| Description: | What have we got now?
The mossy head ..... strange.
Indeed, very unusual this title. What does the lyricist of this song, presumably Arthur Zapp, want to tell us with it?
Well, a mossy head or a mossy back means that one has reached a certain age and has accumulated a lot of life experience.
The melody of this song is by Otto Alexander Victor Lob * 24 December 1834 in Lindlar; † 11 September 1908 in Neckargemünd). He was a German conductor, vocal composer and teacher. He is best known for his melodies to student songs, including Beim Rosenwirt am Grabentor and O wonnevolle Jugendzeit, but also this song, which, like other of his melodies, can also be found in the Lahrer Kommersbuch. Lindlar, by the way, is only a few kilometres from where I live.
The melody captivated me, and at first I thought it would be very difficult to make something out of it here. But the lively odd beat invites you to sing along and the song virtually wrote itself. I have octavated the melody so that it can be heard better out of the babble of voices.
The work is again in three parts. It begins with the 4-part song movement, followed by a trio that is registered more gently. Then follows a fugue - once again very broadly conceived - which was initially intended for 3 voices. But as it is with me, the pedal is added in the coda, so that we hear 4 voices. Up to bar 34, the individual voices are introduced, a cadenza ends in E minor. Now, from bar 35, the theme is reversed and the fuga is "performed" (performed in the sense of the sonata form). From bar 60, the coda begins, which we hear with the full organ; over a long organ point on the dominant, the remaining voices in the manual unfold in plaintive minor lines, alluding to the minor component in the melody of the song.
The final movement of the song is also played with the full organ.
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