In 1936 a German music critic , Alfred Weidemann , published an article in which he identified the melody of a song composed in 1865 by the Weimar composer Peter Cornelius as the `` Urmelodie '' ( source-melody ) . In 1936 , a German music critic , Alfred Weidemann , published an article in which he identified the melody of a song composed in 1865 by Peter Cornelius as the `` Urmelodie '' ( source-melody ) .