Wilfried Ulrich's exhibition of hummels in teh folk museum at Cloppenburg got a nice writeup April 11 in
NWZ Online, website of the Nordwest Zeitung in Oldenburg. First, the headline ...
Ulrich schwärmt für Hummeln
Google, with its usual flair for more-rough-than-ready translation, has the headline as "Ulrich crush on bumblebees." That's crush as in "have a crush on" ... but
schwärmen also means to swarm as in what bees do when a lot of them take flight. And
Hummel, the instrument, got its name from the word for bumblebee. Explains Sigrid Lünnemann, writing for NWZ Online:
Die Hummel kam zu ihrem ungewöhnlichen Namen, weil sie neben den Melodiesaiten frei mitschwingende Begleitsaiten hat, die einen charakteristischen Brummton erzeugen, der an eine fliegende Hummel erinnert. In den Kammern und Spinnstuben wurde abends die Hummel auf den Tisch gelegt und einfache Volksweisen, die jeder mitsingen konnte, wurden gespielt, erklärte Ulrich. In Belgien wird sogar jedes Jahr ein nationaler Hummeltag gefeiert, schwärmte der Hummel-Liebhaber und gestand, dass ein ostfriesischer Hummeltag sein größter Traum wäre.
Which Google translates as:
The bumblebee got its unusual name because it has next to the melody strings freely vibrating string accompaniment, producing a characteristic humming sound that is reminiscent of a flying bumblebee. In the chambers and spinning rooms in the evening, the bumblebee on the table and simple folk songs, which everyone could sing along, were played, said Ulrich. In Belgium, even celebrated every year a national Hummeltag enthused the Hummel-lover and confessed that an East Frisian Hummeltag would be his greatest dream.
As always with Google's translations, you have to take it as a starting point ... change the word order around, find the verb, decide whether you're reading about a "hummel" or a "bumblebee," etc., etc. But it gives you an idea. Click
here for the NWZ Online story and
here for Google's translation.
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