The specimens of songs appertaining to a sect should be prefaced by some account of the doctrines and religious ceremonies peculiar to the sect, and especially by a lucid explanation of the prevailing manner in which the music is executed.
Furthermore, the value of the collection would be increased by admitting also examples of the most popular instrumental pieces used in divine worship; or, at any rate, by giving a description of them, should they be too long for insertion. The field for research and selection of materials for the preparation of such a work is so extensive that much discernment would be required, in order to exhibit clearly the distinctive features of the music of each sect without enlarging the work to a size which would be inconvenient.
The immense number of hymn-books for congregational use, published with or without musical notation, which have appeared since the time of the Reformation, is almost overwhelming to the student, and rather increases than facilitates the labour of selecting the most noteworthy examples for a work like that in question. Here, however, valuable assistance might be obtained by a careful reference to certain works on hymnology by C. von Winterfeld, G. von Tucher, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, P. Wackernagel, and others.
Although congregational singing has been especially cultivated since the time of the Reformation, it is not foreign to the Roman Catholic Church; indeed, a very interesting collection might be made of old songs with the music occasionally performed by Roman Catholic congregations. With their spiritual songs and hymns in Latin, which were composed during the Middle Ages, they had sacred songs in their vernacular language dating from a period anterior to the Reformation. After having flourished, especially in Germany during the seventeenth century, the congregational singing of the Roman Catholic Church fell gradually more and more into disuse until the present century, when attempts to revive it have been made in some of the dioceses. The oldest known Roman Catholic hymn-book in German dates from the year 1517, and was compiled by Michael Vehe. It contains seventy-four tunes, some of which were especially composed for the book; the others were old and well-known tunes. However, the most comprehensive of the old collections of sacred songs for popular use dates from the year 1625, and was compiled by the Abbot David Gregorius Corner. Among the books of this description subsequently published are several which contain songs in the German language intended to be sung by the people at the principal church festivals, in processions, pilgrimages, and also at Holy Mass. On the last-mentioned occasion a hymn was sometimes introduced after the Transubstantiation. It was also not unusual on high festivals for the priest to sing in Latin, and the people to respond in German. The musical student would do well to acquaint himself with the modern publications of Roman Catholic songs, as for instance, 'Cantica Spiritualia,' Augsburg, 1825; 'Kirchen und religiöse Lieder aus dem 12 ten bis 15 ten Jahrhundert,' by J. Kehrein, Paderborn, 1853; the sacred songs collected by Freiherr von Ditfurth, Leipzig, 1855, and others.
Examples of elaborate vocal compositions, with or without instrumental accompaniment, generally performed by an appointed choir of singers and by professional musicians, would probably demand too much space in a compendium like that which has been suggested above; but, at all events, some account might be given of such compositions. Those belonging to the Roman Catholic Church are especially important. The most popular specimens should be pointed out. They are in many instances easily obtainable. True, the most popular ones are by no means generally also the best; but it would be desirable to ascertain accurately the popular taste of the present day.
As regards the Chorales of the Lutheran Church, it would be necessary to trace the alterations which they have undergone in the course of time. For this purpose the best Chorale books published in Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries would require especial attention; as for instance, those by Spangenberg, 1545; Prætorius, 1604; Hassler, 1607; Schein, 1627; Schütz, 1628; Crüger, 1640, and others. The division of Germany into many little principalities may be the chief cause of the enormous number of published collections of songs for congregational use, since every petty sovereign liked to have in his dominion something exclusive, and the people liked it too. Thus, there is no hymn-book which is universally adopted in the Lutheran Church of Germany, and many publications of the kind are but poor compilations,—at any rate, as far as the music is concerned. The noble Chorale of the time of Luther has gradually lost, by tamperings with its harmony and its rhythmical flow, much of its original dignity and impressiveness. It has suffered especially by the objectionable interludes which the organists introduced, and still introduce, not only between the verses, but also at every line which terminates with a pause in the musical notation. These interludes, which not unfrequently are extempore effusions of the organist, may afford him an opportunity to display his skill in counterpoint, and perhaps his manual dexterity; but they are for this reason all the more out of place in a Chorale. Still, as they constitute one of the characteristics of certain congregational musical performances of the present day, some examples of them should be given in the work.
Likewise the notation of a Chorale with a figured bass should not be omitted. A considerable number of Chorale books containing only the tunes with the bass, the harmony produced by the tenor and alto being indicated by figures, have been published chiefly for the use of organists, who of course may be supposed to be familiar with thorough-bass. In the year 1730, Georg Philip Telemann, in Hamburg, published his 'Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch,' which contains 433 Chorales; the different readings of the same tune, in use at that time, are indicated by small notes, and the tunes have a figured bass, with some instruction at the end of the book for inexperienced thorough-bass players.
The Chorales of the Hussites are especially deserving of investigation. Luther appreciated them highly, and several of them were adopted by the Protestants at the time of the Reformation. The Enchiridion, anno 1524, which has already been mentioned in another place,[77] contains two from this source. The earliest published collections of the Chorales of the Hussites, in which the poetry is in the Czech language, are: Jona Husa, Cantional, 1564; Girjka Streyce, Chorales with Goudimel's harmony, 1593; D. K. Karlsperka, Chorales, 1618. Noteworthy are likewise the songs of the Hussites collected and published by K. J. Erben, Prague, 1847. Also the following in German: A Chorale book of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, edited by Michael Weiss, 1531. The same enlarged by Johann Horn, 1596. A Chorale book of the Herrnhut Brethren, edited by Christian Gregor, 1784. Gregor, who was organist as well as bishop in Herrnhut, is the inventor, or originator, of the peculiar construction of the organ generally adopted by his sect, in which the player is seated so as to face the congregation. His publication, which contains 467 Chorales with figured basses, was the first work of its kind printed for the Herrnhut Brethren, and constituted the musical portion of their song-book printed in 1778.
Turning to the sacred poetry of the Reformed Church in Switzerland and France, we find a famous collection of metrical psalms in French, written at the request of Calvin by Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze, to which tunes were composed or adapted, by Bourgeois, in 1547, and by Goudimel, in 1565. Some musical historians assert that Bourgeois and Goudimel derived their tunes from a German collection by Wilhelm Franck, published in Strassburg in the year 1545, so that their merit consists only in having set them in four-part harmony. It would certainly be desirable to have the tunes properly traced to their original source.
Several of these old Chorales were gradually adopted by various denominations in different countries. A collection with the poetry in the Czech tongue, edited by G. Streyce in 1593, which has already been alluded to, corresponds exactly with a French edition published in Paris in the year 1567, which bears the title 'Les CL. Pseaumes de David, mis en rime Francoise par Clément Marot et Théodore de Bèze,' and in which the syllables of the Solmisation are printed with the notation of the tunes. On Marot's poetry with Goudimel's music is also founded the German Cantional entitled 'Psalter des Königlichen Propheten David,' by Ambrosius Lobwasser, Leipzig, 1574, a publication which was highly thought of in Germany, Switzerland, and Holland, and which retained its popularity until the eighteenth century.