Songs We Love to Sing II

The following is stated in the Foreword of the book: "There is possibly no music so eloquent of national character as the German; and his re-acquaintance with these old folk songs and masterpieces the singers can feel a certain warmth of hospitality - for this must, undoubtedly, be the most notable characteristic of German life. We speak of the typical German home...of typical German folks...and we speak of the Fatherland in its past generation -the period of which we recall most tender memories. The social atmosphere of the German Gemutlichkeit, in the time when these songs were written and most popularly sung, is indeed an atmosphere to gladden the heart.

It was a spirit of song and geniality. At the fireside, in the intimacy of the family circle - in the beer garden on a summer eve, where friendship was synonymous with music and laughter - these songs were sung and played, so consistently that their very suggestion is one of good fellowship.

It is the warmth of such recollections that will tingle through the veins of the singer with this arrangement of songs.

This selection of songs in a great part were selected from the Germans from Russia Heritage Society's annual convention program books and song sheets as well as all of the songs from the 1977 printing of Songs We Love to Sing.

If this remembered pleasure in singing of these songs be renewed hereafter...then the presentation of these songs will have served a happy purpose.