Kids' Guide to the Globe

German Music Review: "Die 1ste. 2 CDs" - Junge Dichter Und Denker "Young Poets And Thinkers"

 
Germany: often called Das Land der Dichter und Denker ("The Land of Poets and Thinkers").  Think Goethe.  Schiller.  And we won't even get into its musical giants.

Germany: home to one of the largest and most vibrant hip hop scenes outside of the US. 

Any common ground here?  Yep - Junge Dichter Und Denker ("Young Poets and Thinkers"), a group of German kids who rap out classics from German literature to an electronic, hip hop beat.

Be warned: this is not "music" in the strict sense.  Junge Dichter Und Denker's material floats around in that gray area between speech, prose, poetry, rhythm and music.  Only one track is sung, and the album is a tough sell for younger kids who don't already speak the language.  But my son (11, and only at the beginning stages of learning German) likes it, and there's something about it... I find myself listening to it over and over, with pure enjoyment. 

The rhythms are sharp and mesmerizing, but more than that, the tracks totally bust up all my stereotypes of German as a harsh, clipped language.  (Too many World War II movies.)  German actually has a soft side, yet the right amount of punchiness for rap.  The voices of these children are beautiful, and I find listening to this album extremely restful.  I can zone out to it, all the while knowing that I'm listening to some really important works of literature!

This particular and most recent album of Junge Dichter und Denker (and they've got a few) includes selections from classics like Goethe's "Confession" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (which inspired Paul Dukas's symphonic poem of the same name, which inspired Mickey Mouse's well-known housecleaning debacle), Freidrich Schiller's "The Glove", and Theodor Fontane's "The Bridge At The Tay".

I would recommend this album for serious students of German, bi-lingual households, and parents who really want their children (or themselves) to be immersed in the sounds of German, regardless of the level of ability.  And, of course, anyone who wants to commit German literary classics to memory.  The hip hop beats make the listening easy and habit-forming.  If I were planning to learn German, I would play this cd over and over and over.  And at this point, I just might.  (Learn German, that is.)

Liner notes include lyrics in German; karaoke disk included for when you've got everything memorized.
 

German Music Review: A Capella Album - Die Prinzen

Die Prinzen ("The Princes") is a German music group  which takes its name from the Brother's Grimm fairy tale, The Frog Prince.  (Hence the frogs that appear on so many of their album covers.)  The band is made up of former members of the Thomanerchor, a choir of the St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Johann Sebastian Bach was music director for many years.  Their lyrics are "often humorous, tongue-in-cheek critiques of German government or society" (from Wikipedia).

Well, I can't say that we totally got all the political humor... in fact, about 100% of it sailed right over our heads.  German is not a strong language in this household.  When I help my son with his German vocabulary words, he has to correct my pronunciation on every single word.

No matter.  These guys are cool - pop, fairly mellow, nice melodies.  This was my first Die Prinzen album, and I chose it because it was a capella, and hopefully easier for us to understand, or at least pick out a few words here and there.  I was right.  We all like listening to Die Prinzen, for those times when we don't need a high energy anthem or crashing rock sound to get us going.

The album is made up of Die Prinzen's previous hits, done this time in a capella style.  My favorite tracks are "Blaues Blut", "Millionar" and "Mein Bester Freund".  The sound reminds me of the a capella groups I used to swoon over in my pre-college days, in the late 70's. 

This album is easy on the ears, and palatable for kids.  I can't vouch for the content (because I can't, um, understand one friggin word of it), but judging by the sound and the graphics on their albums, there's nothing hard-core here.   This is a mainstream group, and one I hope to explore further.  I'll let you know what I turn up.