. and his sons Flaco and Santiago Jr. all gained fame as accordionistas. Here is Flaco performing with the Texas Tornadoes. Hybrid upon hybrid.