This article is about a Lutheran music genre. For the literary genre, see
Lutheran hymn. For other chorales, see
chorale.
A Lutheran chorale is a musical setting of a
Lutheran hymn, intended to be sung by a
congregation in a
German Protestant Church service. The typical
four-part setting of a chorale, in which the sopranos (and the congregation) sing the melody along with three lower voices, is known as a chorale harmonization.
Luther and his contemporaries referred to these vernacular hymns as geistliche Lieder (spiritual songs), Psalmen (psalms), christliche Lieder (Christian songs), and geistliche (or christliche) Gesänge or Kirchengesänge. The German word Choral, which was originally used to describe Latin plainchant melodies, was first applied to the Lutheran hymn only in the later sixteenth century.[1]
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) harmonised hundreds of chorales, typically used at the end of his cantatas and concluding scenes in his Passions. In his St Matthew Passion, he set five stanzas of "
O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" in four different ways. He also used hymns as the base for his cycle of
chorale cantatas and
chorale preludes. Bach concentrated on the chorales especially in the
Chorale cantatas of his second annual cycle, composed mostly in 1724/25.
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Chorales also appear in
chorale preludes, pieces generally for
organ originally designed to be played immediately before the congregational singing of the hymn, but developed into an autonomous genre by north-German composers of the middle and late 17th century, particularly Dieterich Buxtehude.[6] A chorale prelude includes the melody of the chorale, and adds
contrapuntal lines. One of the first composers to write chorale preludes was Samuel Scheidt. Bach's many chorale preludes are the best-known examples of the form. Later composers of the chorale prelude include Johannes Brahms, for example in his
Eleven Chorale Preludes, and Max Reger who composed many examples, including Wie schön leucht' uns der Morgenstern (based on
the hymn by Philipp Nicolai). In the 20th century, important contributions to the genre were made by Hugo Distler and Ernst Pepping.[6]
Other instrumental
Sofia Gubaidulina – Meditation über den Bach-Choral "Vor deinen Thron tret' ich hiermit", for harpsichord, two violins, viola, cello, and contrabass (1993)
Scholarship
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Scholarship regarding Lutheran chorales intensified from the 19th century.[citation needed]
Carl von Winterfeld
The musicologist
Carl von Winterfeld published three volumes of Der evangelische Kirchengesang und sein Verhältniss zur Kunst des Tonsatzes (
Evangelical church-song and its relation to the art of composition) from 1843 to 1847.[7]
Zahn's classification of chorale tunes
Johannes Zahn published Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder (the
tunes of the German Evangelical hymns) in six volumes from 1889 to 1893.[8]
Leaver, Robin A. 2001. "Luther, Martin". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Marshall, Robert L. 2001. "Chorale prelude". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Marshall, Robert L., and Robin A. Leaver. 2001. "Chorale". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Harten, Uwe. 1996. Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch. Salburg: Residenz Verlag.
ISBN3-7017-1030-9.
Winterfeld, Carl von[in German] (1843–1847). Der evangelische Kirchengesang und sein Verhältniss zur Kunst des Tonsatzes (in German). Vol. I–III. Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Härtel. Separate volumes at
Google Books:{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (
link)
Anon. 1980. "Chorale". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by
Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
ISBN1-56159-174-2.
Randel, Don Michael (ed.). 1986. The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, third edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
ISBN0-674-61525-5.
Randel, Don Michael (ed.). 2003. The Harvard Dictionary of Music, fourth edition. Cambridge: Belknap Press, for Harvard University Press.
ISBN978-0-674-011632.