The cembalo was used to play the basso continuo in all concerted music outside the church; and even in a concerto for clavier, a second cembalo appears to have accompanied. The lute or regal, however, sometimes took its place, for convenience of porterage.
Transposing clavicymbals, and clavicymbals with keyboards at both ends were in use. The tuning was very troublesome, and had to be done before each performance. Other names were Gravecymbalum, Flügel, Schweinskopf, Steertstück. The claviorganum was a combination of clavicymbal and positive.
Choral is the German name for the Plainsong of the Roman Church. After the Reformation the name Choral (English “Chorale”) was given to the hymns which were either translated from the Latin, or originally written in the fourteenth century by Johannes of Salzburg, Muscatblüet, Hans Foltz, Michel Beheim, Johannes Gosseler, Jörg Breining, and Heinrich von Laufenberg, and which took a firm hold on the German people through the efforts of Martin Luther, Michael Vehe, W. Heintz, Joh. Hofmann, and others. The peculiar variety to be observed in the metrical construction of the German Chorale is directly traceable to the influence of the Volkslied, for Luther himself wrote sacred words for secular melodies. Other names connected with the chorale are Valentin Triller, Veit Heefen, Count Albrecht the younger of Brandenburg, Culmbach, Speratus, Spengler, Hans Sachs, Schensing, Decius Graumann, Joh. Walter, a friend and fellow-worker of Luther, L. Senfl, von Bruck and Fink. Later poets were Nic. Hermann, P. Nicolai, Calvisius Hassler, &c., H. and J. Prætorius, Neumark, Flemming, Teschner, Gerhard and Crüger. The music of the chorale was brought to perfection by J. S. Bach.
Chorale-Cantatas, those in which a complete hymn is carried out, each verse forming as a rule a separate movement, whether for chorus or solo voices, though occasionally a verse is omitted in the longer hymns. Sometimes recitatives break the course of the chorale melody, or the melody is played by the instruments and accompanied by vocal recitative. The chorales chosen are always well-known ones, and among the finest of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Church Music. The services at Leipsic were regulated by an act passed in 1540 by Duke Heinrich applying to all Saxony. A morning service called matins was celebrated at St Nicholas every Sunday at 5.30 A.M., in which the Venite, Psalms, Te Deum and Benedicamus Domino were sung by the choir, and directed by the St Nicholas cantor.
Morning service took place at 7 at both St Thomas and St Nicholas; a Latin motet was sung, followed by the Kyrie, Gloria in excelsis, Collect in Latin, and at St Thomas a Litany was sung by four boys and the choir alternately. The Gospel and Epistle and Creed were intoned by the priest, and on certain days the Nicene Creed was sung in Latin by the choir. The “Hauptmusik” (the cantata) followed the intoning or singing of the Creed in Latin, and after it was finished the Creed was sung by the congregation in German. This was followed by a sermon of an hour’s duration. The service concluded with the general confession, the Lord’s Prayer and blessing. Chorales were sung by the congregation during the course of the service.
At the mid-day service there were only a sermon and two congregational hymns without the choir. It began at a quarter to twelve. At vespers, the choir sang a motet, and the Magnificat in German, besides leading the congregation in some hymns. At Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, similar services were performed for three consecutive days, matins beginning at five instead of half-past to allow more time for the festival services.
Cithara, Cither, a favourite instrument in the sixteenth century of the guitar family, bearing 4, 5 or 6, or even 12 metal strings. Prætorius condemns the four-stringed cithara as being “a vulgar instrument only used by cobblers and tailors.” In England it was kept at barbers’ shops for the amusement of customers waiting their turn.
Clarino. Lichtenthal C. Dizionario della Musica, Milan, 1826, says “the clarino is, according to some, a species of small trumpet, of which the tube is narrower than that of the ordinary trumpet, and which gives a more acute sound; but Northerners hold that the word means the ordinary trumpet.” The word frequently occurs in Bach’s scores.
Clavichord. A key-board instrument having brass strings which were neither plucked with a quill as in the harpsichord, nor struck with a hammer as in the pianoforte, but made to sound by a brass blade called a tangent, which pressed against the string as long as the key was held down. Although its tone had little power, the effects of crescendo, diminuendo, and vibrato, called in Germany “Bebung,” were entirely under the player’s control, and on this account it was a favourite instrument with Bach. The clavichord was sometimes provided with pedals for the use of organ students.