Musicology 314, 15 March 2023

Handout 3b: Sacred music in the churches of Europe

 By the 17th century, European religious life was more diverse than at any time since
the dawn of the Christian era. The Lutheran Reformation had ended centuries of
Catholic monopoly on Christian worship, and various newer denominations
branched off from these two. We will focus on the music of the two largest
denominations of the time, looking specifically at vocal music.
The Catholic Church — mass, concerto, and oratorio

 The immediate response of the Catholic church to the Reformation, throughout the
16th century, was to reinforce its traditions, rather than innovate. In musical terms,
this meant a continuation of the chant and polyphonic vocal music that had
characterised Catholic sacred music during its era of total supremacy.
 Plainchant was the most commonly heard music in Catholic churches. Its history by
this time went back nearly a millennium, and numerous chant formulae were well
established. The style of chant had not really changed over the ages.
The mass

 The largest Catholic musical “genre” was the mass. The Mass service was the core of
formal worship, and followed a structure that, like plainchant, had been around for
several hundred years with little variation. The 17 th- and 18th-century Mass contained
at least 20 distinct components. These were divided into the Mass Ordinary, which
remained invariant, and the Mass Proper, in which items could change to suit feasts
or other celebrations in the liturgical calendar.
 During the Renaissance, it had become popular for composers to set the five
principal elements of the Mass Ordinary to music in a cycle, often just called a mass.
These five components are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. This
tradition continued into the Baroque era, with composers setting mass cycles in the
new musical style.
 The mass was popular and venerable, but it was old news in the Baroque. New forms
of Catholic sacred music were emerging, in line with the aims and methods of the
Counter-Reformation in the 17th century. The new musical style adopted in service of
these aims was termed the stile moderno, and incorporated dramatic flair and
rhetorical techniques. The older stile antico, based on Palestrina’s polyphonic style,
stuck around and was taught to students of composition. The older style developed
somewhat, with the church modes being replaced by major-minor tonality. This style
was formally recorded by Johann Joseph Fux in 1725 in his treatise Gradus ad
Parnassum, which remained a core counterpoint textbook well into the 20th century.
 We will listen to an example of a mass movement from the 16 th and 18th centuries to
hear the difference in settings. These are the Kyries from Missa Papae Marcelli by
Palestrina (c. 1562) and Missa Sanctae Caeciliae by Zelenka (c. 1711).
The sacred concerto

 Vocal works in concerted style (stile concertato; with instrumental accompaniment)

were developed to a great extent during the Baroque. These were collectively
termed concerti, but this was not a genre in itself — we will see this develop soon.
This was a style more than a genre, and included masses, vespers, and psalm
settings. Concerti could be large, utilising multiple choirs, or much smaller, with one
or two singers accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble.
o Large-scale example: Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1557 – 1612), In Ecclesiis (1608).
Polychoral, in four groups: soloists (CATB), chorus (AATB), instrumental group
(three cornetts), instrumental group (violin, tenor trombone, bass trombone).
Listen out for plagal cadences, chorus singing alleluia refrain, complex
dissonance, imitative polyphony, instrumental canzonas, modern aria style.
 Gabrieli was a notable figure of the late Renaissance and early
Baroque, whose style also served in bridging this transition. He had
quite a pedigree: he inherited a music style through studies with his
uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, who had in turn inherited the style of Adrian
Willaert. Giovanni Gabrieli also studied with Orlando de Lassus. He
worked at St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice as organist and principal
composer (immediately before Monteverdi). He was instrumental in
the development of the concertato style.
o Small-scale example: Alessandro Grandi (1586 – 1630), O quam tu pulchra es
(1625). Recitative and aria style interchange. Voice and continuo. Use of
triple metre in sections where the text denotes action.
The oratorio

 The oratorio was an invention of the Baroque, originating in Rome. It was built upon
a long-standing tradition of sacred music from a context outside of the church. An
example of this is the polyphonic lauda, which was a hugely popular genre in Italy
from the Middle Ages through the 19th century.
 The Italian word oratorio denotes a prayer hall used by lay gatherings for musical-
religious purposes.
 The oratorio was in some ways very similar to opera. Recitatives and arias
intermingled to advance the plot and provide moments of aesthetic contemplation,
emotionally heightened dialogues were set as duets, and instruments played
preludes and ritornelli.
 There were many ways, however, in which the two genres were different. Oratorios
had religious plots, where operas tended to be based on mythical, historical, and
allegorical themes. Where staging was central in opera, it was practically non-
existent in oratorios. In opera, the drama spoke for itself; in oratorios, a narrator was
often used to replace the storytelling power of staging and acting.
 There were two types of oratorios in the Catholic tradition, one set in Italian and one
in Latin. The Italian type was essentially an advertising tool for the church. Being in
the vernacular, it was accessible, and was used to promote the faith to the lay
 people. The church was dubious about the morality of opera, and oratorio
represented a more appropriate alternative. Many of the Italian oratorios have been
lost — they were very much utilitarian music, created for a social purpose and not
preserved once their purpose had been served.
 The Latin oratorio served an entirely different function to the Italian. It was
presented in private venues, with attendance by invitation, predominantly for the
higher members of the church. These productions could be extravagant, paralleling
the early contexts of opera in aristocratic courts. Latin oratorios were generally well-
preserved.
o Example: Giacomo Carissimi (1605 – 1674), Jephte (c. 1648). Recitative and
arioso. Soloists portray the main characters, chorus takes up the roles of
other characters, mainly commenting on the action. Sounds very much like
early operas.
Lutheran music — concerto and chorale

 While Catholic music thrived in Italy, the German-speaking lands were developing
the musical tradition of the Lutheran church. Many genres were shared between the
two churches, but each had its distinctive musical practices as well.
 The Lutheran sacred concerto was similar to the Catholic. Its most famous proponent
was Heinrich Schütz (1585 – 1672). Schütz studied with Gabrieli in Venice, and
brought a strong Italian influence into his music. He also had contact with
Monteverdi, and assimilated some elements of his style.
o Schütz is also credited with writing the first German opera, Dafne (1627).
 Schütz brought into the Lutheran tradition both the small- and large-scale sacred
concerti of the Italian style. One of the largest (though still short in length) is Saul,
was verfolgst du mich (1650), which calls for two choirs and instruments doubling
them, six solo singers, two violins, and continuo. His polychoral techniques are
derived from Gabrieli and combined with the rhetorical use of dissonance he learned
from Monteverdi. In Saul, Schütz sets the scene of Saul being accosted by the voice
of Christ, accompanied by a blinding flash of light. The drama and power of the
moment are expertly captured in the music.
The chorale

 The musical genre most typically associated with the Lutheran church is the chorale.
Chorales were the very first music of the Lutheran church — some were written by
Martin Luther himself. The earliest chorales were simple melodies sung in unison by
the congregation. These were gradually harmonised and brought into multi-part
settings, leading to the style taken up by J. S. Bach. Polyphonic motets based on
chorale melodies were also common in the Baroque.
 Johann Crüger (1598 – 1662) published a notable collection of chorale melodies in
1647. To the previous tradition of a single melody in unison, Crüger added figured
bass, setting the scene for later multi-part developments. He added accidentals to
 the older melodies, which had been modal, updating them to fit the new harmonic
style. He also set chorale melodies in concertato style.
 More expansive settings of chorale melodies in concerted style were frequent. An
example is Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme by Dietrich Buxtehude (c. 1637 – 1707).
This is essentially a series of variations on the chorale theme. Each stanza is set in a
slightly different style, based on the same tune (the relation to the original melody is
often quite distant).
 J. S. Bach’s chorale harmonisations are taught today as the foundation of four-part
harmony. They are not the most interesting portion of Bach’s output, but they are
numerous — around 400 in total. Around half were written as part of larger works,
such as passions, cantatas, and oratorios. Bach treated the original melodies to an
SATB orchestration, with the melody retained in the soprano part and supported
homophonically.
 Both the Catholic and Lutheran musical traditions adapted to incorporate the new
musical style in the 17th century, while keeping some of their older musical idioms as
well. The sacred music used in church services filtered out into other genres: most
notably, chorale melodies were used extensively in instrumental music.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

Burkholder, J.P., Grout, D.J., and Palisca, C.V. 2014. A History of Western Music. 9th
edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Dyer, J. 2001. Roman Catholic church music, in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online
[Electronic]. Available:
https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.ez.sun.ac.za/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046758?
rskey=7IZoDU&result=1#omo-9781561592630-e-0000046758-div1-0000046758.3 [2013,
March 7].

Leaver, R.A. 2001. Lutheran church music, in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online
[Electronic]. Available:
https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.ez.sun.ac.za/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/
9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000046760?rskey=NdrO9R&result=1
[2013, March 7].