Songs from the kłodzko county region in the pages of “Vierteljahrsschrift für Geschichte und Heimatskunde der Grafschaft Glatz“

The article investigates folk and religious songs that were published in the pages of the “Vierteljahrsschrift für Geschichte und Heimatskunde der Grafschaft Glatz“ journal. The periodical was published by Johannes Franke’s publishing house in Bystrzyca Kłodzka between 1881 and 1890. Initially, the editor was Rev. Edmund Scholz (1835–1920) and starting from the 5th volume, the role was taken over by Rev. Wilhelm Hohaus, PhD (1844–1909) and Franz Volkmer (1846–1930), though – as noticed – it was “the spirit and work” of the latter that the journal had derived from since the very beginning. In ten published volumes, the authors – who were mainly pedagogues of the teachers college in Bystrzyca – published materials dedicated to the history of the old Kłodzko county, particular towns or buildings (mainly churches) located there, as well as biographies of people descending from and affiliated with the Kłodzko region. The article is an outcome of the research conducted in the Library of the Kłodzko Region Museum in Kłodzko, whose collections comprise all annuals of the “Vierteljahrsschrift […]“. It appeared that out of the ten published volumes, nine included materials regarding broadly understood music culture of the region (the exception being the last volume). In each of the annals, there was a presentation of at least one song of an either religious, or secular character. Some of them, apart from musical examples, were provided with a suitable commentary informing about the origins of a song, the history of its modifications, or the places where it was performed. The authors of the studies were teachers working in the teachers college in Bystrzyca: Wilhelm Kothe, Hugo Vogt, Josef Exner and Klara Biermann, as well as the teacher and director of a choir in Wambierzyce named Benker. The authors were guided by the idea of creating a journal reaching as many county residents as possible, which was to result in raising their awareness of the history of the region they lived in. The topicality of the idea seems to be confirmed by the fact that till now the periodical has been a crucial source of historical knowledge of the Kłodzko region also in terms of local music culture.