Liedertafel
A nineteenth-century men's choral society, the first founded in 1809 by Zelter.
What it means
A Liedertafel is an association of male singers who meet for sociable, usually part-singing performance in men's voices. The first of its kind was founded under this name by the Berlin composer and conductor Carl Friedrich Zelter in 1809.
Zelter's Liedertafel was originally an exclusive circle with a fixed, limited membership, in which educated citizens and artists sang specially composed or selected part-songs for men's voices at social gatherings.
Musical use
Following the Berlin model, numerous further Liedertafeln and related men's choral societies sprang up in German cities during the nineteenth century, contributing to the development of an independent men's choir repertoire and helping to shape the later, broad choral society culture in the German-speaking world.
A Liedertafel should be distinguished from a mixed choir, which combines women's and men's voices, and from a professional concert choir: the Liedertafel was originally a sociable amateur circle, not an ensemble geared towards public concerts.
Performance practice
For comparison, listen to a typical men's choir song from this tradition and notice the four-part texture with the relatively low overall register characteristic of men's voices. If you sing in a men's choir yourself, this historical background can inform how a program of repertoire is chosen.