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[German Version] The Te Deum is a liturgical chant comprising 29 lines of prose; in the Middle Ages, it was ascribed initially to Ambrose and Augustine of Hippo, later to Nicetas of Remesiana, although his authorship is still disputed. In vv.1–10, the church and the hosts of heaven extol God the Father, with the Sanctus being quoted in vv. 5–6. Verses 11–13, a later addition, praise the Trinity. Verses 14–23 extol Christ’s sovereignty and work of redemption (vv. 22f. from Ps 28:9). The concluding se…

[German Version] (Nov 10, 1857, Philadelphia, PA – Jul 29, 1939, Hartford, CT), American musical scholar, church musician, teacher, and hymnologist. M.A. (1881) William College, Williamstown, MA, and ¶ Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Pratt was professor of ecclesiastical music and hymnology at Hartford Theological Seminary (1882–1925), while also teaching at the Institute of Musical Art, New York. He was president of the Music Teachers National Association (1906–1908) and of the International Musical Association (1911–1916). Among his books are The History of Music (…

[German Version] I. Terminology The German word Gottesdienst (“worship,” lit. “service of God”) is attested since the 13th/14th century as a German translation of Latin cultus (Cult/Worship). It came into common use in the 16th century, especially in Luther’s works. Starting with an ethical understanding of the word, Luther himself used it as a technical term for the common celebration of the Word of God, as it evolved from the evangelical reform of the Catholic sacrifice (IV) of the mass. For centuries the term Gottesdienst remained limited to this specific form of worship of …

[German Version] Singing schools were instructional gatherings in 18th- and 19th-century America for teaching musically untrained people note reading and group singing. These sessions characteristically employed “shape-notes” (Shape-note singing traditions). The first book used in such singing schools was An Introduction to the Art of Singing of Psalm-tunes (1721), based on a four-syllable (  fasola) solmization. Over time a system of seven note shapes prevailed, though most of the shape-note collections published throughout the 19th and into the 2…

[German Version] (Jan 31, 1797, Vienna – Nov 19, 1828, Vienna). Schubert’s work made enduring contributions to lieder, chamber and orchestral music, keyboard music, as well as to sacred music, including six Mass settings. His crowning achievement was in revolutionizing German lieder, about which Joseph v. Spaun declared him “unexcelled” – his hymn composition was superb in the ensemble of lyrical voicecommand, poetic text, and keyboard accompaniment, especially influenced by the idea of exposition and thematic development of the Vienna…

[German Version] The ordo (and its hymns), which is characteristic for the diocese of Milan, usually attributed to Ambrose of Milan, is one of the non-Roman western rites, which are collectively described as “Gallic family.” The influence of the Ambrosian liturgy spread to neighboring regions in Italy and to Bohemia. Nowadays it is …

[German Version] ( Jul 7, 1818, Chesterfield –Aug 16, 1888, London), printer and author of Methodist hymns (Methodists), biographies, and histories. He became the first director of the Philanthropic Institute and the Southwark House of Correction in 1846; from 1848 to 1855 he served as director of Lambeth Green School. He was the editor and proprietor of the Paternoster series in London (1855–1884), the Wesleyan Times (1861–1867), and the Union Review. He was also ¶ the author of The Methodist Hymn Book and Its Associ ates (1869, 21883), according to J. Julian the most complete p…

[German Version] chanted during the Good Friday liturgy, in which the crucified Christ pronounces reproaches (Lat. impropria) against the assembled congregation, identified with the people of God, for the injustices suffered in the Passion. The Reproaches go back to the lamentation of Christ and to corresponding passages in the Old Testament. In the medieval Roman Catholic tradition they were sung by two choirs during the Veneration of the Cross. They consist of twelve verses which ask questions about Christ’s …

[German Version] I. Musical Performance A musical performer is always an interpreter of a musical score or oral piece as well as a received manner of performing. Thus a musical performance involves knowledge of notation, the human voice or instruments used, and of specific techniques for realizing the possibilities of sound. Variability in tempo, dynamic level, phrasing, ¶ tone color (timbre) as well as improvisation permit considerable freedom in performance practices. In antiquity or in traditional cultures, musical forms are often within rituals involving commun…

[German Version] (Feb 8, 1832, Malmsheim, Württemberg, Germany – Aug 28, 1896, Samaden, Canton Graubünden, Switzerland) was a music editor and essayist, organist, and teacher in various German towns, and in Nice (1861–1866) and Samaden (1874–1890). He is best known for collecting and publishing Protestant Church music, notably the four-volume Encyklopädie der evangelischen Kirchenmusik (1888–1895) and editions including Musica sacra, Grabgesänge, Zionsharfe, the Choralbuch für evangelische Kirchenchöre, and Aus dem älteren Württembergischen Choralschatz. Don E. Salie…

[German Version] Jubilus, in Hilary of Poitiers and Augustine of Hippo (Commentary on the Psalms), is an extraliturgical improvised wordless song expressing pure joy of the soul. Amalarius of Metz extended this definition to textless note sequences ( longissimae melodiae) in the liturgical chants of the time. The term jubilus has been commonly used for the “ia” melisms in the Alleluia in the mass only since Martin Gerbert (1774). In the Middle Ages, in the repetition of the Alleluia antiphon the melism was extended and also provided …

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Liturgy I. Comparative Religion Individual cultures perceive colors and assign religious values to them in very different ways. A distinction is often made between colors and “non-colors”: white and black represent non-life (death, transitions in general), and are therefore regarded as the colors of mourning, but also of weddings and feasts, and this not only in Europe. Red is often associated with blood, and accordingly also with…

[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…

[German Version] (Jun 8, 1810, Zwickau – Jul 29, 1856, Endenich), prolific German composer and musical journalist, a major figure in musical Romanticism, with major contributions to piano, lieder, chamber music, as well as to symphonic and dramatic choral works. He was called by some a “herald of a new poetic age,” combining musical and literary sensibility in new ways in his compositional style. Schumann’s ability as an essayist and critic achieved some notoriety in his writing as a music critic between 1831 and 1844, wel…

[German Version] (Jan 27, 1839, Cornwall – Jan 22, 1913, Topcliffe, Yorkshire) was a British hymnologist, ordained as an Anglican priest (1867), and served parishes in northern England (canon in York, 1901). From his lifelong study of hymns he published Concerning Hymns (1874), various pamphlets, and his monumental Dictionary of Hymnology (1892, revised 1907), which he edited and to which he contributed major articles. Through subsequent editions it remains the standard reference work in English. Don E. Saliers Bibliography M. Frost, ed., Historical Companion to Hymns, Ancien…

[German Version] (Feb 25, 1894, Ahaus, Westphalia – Jul 27, 1984, Bonn) was professor of church history, Christian archaeology, and liturgical history at the University of Bonn. Klauser entered the Benedictine monastery of Gerleve in 1912, was ordained a priest in 1918, and served in the diocese of Paderborn. Klauser was promoted to professor in 1931, was not a member of the NSDAP, and became an ordinary in 1945. He was principal of the University of Bonn from 1948 to 1950. Klauser published numerous monographs as well as the Kleine Abendländische Liturgiegeschichte (1965; ET: A Short Hi…

[German Version] (Jan 11, 1867, Hjørring, Denmark – Nov 14, 1930, Lund, Sweden), organist, choirmaster, musicologist, and composer of sacred and secular choral and instrumental music. Nodermann received his Ph.D. at Lund University in 1911 and was awarded the royal medal Litteris et Artibus in 1923. Between 1903 and 1930 he was the organist and director of music for the cathedral of Lund. In 1911 he published Ny Svensk Koralbok with F. Wulff. Nodermann authored essays on church music and composed several operas: König Magnus (1898), Rokoko (1923), Gunnløgs Saga (1927), and a light opera P…

[German Version] 1. Franz Joseph (Mar 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria – May 31, 1809, Vienna) was an Austrian composer of great importance for the history of music, who strongly influenced the mellow classical style and the form of the symphony, the string quartet, and the piano sonata. In addition, he composed 14 masses (IV), six oratorios and secular songs, church songs, chamber music, as well as various instrumental works. He received his musical education from the age of six, attending the choir school…

[German Version] I. New Testament – II. Liturgy I. New Testament Zechariah's song (Luke 1:68–79), consisting of two parts: vv. 68–75 sing the praise of God's acts for his people in the form of a hymn, which is similar to the OT (Psalms) and early Jewish texts (1QM XIV, 4–7; Pss. Sol. 2.33–37); vv. 76–79 display an early form of the Hellenist genethliacon and predict John the Baptist as an eschatological mediator of salvation. Both parts may be of Jewish origin. L…

[German Version] Asian-American church music results from the exchange with Asian Christians from missionary churches who have been emigrating to the United States since the beginning of the late 19th century. Asian Christians represent a wide range of languages and cultures. Their church music reflects these differences in musical form, melodic line, and text…