Meistergesangn.
/ˈmʌɪstəɡəzaŋ/, U.S. /ˈmaɪstərɡəˌzæŋ/ The German tradition of musical composition and performance by the Meistersinger.Flourishing particularly in the 16th cent. amongst the urban lower and middle classes, Meistergesang dealt especially with religious themes. It made use of monophonic tones performed without instrumentation, normally by a solo voice.
ΚΠ
1836 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 304 In direct opposition to the Meistergesang, the Volksgesang, or Popular poetry, developed itself in its fullest bloom; although the former exercised a decided influence upon the latter.
1872 Harper's Mag. Mar. 536/1 It is rather droll to find the ancient legend of ‘Hans and Grethel’—the gluttonous and sly cook of the Meistergesang, Hans Sachs, and the Pentamerone—converted into such a story as this.
1939 Mod. Lang. Notes 54 570 Stubborn and successful refusal to bow to the demands of a new age spelled the death of Meistergesang in Nuremberg.
1968 Renaissance Q. 21 49 Although Meistergesang was not a great literary movement that created works of permanent aesthetic worth, it does have importance in its significance to its own age and its practitioners.
1991 J. Caldwell Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. iii. 159 It is something of a mystery why England did not further develop the tradition of the London pui and cultivate an art of courtly song in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries comparable to the German Minnesang and Meistergesang.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1836