a standard of effort was set up, often in a way to discourage all freshness of invention.
Starting from Mayence on the Rhine soon after 1300, the guilds multiplied rapidly throughout central Germany, the noted centres in the 14th century being Frankfort, Colmar, Nuremberg, Zwickau and Prague. To these were added in the 15th Strassburg, Augsburg, Ratisbon, Ulm and Munich. In the 16th the centre of activity shifted more to the east and north. Although after 1600 the significance of the movement rapidly declined, yet organizations continued in many places. Indeed, it was not until 1839 that the last of the guilds, that of Ulm, disbanded, and the last person who had been a member did not die till 1876.
Among the many Meistersinger known to us by name the only one of lasting renown was the cobbler of Nuremberg, Hans Sachs (d. 1576), whose homely but sturdy genius has been widely recognized.
The historic influence of the Meistersinger movement was
considerable, since it affected all Germany and spread somewhat
to adjacent countries. In many quarters it was supposed
to represent a real form of art. In the later 15th century and
afterward, some of its strange melodies were adopted as subjects
for treatment by composers, and probably they exercised some
influence upon the beginnings of popular religious song at the
Reformation. But, on the whole, the movement was devoid of
that ideality, freedom and spontaneity that make for genuine
artistic progress. Its only positive utilities were its indirect
emphasis upon music as a dignified and worthy pursuit and the
dissemination among its adherents of a certain degree of technical
knowledge.
