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[German Version] (Jan 31, 1862, Billerbeck – Apr 8, 1932, Königstein), Jesuit hymnologist and liturgist. After graduating from Stella Matutina, the Jesuit gymnasium in Feldkirch (A) (1878), he entered the Jesuit order. From 1886 to 1897 he was professor of classical languages at Stella Matutina. While in Munich from 1903 to 1909, he engaged in extensive studies of Latin hymnology; in 1909 he became professor of liturgics at the Jesuit seminary of Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt. Besides many major and minor studies on theological and hymnological topics, his primary work is the edition of Ana…

[German Version] The term psalmody denotes the recital manner (cantillation) of the psalms and canticles of the Old and New Testaments (psalm tones). In its basic structure and function it resembles the reading tones and oration tones. Psalm tones follow the literary structure of the psalms and serve to make their acoustic quality clear (one verse consists of two half-verses: parallelismus membrorum). In the cantillation system of the Latin West, a psalm tone consists of three elements: recitation tone (tenor, tuba), intonation formula ( initium or reintonation at the start of …

[German Version] I. Phenomenology – II. History – III. Dogmatics – IV. Practical Theology – V. Ethics – VI. Orthodox Church – VII. Judaism – VIII. Art History – IX. Asia, Africa, Latin America I. Phenomenology The term liturgy has been used for Christian worship since the end of the 16th century; by the end of the 18th century, it had gained general acceptance. In secular usage, Gk λειτουργία/ leitourgía means work done in public service (from λαός/ laós, “people” [Laity] and ἔργον/ érgon, “work”); the LXX used it for the temple cult. It appears only 15 times in the N…

[German Version] Gregorian semiology (from Gk sēmeíon, “symbol, sign” and lógos, “meaning”) is the scholarly research required for an interpretation of Gregorian chant based on the performance practices recorded in the earliest notated manuscripts. In a culture of oral tradition, the purpose of representing the chants by lineless (adiastematic) neumes in the 10th and early 11th centuries was not primarily to record the melody but to convey broader interpretive instructions regarding rhetoric, rhythm, agog…

[German Version] I. Historical Development – II. The Roman Mass – III. The Mass and Protestant Worship – IV. Music I. Historical Development The roots of the mass go back to Jewish communal meals and New Testament accounts of Jesus' table fellowship (Eucharist/Communion) with his followers from different backgrounds, including sinners and outsiders. Finally his instruction to “do this in remembrance of me” points to future consummation beyond death. The structure of remembrance ( zakar) means more than just recollection; it brings the salvation wrought through Chr…

[German Version] Even after the establishment of the “Gregorian” chant (Gregorian chant) around the year 900, samples of Gallican chant were preserved by a tradition-conscious oral transmission, and later transcribed. This repertoire is found in the Gregorian Codices, intermixed with the new chants. Gallican chants entered the Roman-Frankish liturgy where no Roman parallels were available (e.g. Introitus “Omnes gentes” for the 13th week of the year). They also serve as alternatives to standard ¶ chants (Greek/Latin Cherubic Hymn [Cherubikon] as Offertorium on Trinitatis) or r…

[German Version] I. Liturgics A tract is a psalmodically structured solo chant before the Gospel; it replaces the Alleluia during Lent and on the Ember Days. The name derives either from tractim (sung continuously) or from tractus in the sense of “extended,” or as a translation of εἰρμός/ eirmós, in the sense of a melodic type. The tract was chanted by a cantor in directum, i.e. without a respond by the congregation – as an additional lection rather than as a response. It has often been suggested that the tract is among the earliest mass chants, a remnant of…

[German Version] (Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie, IAH). The IAH promotes and studies church singing (Singing: III). Church song, open forms of singing and the hymnal are the subjects of international, ecumenical, and interdisciplinary (theology, musicology, linguistics and literature, bibliography, folklore) scholarly study, primarily at conferences and through the promotion of hymnological projects (Hymnology) – often in cooperation with academic institutions – and also in rela…

[German Version] The reading tone is the model for musical recitation of liturgical lessons (cantillation). The speaking of lessons was unknown in the Early Church; recitation with “raised voice” denotes the special nature and standing of the Word of God and promotes better understanding. Elements of the reading tone are: recitation tone ( tenor); intonation; and¶ cadences ( flexa for short phrases, metrum for half-verse or long phrases, punctum for the end of the verse). These clarify the grammatical structure of a sentence acoustically, as also in the oration …

[German Version] I. Old Gallican Liturgy – II. New Gallican Liturgy I. Old Gallican Liturgy First attested in 416 in the letter of Pope Innocent I to Bishop Decentius of Gubbio, this liturgy was replaced by the Roman-Frankish rite after 750. It was employed throughout Gaul and in parts of Italy and had many local variants whose dissemination by and large conformed to the provincial division of the Roman Empire. Numerous influences from Spain, Syria, and Constantinople enriched its literature and theology. As…

[German Version] (Dec 22, 1858, Lucca – Nov 29, 1924, Brussels), was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father Michele as a church musician, but in 1880 he began studying with Amilcare Ponchielli in Milan and became an opera composer. Following his first operas, Le Villi, Edgar, and Manon Lescaut, he achieved international fame as a master of verismo with La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madame Butterfly (four versions, 1904–1906). After his “horse opera” La Fanciulla del West and the operetta La Rondine, Puccini wrote three one-acters: Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica (for women’s ¶ vo…

[German Version] is the English version of the Roman Catholic Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum (1972) for the admission of adults into the Church by catechumenate and initiation (baptism, confirmation, first communion), published in 1985 by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (subsequently dissolved by Rome). Franz Karl Praßl Bibliography The Rites of the Catholic Church, publ. International Committee on English in the Liturgy, vol. I, 1990.

[German Version] Outside the cycle of Easter and Christmas festivals, the Roman liturgy had three formulas, each depending on the date of Easter, for measuring six possible Sundays after Epiphany (Epiphany: V), and 23 for 28 possible Sundays after Pentecost. In the Middle Ages they were numbered both “after Pentecost” (until 1970, Cath. use) and “after Trinity” (Trinity Sunday, Protestant use). All these ordinary (“ferial”) Sundays had the liturgical color (II) green and could be displaced by high…

[German Version] I. Term and Genre – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Liturgical Studies I. Term and Genre The Greek word ὕμνος/ hýmnos, whose etymology is obscure, originally meant, quite unspecifically, simply “song” (the verb ὑμνεῖν/ hymneín, “ to sing”; cf. Hes. Theog. 11.33; Hom. Hym. 3.178, etc.). Yet, from the ¶ 5th/4th century bce at the latest, it meant “song for a god” (cf. Plato, Leges 700 b 1–2; Xenophanes 21 B 1.13 DK; Xenophon, Cyrupaideia 18.1.23) and thence became the general term for “religious song,” and finally for “festival song,” “song o…

[German Version] is the English version of the Roman Catholic Ordo Initiationis Puerorum qui aetatem catecheticam adepti sunt, published in 1985 by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy. This special section of the Rite for the Christian Initiation of Adults must not be confused with the rite of baptism for children. Franz Karl Praßl Bibliography The Rites of the Catholic Church, publ. International Committee on English in the Liturgy, vol. I, 1990.

[German Version] ( Officium tenebrarum) is the special form combining Matins and Lauds (Liturgy of the hours) on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Passion Week which was in use until 1970. One of the 15 candles burning on a special candelabra was extinguished after each psalm (three times three in Matins and five in Lauds) or after the Benedictus, so that the end of the service took place in tenebris, in the dark. In the Middle Ages, the Tenebrae had special concluding prayers and songs, including congregational hymns; according to the Roman use Ps 51(50), the Miserere, was sung again. …

[German Version] Neumes (from Gk νεῦμα/ neúma, “nod, sign”), first attested in the early 9th century, are the earliest forms of musical notation. Neumes represented all the sound for a single syllable, either a single pitch or a group of pitches; in the 11th century, neumes were set down in tabular form, along with their names. The original neumes were lineless (adiastematic, in campo aperto) and intended primarily to guide interpretation (rhythm, segmentation, dynamics, rhetoric, etc.) of a choral repertoire learned by rote. Neumed manuscripts were meant fo…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies In societies that must adapt and respond to an environment dominated by marked seasonal variations (Seasons), the rhythms of the year are fundamental to the economic and social life of the community. Each New Year festival reflects a specific social structure, which is characterized in turn by a specific perception and assessment of the natural environment. Therefore a phenomenological listing of the various religious elements of the festival does not do justice …

[German Version] I. Catholic – II. Orthodox I. Catholic 1. General Introduction and History The binding nature of its basic elements (Scripture reading, the breaking of bread [Eucharist/Communion]) notwithstanding, the liturgy was initially celebrated quite freely with improvised prayers by the presiding priest (Just. 1 Apol. 67). Later on, model texts (Hipp., Traditio Apostolica ) served as points of reference. From the 4th century onwards, the major ecclesiastical centers (Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, Jerusalem, Byzantium…

[German Version] I. Liturgy – II. Music I. Liturgy Historically, the German term Altargesang relates to texts that are sung only by the priest during the mass (celebrant's prayer), and in a broader sense to all sung parts of the liturgy that are led by a celebrant: collects, verses, litanies, Gospel and Epistle readings, responses between choir and congregation, blessings as well as the intoning of the Kyrie, the Gloria and the Creed. The churches of ¶ the Reformation added new compositions for the choir and the congregation. Luther's Deutsche Messe (1526) as a psalm or a hymn as I…