Conceptions of Home in Early Modern German-Language Song

The word Heimat can be traced in its sound back to the 14th century, yet long before the term itself became common, early modern songs were already singing of homeland. They evoke belonging without naming it: a sense that resonated in legal and religious language alike, and whose meaning shimmered across a spectrum—home, house, dwelling, family, community, parish, land, patria, nation. Heimat could signify a concrete, sensuously experienced place, but also a remembered landscape, a spiritual refuge, or a metaphorical space of shared time. This project seeks to uncover the visions and emotions of Heimat that emerged between roughly 1480 and 1650 in German-language song. The early modern period proves an especially sensitive seismograph: as musical-textual notation spread, vernacular song gained new reach and authority; printed song collections, marked by local or regional identity, traveled widely and were read as such; and the song itself became a charged medium of confessional belonging. Working with a wide corpus of printed songbooks, the project traces voices and vocabularies of attachment and connectedness, presenting selected examples in an annotated digital portal. Closely interwoven with other research endeavors and experts in the field, it contributes to a shared attempt to rethink Heimat in all its historical depth and emotional resonance.