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 SONGISH

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SONGISH

ern French cantique, which has taken the place of the traditional rehgious songs, is sentimental, quasi-mili- tary, and savours of the world, plainly showing the influence of the favourite French musical form, the opera.

On account of their total unfamiliarity with the Latin language, the Germanic races were prevented from participating in tlie liturgical chant introduced with Christianity itself l)y their Hrst missionaries. At most they joined in singing tlie Kyrie Eleison, and that in the form of a refrain. This primitive practice became so general that it survived long after songs in the vernacular had come into universal use. The lat- ter would frequently end with the above invocation, which was gradually abbreviated into "Kyrieleis". The songs or hymns in the \'ernacular were themselves called later on "Kyrieleis " and " Leisen " . The word "lay", which designates a vast song literature of a whole subsequent period, is derived from "Leisen". To wean their neophytes from pagan beliefs and prac- tices, the early missionaries were wont to make use of melodies familiar to the people, apply Christian texts to them, and turn them into effective means of instruc- tion. This practice soon led the naturally emotional and subjective race to give ^'ent to their growing re- ligious feelings in words and melodies of their own in- vention, so that as early as the latter part of the ninth century words in the vernacular were mixed with those of liturgical chants, the former forming a sort of glossary to the latter. From this time on there is a constant growth in songs of all kinds in honour of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the saints, inspired by the great feasts; songs called forth by national events, the Crusades, and, as elsewhere, processions and pilgrimages, many of them created and all of them fostered by the minnesingers and poets of the day. The texts in the vernacular and the melodies originated from the earliest days of Christianity up to the Reformation in Germanic countries; they were usually sung by the whole congregation, and belong to what is most sturdy and profound in sentiment and expression in this field. The fact that some L500 melodies, antedating the Reformation, have come down to us gives us some idea of the hold the religious song had upon the people. The Reformers, like the Arians of the fourth century, availed themselves of the love for song on the part of the people, and con- verted it into an insidious and powerful means for the dissemination of their erroneous doctrines. The im- petus thus given to singing exclusively in the vernacu- lar by the leaders of Protestantism was so widespread and powerful that it soon reacted upon those who re- mained loyal to the faith of their fathers. It resulted not only in the creation of a large number of new hymn books but also in the custom, which has not yet been rooted up in all places, of singing in German dur- ing liturgical services.

A number of influences have contributed to the de- generation of the hymn in the vernacular which reached its limit in the eighteenth century. The most potent factors in its decay were the growth of Rationalism affecting even those within the fold and the ever-increasing ascendancy of secular music, re- sulting in the seventeenth century in the abandon- ment of the Gregorian modes, upon which practically all hymn melodies had been modellefl, and the substi- tution of the modern keys, ^^■ith the revival of the Catholic spirit at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury came a n't urn to early ideals. Poets and musi- cians of the right stamp, both clerical and lay, in- spired by the spirit of the Church and later fostered by the powerful agency of the Saint Cecilia Society, have restored to the Catholic people of German- speaking countries a song literature in the vernacular tongue, which is as rich in variety as it is sturdy in its expression of faith. In France a vigorous effort is being made, as part of the Gregorian res-

toration, to reconstruct a sound and wholesome taste among the people by the republication and propaga- tion of proses, rhythmes, sequences, and other chants in honour of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the saints, or the church festivals, written in one or other of the Gregorian modes, and in vogue during the ages of simple and lively faith. Competent church mu- sicians and Gregorianists are successfully creating similar new melodies to standard texts. Their use is becoming widespread.

There is very little trace of the existence in early times in most English-speaking countries of religious songs in the vernacular. The missionaries sent from Rome in the sixth century introduced the hturgical chant into the British Isles and seem to have made but little effort to utihze any characteristicall}- national melodies already existing. Unlike their colleagues in regions across the Channel, the gleemen, harpers, and bards of old continued to cultivate chiefly the secular field, and their productions and activity had not much influence on the creation and development of a national religious song literature, nor does Celtic musical and poetical culture seem to have been directed into that channel, ^^'hile polyphonic music had attained a highly flourishing state before the sixteenth century, it was only at the time of the Reformation that sing- ing in the vernacular assumed greater importance in England. As in the other Protestant countries the song in the vernacular became a great factor in Brit- ish national worship. On account of most unpropi- tious conditions during .several hundred years Eng- hsh-speaking Catholics had created but very Uttle of any permanent value until, about the middle of the last century, a new era was inaugurated by rehgioua poets like Faber and Newman. Unfortunately their lyrics have as yet seldom found adequate musical in- terpretation. What is true of transatlantic Enghsh- speaking Catholics holds good in a greater degree in the United States of America. Partly on account of the scarcity of suitable and worthy hj-mns in the Eng- lish vernacular and partly on account of incompe- tency on the part of those who undertake to supply the deficiency, the taste of the people has been formed by trivial and superficial tunes, generally echoes of the opera, the shallow popular air, and even the drinking- song set to sentimental and often trivial texts. Of late years, however, several collections of hymns in the vernacular, indicating a return to what is best in re- ligious poetry and in popular sacred song, have come into existence and are gradually making their way into general use.

Weinmann, History 0/ Church Music (New York, 1910); BAUMKMi. /)(I^ :!fn(sche Kircheiilicd in seinen Sirigweisen (Frei- biiri.- KR, Ein/uhrunff in die gregorianischen Melo-

di' '' 1 ' ; TiERSOT, Melodies populaires des prov~

inr. :U frani^ais, etc. (Paris, 1894); Ddchebne,

Chr, - I London, 1903).

Joseph Otten.

Songish Indians. — A tribe of some importance for- merly holding the south coast of Vancouver Island, B. C, in the immediate vicinity of the present Vic- toria and now gathered upon small reseriations at Songhces, Cheerno (Beecher Island), Discoverj' Is- land, and Esquimau, within their former territory, and under the Cowichan agency. Their proper name is Lkungen, the other being a corruption of Stsangds, the name of a former principal di\ision. They are of Salishan linguistic stock and speak the same lan- guage as the Sanetch and Sooke of N'ancouver Island and the Czalam and Lummi of Wa.shington. From 1000 souls they have Wiisted away from small-pox and disea-tes induced by dissipation on tlu; first advent of llu' whiles about fifty years ago. In 1.S05 they still numbered 21.5, but by 1910 had decrea-'^ed to 171, and within another generation will probably cease to ex- ist. Although visited by several of the early voy- agers their first regular communication with the whites dates from the establishment of Fort Camo-