Wiener Lieder

   / Vienna Songs

   Usually performed by singers accompanying themselves on the accordion, these are staples of musical entertainment at many wine locales in and around the city. They are also performed in hotels and restaurants, especially those frequented by tourists.

   After a dip in popularity in the post–World War II period, when celebrations of local culture had yet to be uncoupled from Nazi racism, the genre revived in the 1970s. In 2006, there were an estimated 10,000 such songs in existence. The lyrics are normally in a semistandardized form of the local dialect (Wienerisch). They express a broad range of joyous emotions as well as less attractive ones—aching melancholy and occasionally plain meanness. The hero of the text is often alcohol, especially wine. The narrative line is generally linked to Viennese society of the past.

   The earliest of the songs date from the beginning of the 18th century. At first sung largely at student gatherings, they were often downright obscene. The heyday of the Wiener Lied, however, was the 19th century, when vocalists used such music to criticize social and political arrangements in an environment of state censorship. As public amusement facilities, such as the Prater, expanded in the latter decades of the era, opportunities for popular singers grew, too; the Wiener Lied was a major item in their repertoires, and the numbers of these songs grew accordingly.

   See also Heuriger.