What would you do if your property was infested with rats? You would likely contact someone experienced in pest control to address the problem. When the exterminator arrives, you would probably expect the use of rat traps and other similar devices to eradicate the situation; but how would you react if you discovered that the professional’s arsenal included a musical instrument? It would certainly be unexpected, perplexing, and unusual. This is exactly what the medieval folk tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin tells us occurred in the thirteenth-century German town of Hamelin.
By Sonja Maurer-Dass
It is a story of a community overrun by rats and the mysterious, colorfully-clad musician who came to their rescue; however, the story does not have a happy ending – there is a sinister turn of events when the musician is not fairly compensated for his efforts. In the following sections, we will take a journey through the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The Legend
Medieval rats. British Library MS Royal 13 B VIII, fol. 21v
Once upon a time (in 1284, to be precise), Hamelin was a prosperous medieval town where its inhabitants flourished and enjoyed a comfortable way of life; however, one day, the unassuming and peaceful community was plagued by vermin, specifically rats. The rats were uncontainable and spread throughout Hamelin, wreaking havoc on produce and clothing, and even gnawing through the structures of wooden houses. Essentially, the town’s entire infrastructure was on the brink of collapse and epidemic as a result of the pint-sized invaders.
Despite their best efforts, none of Hamelin’s citizens could successfully find a solution to rid their once-happy homes of the rats. Then, one day, an unknown and peculiar musician arrived in town. The man was dressed in pied clothing (that is, clothing made of two or more different colours) and carried his instrument – a pipe.
Seeing that Hamelin’s citizens were desperately in need of help, the pied piper agreed to lure the rats away for a sum that was agreed upon by the mayor. However, the musician would not be using traditional means of eradicating the infestation. Instead, the pipe he possessed was an extraordinary instrument with the power to entrance its listeners (perhaps much like the way that snakes are entranced by snake charmers) with magical melodies.
One by one, the piper led the rats away from Hamelin and into the Weser River, after which they were no longer a threat. Upon his success, the piper was ready to accept the compensation promised to him by the town; however, the mayor refused to pay the full amount that had been agreed upon. Infuriated, the piper left Hamelin, but not without vowing to exact revenge on its citizens for the wrong they had committed against him.
Time passed and, on Saint John and Paul’s day, while the town’s people were assembled at church, the piper returned to Hamelin with sinister intentions. In a shocking act of retribution, the piper once again played his magical melodies; however, instead of entrancing vermin, a spell was cast upon the citizens’ innocent children. As he played, the piper marched away from the town towards the mountains while over one hundred children obediently followed. The piper then led the children into a cave in the mountainside, and sadly, none of them – including the piper – were ever seen or heard from again.
The Folktale’s Origins
Manuscript depicting German migrants starting new lives. Was the Pied Piper a story about employment recruitment? There is a theory that posits that large numbers of adolescents emigrated from Germany to Eastern Europe in search of increased employment opportunities during this period. From the Sachsenspiegel, showing the German Ostsiedlung (the eastern migration of Germans in the High Middle Ages). In the upper left a lokator (shown with a special hat), who was key in the establishment of new towns and villages and who recruited people to move east, receives the foundation charter from the landlord. Settlers clear the forest and build houses. In the lower right, the lokator acts as the judge in the village – Wikimedia Commons.
This unsettling tale has been reimagined and retold time and time again by notable writers including Goethe and the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the version told by the Grimms was one of many that brought the story of Hamelin’s dark history to the masses; however, the earliest version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin can be traced back to the Middle Ages and contained fewer of the details that are now considered integral components of the story (for instance, Hamelin’s rat infestation does not appear as part of the Pied Piper’s story in the Middle Ages).
The oldest known source to reference the events of the folk tale was a fourteenth-century stained-glass window located in the story’s namesake – Hamelin, Germany. Unfortunately, the window – which was in the Church of Hamelin – no longer survives; but there are extant contemporaneous written sources that describe the window and confirm its existence.
According to these sources, the window suggested that a harrowing event took place that involved the town’s children and alluded to the involvement of a mysterious piper. Considering the subject matter of the window, does this mean that the folk tale speaks of a historical event that actually took place? Did Hamelin’s children really disappear without a trace, and were they led to their demise by a musician?
Apart from the stained-glass window, there are written accounts that parallel the events related to the Pied Piper legend. For example, Hamelin’s town records from 1384 mourn the disappearance of the citizens’ children which is said to have occurred one hundred years prior: “it is one hundred years since our children left” (meaning that the children disappeared in 1284).
While the extant written accounts certainly indicate that something deeply upsetting happened in 1284 that involved Hamelin’s children, whether this tragedy actually involved a sinister musician is debated among historians. Rather, scholars have suggested that the figure of the piper may have been allegorical. Some have suggested that the piper represented the dangers of plague, to which children were especially vulnerable. More recently, others have drawn connections between the piper’s story and the large numbers of adolescents who emigrated from Germany to Eastern Europe in search of increased employment opportunities in the Middle Ages.
The Pied Piper in Music
The Pied Piper leads the children out of Hamelin. Illustration by Kate Greenaway for Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”. – Wikimedia Commons
It only seems fitting that a folk tale about a powerful musician would, in turn, inspire musical works. In fact, the medieval legend has been adapted for various musical genres many centuries after the story first emerged. Among the works inspired by The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the opera Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, which was composed by nineteenth-century composer Viktor Nessler (the libretto – that is, the text of the opera, or the text of any large-scale musical work – was written by Friedrich Hofmann).
We also see more recent examples of music inspired by the Pied Piper as demonstrated by the prominent composer John Corigliano (composer of the score for the 1998 film The Red Violin), who penned a critically acclaimed flute work with orchestral accompaniment titled The Pied Piper Fantasy, which was premiered in 1982. The work comprises seven movements, each of which is inspired and titled after an event from the folk tale: 1. “Sunrise and the Piper’s Song”; 2. “The Rats”; 3. Battle with the Rats”; 4. “War Cadenza”; 5. “The Piper’s Victory”; 6. “The Burghers’ Chorale”; and 7. “The Children’s March.”
Although we cannot be certain of whether the Pied Piper was a historical person who committed a mass abduction of Hamelin’s children in the Middle Ages, evidence suggests that the folk tale likely bears witness to a real tragedy that involved children in the thirteenth century, and that the stories and musical works that have been handed down to us are in recognition of their memory.
Sonja Maurer-Dass is a Canadian musicologist and harpsichordist. She is a PhD candidate in Musicology at The University of Western, researching 18th-century French musical exoticism in the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau. She holds a master’s degree in Musicology specializing in late medieval English choral music from York University (Toronto, Canada) and has written for The Medieval Magazine and Ancient History Magazine.
Top Image: The oldest picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church in Hameln/Hamelin Germany (c.1300-1633) – Wikimedia Commons
What would you do if your property was infested with rats? You would likely contact someone experienced in pest control to address the problem. When the exterminator arrives, you would probably expect the use of rat traps and other similar devices to eradicate the situation; but how would you react if you discovered that the professional’s arsenal included a musical instrument? It would certainly be unexpected, perplexing, and unusual. This is exactly what the medieval folk tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin tells us occurred in the thirteenth-century German town of Hamelin.
By Sonja Maurer-Dass
It is a story of a community overrun by rats and the mysterious, colorfully-clad musician who came to their rescue; however, the story does not have a happy ending – there is a sinister turn of events when the musician is not fairly compensated for his efforts. In the following sections, we will take a journey through the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The Legend
Once upon a time (in 1284, to be precise), Hamelin was a prosperous medieval town where its inhabitants flourished and enjoyed a comfortable way of life; however, one day, the unassuming and peaceful community was plagued by vermin, specifically rats. The rats were uncontainable and spread throughout Hamelin, wreaking havoc on produce and clothing, and even gnawing through the structures of wooden houses. Essentially, the town’s entire infrastructure was on the brink of collapse and epidemic as a result of the pint-sized invaders.
Despite their best efforts, none of Hamelin’s citizens could successfully find a solution to rid their once-happy homes of the rats. Then, one day, an unknown and peculiar musician arrived in town. The man was dressed in pied clothing (that is, clothing made of two or more different colours) and carried his instrument – a pipe.
Seeing that Hamelin’s citizens were desperately in need of help, the pied piper agreed to lure the rats away for a sum that was agreed upon by the mayor. However, the musician would not be using traditional means of eradicating the infestation. Instead, the pipe he possessed was an extraordinary instrument with the power to entrance its listeners (perhaps much like the way that snakes are entranced by snake charmers) with magical melodies.
One by one, the piper led the rats away from Hamelin and into the Weser River, after which they were no longer a threat. Upon his success, the piper was ready to accept the compensation promised to him by the town; however, the mayor refused to pay the full amount that had been agreed upon. Infuriated, the piper left Hamelin, but not without vowing to exact revenge on its citizens for the wrong they had committed against him.
Time passed and, on Saint John and Paul’s day, while the town’s people were assembled at church, the piper returned to Hamelin with sinister intentions. In a shocking act of retribution, the piper once again played his magical melodies; however, instead of entrancing vermin, a spell was cast upon the citizens’ innocent children. As he played, the piper marched away from the town towards the mountains while over one hundred children obediently followed. The piper then led the children into a cave in the mountainside, and sadly, none of them – including the piper – were ever seen or heard from again.
The Folktale’s Origins
This unsettling tale has been reimagined and retold time and time again by notable writers including Goethe and the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the version told by the Grimms was one of many that brought the story of Hamelin’s dark history to the masses; however, the earliest version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin can be traced back to the Middle Ages and contained fewer of the details that are now considered integral components of the story (for instance, Hamelin’s rat infestation does not appear as part of the Pied Piper’s story in the Middle Ages).
The oldest known source to reference the events of the folk tale was a fourteenth-century stained-glass window located in the story’s namesake – Hamelin, Germany. Unfortunately, the window – which was in the Church of Hamelin – no longer survives; but there are extant contemporaneous written sources that describe the window and confirm its existence.
According to these sources, the window suggested that a harrowing event took place that involved the town’s children and alluded to the involvement of a mysterious piper. Considering the subject matter of the window, does this mean that the folk tale speaks of a historical event that actually took place? Did Hamelin’s children really disappear without a trace, and were they led to their demise by a musician?
Apart from the stained-glass window, there are written accounts that parallel the events related to the Pied Piper legend. For example, Hamelin’s town records from 1384 mourn the disappearance of the citizens’ children which is said to have occurred one hundred years prior: “it is one hundred years since our children left” (meaning that the children disappeared in 1284).
While the extant written accounts certainly indicate that something deeply upsetting happened in 1284 that involved Hamelin’s children, whether this tragedy actually involved a sinister musician is debated among historians. Rather, scholars have suggested that the figure of the piper may have been allegorical. Some have suggested that the piper represented the dangers of plague, to which children were especially vulnerable. More recently, others have drawn connections between the piper’s story and the large numbers of adolescents who emigrated from Germany to Eastern Europe in search of increased employment opportunities in the Middle Ages.
The Pied Piper in Music
It only seems fitting that a folk tale about a powerful musician would, in turn, inspire musical works. In fact, the medieval legend has been adapted for various musical genres many centuries after the story first emerged. Among the works inspired by The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the opera Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, which was composed by nineteenth-century composer Viktor Nessler (the libretto – that is, the text of the opera, or the text of any large-scale musical work – was written by Friedrich Hofmann).
We also see more recent examples of music inspired by the Pied Piper as demonstrated by the prominent composer John Corigliano (composer of the score for the 1998 film The Red Violin), who penned a critically acclaimed flute work with orchestral accompaniment titled The Pied Piper Fantasy, which was premiered in 1982. The work comprises seven movements, each of which is inspired and titled after an event from the folk tale: 1. “Sunrise and the Piper’s Song”; 2. “The Rats”; 3. Battle with the Rats”; 4. “War Cadenza”; 5. “The Piper’s Victory”; 6. “The Burghers’ Chorale”; and 7. “The Children’s March.”
Although we cannot be certain of whether the Pied Piper was a historical person who committed a mass abduction of Hamelin’s children in the Middle Ages, evidence suggests that the folk tale likely bears witness to a real tragedy that involved children in the thirteenth century, and that the stories and musical works that have been handed down to us are in recognition of their memory.
Sonja Maurer-Dass is a Canadian musicologist and harpsichordist. She is a PhD candidate in Musicology at The University of Western, researching 18th-century French musical exoticism in the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau. She holds a master’s degree in Musicology specializing in late medieval English choral music from York University (Toronto, Canada) and has written for The Medieval Magazine and Ancient History Magazine.
Click here to read more from Sonja Maurer-Dass
Top Image: The oldest picture of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of the Market Church in Hameln/Hamelin Germany (c.1300-1633) – Wikimedia Commons
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