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Sacred Nueio THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 156
zation is traced back to Gregory I.; cantus planus, " plain-song," in distinction from figured song; cantua choralis, because it is rendered in unison by the aggregate of singers present in the choir), or church song in the tone style of ancient music. The Evangelical church makes some use of the Gregorian song, as when it is used for the altar chanting in German churches, and when particular melodies are borrowed from it for congregational song; but its own distinctive ground form is the popular melody adapted to church use; the modern, harmoniously tuned and harmonically intelligible melodious hymn, or church hymn. Upon these basic forma are constructed the artistic forms of church music, which are proper to the particular church in so far as their expressed object is to adorn and idealize those basic forms by process of elaborated tonal art; but they are governed by their respective standards, the choral and the church hymn.
1. The Liturgical Side. a. The Choral Chant:
The authentic sources of the liturgical song of the
Roman Church are the official hymnaries brought
out under Popes Gregory XIII. and
1. The Paul V,, on the initiative of the Coun
Anthorined c0 of Trent, and on the basis of the
Roman revision undertaken by Giovanni
Hymnaries. Guidetti (1532-92); viz, the Diredo
rium chari (1582); the Anliphonarium, containing
the liturgical songs for the breviary (1610); the
Graduale, with the liturgical songs for the mass
(1614 and 1615); and the Hymnarium, which fol
lowed under Urban VIII. in 1644, after a revision
undertaken by Palestrina, Guidetti's teacher.
Their authentic edition, among the later ones, is
held to be that of Regensburg, 1872-1882. They
contain the "authentic and authorized form of
Gregorian song "; that is, that manner of song
" which the Roman Church uses," or has to use.
Whether the melodies thus pronounced to be
authentic are really those of the earlier time cor
rectly transmitted is a matter which, in spite of
careful investigations, may not at present be de
termined to a certainty (but see above, B, I., § 2).
The Gregorian choral, as distinguished from
modern melody, is conditioned in point of tune and
composition by the text, and is to be understood
in that light; being structurally monotonic, in
part mere musically graduated, stereotyped reci
tative, wherein the rise and fall of
2. The the vocal tone, the choice of inter
Chant. vals, the tonic measure, are determined
not with reference to grace or expression of the melody, but simply by the textual notation; in part, again, it is real song, melody representing a musical ensemble, and following, for that matter, a definite rule of construction according to the tonal mode, or key, to which it belongs, but conditioned in the composition by the verbal structure of the text. The peculiarity and significance of the melody-its musical character, in a word-inheres in the manner in which the tonal movement which the melody conveys progresses from the starting-point of the initial tone through the tonal intervals of the (diatonic) scale to the closing tone; and what in this case in-
terests the musical imagination is the feature of the tone graduations combined with singleness of effect by the melody as it glides along; and these in relation to one another, not in their relation to the basic triad of tonal values, as is the case in modern melody-in respect to their melodious juxtaposition and sequence, not in respect to their harmonic significance. This entirely corresponds to the antique theory of musical tones: Gregorian song is church song in the tone language of ancient (Greek and Roman) music. Its melodies belong to the diatonic scheme of tones; that is, they are invariably composed of the tones of the diatonic scales; these grouping themselves, in every instance, with two and three whole steps and two half-steps. Chromatic and enharmonic scales are quite debarred. The Gregorian song, in contrast with the secular music of the first Christian century, thus reflects the reform of music in the direction of noble simplicity, the reaction to classical style. The regulation and systematization of church song for the Roman and so for the entire Western Church is traditionally connected with the name of Gregory the Great (590-604); though to what extent rightly, leaves room for further elucidation.
b. The Evangelical Hymn: In contrast with the ancient melody of Gregorian song, the musical form of the church hymn, which constitutes the foundation, soul, and center of Evangelical church music,
is the modern, harmoniously definite 1. Devel- and harmonically consistent hymn oiled from tune: harmonically consistent, that the Folk- Song. is, the relation of the tones of theSong. melody to the basic tone, or more precisely, to the basic accord of the key to which the melody belongs, governed by the cardinal points of the tonic and dominant, and yielding a symmetrically coherent, rhythmically expressive, sonorously emotional fabric. It is the recognized musical form for the song of the congregation; for the choral prayer thereof in distinction from the choral (or liturgical) prayer of the priestly singers assembled in the choir, wherein the priestly Church has likewise its musical speech to utter. The Reformation did not create this musical form; it found the same at hand in the spiritual and secular folk-song, which had gradually wrested itself loose from the fetters of the ancient tone theory, and had developed, in the period from the thirteenth century to the fifteenth, into luxuriant blossoming. It is true, the Church of the Reformation, in order to obtain tunes for congregational singing, did not limit itself to the folk-song, but appropriated also some of the melodious treasure of Gregorian song. But what it borrowed from this for congregational singing was recast according to the folk-song pattern. Pe-
culiar, if not essential to the folk-song, is the so-called polyrhythm, by virtue of which in one and the same melody double and triple time interchange, thus producing rhythmical combinations which can only with difficulty be conveyed in modern measures.The early period of the Reformation had plenty to do in the way of adjusting for congregational use the tunes which it borrowed from Gregorian song,