Search

[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 …

[English Version] I. Musikalische P. bez. einerseits die Aufführung eines Instrumental- oder Gesangsstückes durch einen Interpreten, andererseits auch eine bestimmte anerkannte Aufführungspraxis. Zu den Voraussetzungen von musikalischer P. gehört daher die Kenntnis der Notation, der menschlichen Stimme und spezifischer Techniken zur Umsetzung von Klangmöglichkeiten. Variationen von Tempo, Dynamik, Phrasierung, Klangfarbe (Timbre), aber auch Improvisation gestatten eine beträchtliche Freiheit in der Aufführungspraxis, zumal die Notation vieles nicht festlegt. I…

[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] 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. 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] I. Old Testament – II. Early Judaism – III. Liturgy I. Old Testament The priestly Blessing, transmitted within the framework of the so-called Priestly Source (Pentateuch) in Num 6:23-26, which is also attested in some inscriptions (e.g. in Ketef Hinnom near Jerusalem), consist of traditional blessing formulae, linked together in three stair-stepped lines. …

[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] 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 …