The Improvisation of Poetry, 1750 – 1850
A database of commentaries on improvisational performance
A pamphlet containing a direct stenographic recording of a performance by the German improvisatore Maximilian Langenschwarz, published and with a preface by F. X. Gabelsberger. This is the first German improvisation in Bavaria.
Quoting from a German periodical, the writer provides a compressed history of improvisation in Latin, Italian, and German, and compares the German improvisatore Langenschwarz with the Italian improvisatrice Taddei.
Kreuser surveys poetic improvisation throughout modern Europe, in Arabic cultures and in the ancient world, naming (in an endnote) several German improvisers who have been reviewed in recent periodicals. He considers improvised poetry and music a pleasant entertainment for the masses, a momentary pleasure that cannot measure up to Homer or to the productions of poets and orators when language and culture are in a more mature state.
The character Frau von Häseler marvels at the skills of the German improviser Langenschwarz, recounting his success in finding a rhyme for a very difficult word. Mathilde von Rohr, the subject of this article, finds it difficult to compare improvisation with more serious types of poetry, and responds with a degree of reservation.