Chorale
A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale:
- Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the themes in the Finale of Saint-Saëns's Third Symphony)
- Such tune with a harmonic accompaniment (e.g. chorale monody, chorales included in Schemellis Gesangbuch)
- Such a tune presented in a Bach's four-part chorales, or the chorale included in the second movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony)
- A more complex setting of a hymn(-like) tune (e.g. chorale fantasia form in Bach's Schübler Chorales, or a combination of compositional techniques in César Franck's Three Chorales )
The chorale originated when Martin Luther translated sacred songs into the vernacular language (German), contrary to the established practice of church music near the end of the first quarter of the 16th century. The first hymnals according to Luther's new method were published in 1524. Luther and his followers not only wrote metrical hymn lyrics, but also composed metrical musical settings for these texts. This music was partially based on established melodies of church hymns and known secular songs. In the 17th century the repertoire was enriched with more choral and organ settings of the chorale tunes. By the end of the century a four-part setting for SATB voices had become the standard for the choral settings, while the congregational singing of chorales was tending towards monody with an instrumental accompaniment. The prolific creation of new Lutheran chorale tunes ended around that time.
The
History
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In German, the word Choral may as well refer to Protestant congregational singing as to other forms of vocal (church) music, including Gregorian chant.[1] The English word which derived from this German term, that is chorale, however almost exclusively refers to the musical forms that originated in the German Reformation.[2]
16th century
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17th century
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The bulk of Lutheran hymn texts and chorale melodies was created before the end of the 17th century.[2]
18th century
In the early 18th century
Each of the Meiningen cantata librettos contained a single chorale-based movement, on which it ended. Composers of the first half of the 18th century, such as Bach,
- text consisting of one, or more exceptionally two, stanzas of a Lutheran hymn
- chorale tune sung by the highest voice
- homophonic text setting
- four-part harmony, for SATB vocalists
- colla parte instrumentation, including continuo
Around 400 of such settings by Bach are known, with the colla parte instrumentation surviving for more than half of them. They do not only appear as closing movements of church cantatas: they can appear in other places in cantatas, even, exceptionally, opening a cantata (
Vocal church music of this period also contained other types of chorale settings, the general format of which is indicated as
In the first half of the 18th century, chorales also appear in
19th century
Early in the 19th century
In the first half of the 19th century, chorale-like symphony finales were also composed by
In 1881
A chorale-like theme appears throughout the last movement of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony (1896):[7]
20th to 21st century
In his Fifth Symphony, the first version of which was composed 1901–1902, Gustav Mahler included a chorale near the end of Part I (2nd movement).[17] The chorale melody reappears in a transformed version in the last movement of the symphony (Part III, 5th movement).[17] Shortly after Mahler had completed the symphony, his wife Alma reproached him to have included a dreary church-like chorale in the work.[18] Mahler replied that Bruckner had included chorales in his symphonies, to which she replied "Der darf, du nicht!" (He [Bruckner] can do that, you shouldn't).[18] In her memoir, she continues that she then tried to convince her husband that his strength lay elsewhere than in the adoption of churchy chorales in his music.[18]
Busoni continued to compose Bach-inspired chorales in the 20th century, for instance including chorale subsections in his Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910s). Sports et divertissements, written by Erik Satie in 1914, opens with "Choral inappétissant" (unsavoury chorale), in which the composer put, according to his preface, everything he knew about tedium, and which he dedicated to all who disliked him.[19] As with much of Satie's music, it was written down without metre.
Igor Stravinsky included chorales in some of his compositions: among others, a "Little Chorale" and a "Great Chorale" in his L'Histoire du soldat (1918) and a chorale concluding his Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, rev. 1947).[20][21][22][23] "By the leeks of Babylon" is a chorale in The Seasonings, an oratorio which appeared on An Hysteric Return, a 1966 P. D. Q. Bach album.[24] Chorales appear in Olivier Messiaen's music, for instance in Un vitrail et des oiseaux (1986–1988) and La ville d'en haut (1989), two late works for piano and orchestra .[25][26][27]
Stand-alone orchestral chorales were adapted from works by Johann Sebastian Bach: for instance
Types
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Chorale melodies are often in Bar form, that is, consisting of a repeated first phrase, called Stollen, and a concluding second phrase. The harmonisation of such a chorale melody may repeat the same harmonisation for both passes of the Stollen, or may present a variant harmonisation on the second pass of the first phrase of the melody.
Vocal
Part song
Hymnals:
- Melody in tenor part, three- to five-part settings, e.g. Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn (Walter 1524)
- Four- to six-part settings, with thorough bass accompaniment, e.g. Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch(Vopelius 1682)
Collections, e.g. Bach's four-part chorale editions
Colla parte accompaniment, e.g. closing chorales of Bach-cantatas
Elaborate choral settings
Chorale fantasia, e.g. opening movement of St Matthew Passion (in English rather called Chorus than Chorale)
Monodic with instrumental accompaniment
Voice and continuo, e.g. Schemellis Gesangbuch (1736) – rather called Lied in German
Instrumental
In instrumental chorale settings, as well emulations of four-part homophony, as chorale fantasia type of approaches exist.
Originally Choralbearbeitung, i.e. setting of a pre-existing chorale melody
Organ
Chorale preludes, e.g. Erster Theil etlicher Choräle (Pachelbel), Clavier-Übung III (Bach)
Not based on pre-existing hymn tunes, e.g. César Franck's Trois chorals
Orchestra
In symphonies, e.g. Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Saint-Saëns, Mahler
Other
Chorales for solo piano are included in, for instance, Franck's Prélude, Choral et Fugue (1884), Satie's Sports et divertissements (1914, published c. 1923), and Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica (multiple versions, early 1910s). That last composition also exists in the composer's arrangement for two pianos (early 1920s).
References
- ^ Praßl 2001.
- ^ a b Parry & Martineau 1900.
- ^ Works 00820, 00847, 01277, 01280, 01283, 01298, 01299 and 01305 at Bach Digital website
- ^ Zager 2006, pp. 38ff..
- ^ Chorale Harmonisations, BWV 1-438, by Johann Sebastian Bach: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- ^ Will 2002, p. 219.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Horton 2013, p. 341.
- ^ Brown 2002, p. 674.
- ^ Schletterer 1886.
- ^ Leichtling 2009.
- ^ Finscher 2016, p. 107.
- ^ Harten 1996, p. 44–45.
- ^ van Zwol 2012, pp. 701–703.
- ^ Carragan, William. n.d. "Bruckner's Symphony No. 5: Timing Analysis"
- ^ Jopi Harri. St. Petersburg Court Chant and the Tradition of Eastern Slavic Church Singing. Finland: University of Turku (2011), p. 23–24
- ^ Zahn 1889–1893.
- ^ a b Roman 1981.
- ^ a b c Floros 1981, p. 3.
- ^ Satie 1914.
- ^ Smyth & Traut 2011.
- ^ Somfai 1972.
- ^ Perry 1993–1994.
- ^ Straus 1997.
- ^ Professor Peter Schickele* – An Hysteric Return P.D.Q. Bach At Carnegie Hall at Discogs. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- ^ Cheong 2010.
- ^ Dingle 1995.
- ^ Dingle 2013, p. xii.
- ^ Leopold Stokowski – Philadelphia Orchestra: Chronological Discography of Electrical Recordings 1925–1940, stokowski.org
- ^ "Bach Edition", musicweb-international.com, 1 December 2001
- ^ Teldec's 1999 Bach 2000 Box set, Limited Edition, amazon.com
- Hänssler Classic website: Archived 29 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine
Sources
- Brown, A. Peter (2002). The First Golden Age of the Viennese Symphony: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. ISBN 9780253334879.
- Cheong, Wai-Ling (October 2010). "Plainchants as Coloured Time in Messiaen's Couleurs de la Cité Céleste". S2CID 147597518.
- Dingle, Christopher (April 1995). "Charm and Simplicity: Messiaen's Final Works". S2CID 143822954.
- Dingle, Christopher (2013). Messiaen's Final Works. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0754606338.
- ISBN 9781134384181.
- Floros, Constantin (1981). "Zu Mahlers Fünfter Symphonie". Gustav Mahler: Symphonie No.5 (liner notes) (in German). Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Claudio Abbado. Hamburg: Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon. pp. 1–3. 427 254-2.
- Harten, Uwe. 1996. Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch. Salburg: Residenz Verlag. ISBN 3-7017-1030-9.
- Horton, Julian (2013). The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony. ISBN 9781107469709.
- Leichtling, Avrohom (2009). "Joseph Joachim Raff: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God), Overture to a drama of the Thirty Years War, op.127 (1854/rev.1865)". www.raff.org.
- A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan. p. 351, and Appendix pp. 588–590.
- Perry, Jeffrey (1993–1994). "A 'Requiem for the Requiem': On Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles". College Music Symposium. 33–34: 237–256.
- Praßl, Franz Karl (2001). "Choral". Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
- Roman, Zoltan (1981). Gustav Mahler: Symphonie No.5 (liner notes). Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Claudio Abbado. Hamburg: Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon. pp. 4–5. 427 254-2.
- Satie, Erik (15 May 1914). "Préface" and "Choral inappétissant". Sports et divertissements (composer's autograph).
- Schletterer, Hans Michael (1886). . Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. XXIII. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 598–607.
- Smyth, David H.; Traut, Don (2011). "Stravinsky's Sketches for the Great Chorale". Intégral. 25: 89–120.
- Somfai, László (1972). "Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920): Observations on Stravinsky's Organic Construction". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 14: 355–383.
- Straus, Joseph N. (Summer 1997). "Babbitt and Stravinsky under the Serial 'Regime'". JSTOR 833640.
- Will, Richard (2002). The Characteristic Symphony in the Age of Haydn and Beethoven. ISBN 9781139433754.
- Zager, Daniel (2006). Music and Theology: Essays in Honor of Robin A. Leaver. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9781461701514.
- Zahn, Johannes (1889–1893). Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder. Vol. I–VI. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann.
- van Zwol, Cornelis. 2012. Anton Bruckner 1824–1896: Leven en werken. Bussum: THOTH. ISBN 978-90-6868-590-9.
Further reading
- S2CID 145399155.
- Frisch, Walter (Fall 2001 – Spring 2002). "Reger's Bach and Historicist Modernism". S2CID 190709449.
- Rupprecht, Philip (April 2005). "Above and Beyond the Bass: Harmony and Texture in George Benjamin's Viola, Viola". S2CID 145777103.
External links
- Schemellis Gesangbuch BWV 439–507, djtascha.de: the 69 sacred songs of Schemellis Gesangbuch converted to four-part chorales.