Ernst Jandl - Hosi und Anna

Ernst Jandl (1925-2000) appeared on the Austrian sound poetry scene around 1965, just after the demise of the Wiener Gruppe – it is with this heritage and in this context in mind his work is best envisaged. Comprising Hans Carl Artmann (1921-2000), Friedrich Achleitner (b.1930), Oswald Wiener (b.1935), Gerhard Rühm (b.1930) and Konrad Bayer (1932-1964), the Wiener Gruppe was a Vienna avantgarde poetry collective active between 1954 and 1964, when Bayer commited suicide and documented it with macabre photos. The Wiener Gruppe explored non-sensical and concrete poetry, text collage, literary cabaret, happening and sound poetry on disc, as well as generally promoting the Vienna dialect. Ernst Jandl’s relentless play with words, anagrams and limericks during all his life is derived from the Wiener Gruppe. See my previous Jandl post for more info.

♫ The Hosi und Anna poem cycle first appeared in 1965 as a book of short poems with typesetting and visual poetry by Thomas Bayrle and Bernhard Jäger (pictured above), published by Gulliver-Presse, Bad Homburg, Germany. It was quite successful, notably for the instant sound poetry classic Ottos Mops (listen here). Publisher Wagenbachs published Jandl’s own reading of the poems in their Quartplatte sound poetry series in 1971 (the present disc, Quartplatte #6) and reissued it in 1983, complete with a reading of Laut und Luise (Quartplatte #22). The diminutive poems comprising Hosi+Anna, sometimes as short as the enunciation of their title, are based on alliteration, play on words, Vienna dialect and comical or exotic words like ananas (pineapple). Apparently not originally intended for children, some of these poems are taught in Austrian schools today, where Ottos Mops still delights the kids like limericks delight British children.

01 Hörprobe (:38)
02 Reeee (:26)
03 Fünfter Sein (:24)
04 Steinbock (:20)
05 Wasser (:53)
06 Da (:22)
07 Redensart (:14)
08 Der Alte Vielfraß (:15)
09 Restaurant (1:09)
10 Ottos Mops (:38)
11 Hosi (:22)
12 Hoffnung (:24)
13 Loch (:22)
14 Schmerz Durch Reibung (:35)
15 A Love-Story (:04)
16 Dringend (:12)
17 Mundharmonika (:57)
18 Lauter (:14)
19 Aus Den 30er Jahren (:33)
20 Mmmmmm (1:16)
21 Erfolg Beim Dritten Versuch (:34)
22 Darstellung Einer Beerdigung (2:38)
23 Vatter Komm Erzähl Vom Krieg (:22)
24 Staßenrufe (:43)
25 The Flag (:24)
26 Privater Marsch (:30)
27 Falken Und Tauben (:17)
28 Anleitung Zum Totalen Frieden (:39)

Total time 16:15
7-inch released by Wagenbach, ref. Quartplatte #6, Berlin, 1971

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