the courtly conventions and the social pretentions of the villagers. Summer songs The Summer Songs use a simple strophic form, the "dance strophe" (German , from MHG , "circle dance", "carole") characterised by simple couplet and triple rhymes, e.g. AAABBB. Such forms are not common in Minnesang and are probably based on a native tradition of dance songs. The Summer Songs all start with one or more strophes of natural description (German ) welcoming the coming of summer, sometimes contrasting it with the winter that has gone. A village girl is then introduced and she announces her intention to attend the country dance in amorous pursuit of the knight of her affections. This gives rise to a dialogue with her mother, who warns against seeking a partner of a higher station, or a girlfriend, who shares the girl's aims. Winter songs The Winter Songs use the three-part canzone form common in earlier Minnesang and generally have longer stanzas. The opening natural description is often a lament for the passing of summer. This is often followed by a lover's complaint about how the love of his "lady", herself in fact a village maiden, has been alienated by the pretentions of the villagers at the dance. Music Melodies to 57 of Neidhart's songs are preserved, with several recorded in more than one manuscript. This is more than survive for all the other 12th- and 13th-century combined, a clear indication of their popularity. There are five melodies in the Frankfurt Fragment (MS O) from , but otherwise the bulk of the melodies are in 15th-century MSS, the largest collection being in MS c. While many scholars have regarded the songs in MS c as being by Neidhart's imitators (and therefore reduce the number of "authentic" melodies to 17), musicologists have found no basis for differentiating between "authentic" and "inauthentic" songs. The melodic similarities between songs in MS O and their equivalents in MS c, roughly 160 years later, suggest that 15th-century melodies cannot simply be dismissed as later compositions. All the songs are monodic and the notation rarely indicates rhythm. However, many of Neidhart's lyrics describe dances or call on listeners to dance, and the melodies show features associated with dance songs. These include limited vocal range (an octave or a ninth), rapid movement between high and low notes, and a syllabic structure (i.e. one note per syllable). Hatto and Taylor note a