Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/662

 HYMNODY

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HYMNODY

This classification does not apply to the hjTnnody of the Orient (Syrian, Armenian, and Greek), but to the much more important Western or Latin hymnody. First, there are two great groups according to the purpose for which the hymn is intended. Either it is intended for pulilic, common, and official worship (the liturgy), or only for private devotion (although hymns of tlie latter group may be also used during the liturgical service). Accordingly, the whole Latin hymnody is cither liturgical or non- liturgical. Li- turgical hymnody is again divided into two groups. Either the hymn belongs to the sacrificial liturgy of the Ma.ss, and as such has its place in the official books of the Ma.ss-liturgy (the Missal or the Gradual), or the hymn belongs to the liturgy of canonical prayer and has its place accordingly in the Breviary or the Anti- phonary. In like manner the non-liturgical hymnody is of two kinds; either the hymn is intended for song or only for silent private devotion, meditation, and prayer. Both of these groups have again different subdivisions. In accordance with the above, there arise the following systematic tables:

I. Liturgical Hymnody. — A. Hymnody of the Breviary or the Antiphonary. — (1) Hymns in the Closer Sense of the Word (hymni). — These are the spiritual songs which are inserted in the horw canon- ic(E recited by the priest and are named after the different hours respectively: Hymni "ad Noc- turnas" (later "ad Matutinam"), "ad Matutinas Laudes" (later "ad Laudes"), "ad Primam", "ad Tertiam", "ad Sextam", "ad Nonam", "ad Ves- peras", "ad Completoriura". (2) Tropes of the Breviary {tropi antiphonales, verbclw, prosella). — These are poetical interpolations, or preliminary, complementary, or intercalatory ornamentation of a liturgical text of the Breviary, particularly of the response to the third, the sixth, and the ninth lesson. (3) Rhythmical Offices {histori(F rhythmicce or rhyth- matce). — These are offices in which not only the hymns, but all that is sung, with the single exception of the psalms and lessons, are composed in measured lan- guage (rhythmical, metrical, and later also rhymed verses).

B. Hymnody of the Missal or the Gradual. — (1) Sequences {segticntiw, proso"). — These are the artisti- cally constructed songs, consisting of strophe and counterstrophe, inserted in the Mass between the Epistle and the Gospel. (2) Tropes of the Mass {tropi graduaks). — During the Middle Ages, all those parts of the Mass which were not sung by the priest but by the choir, e. g. the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei (tropi ad ordinarium missir) also the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion (Iropi ad priiprium niis.'nirum) were provided with a rich set- ting of interpolation more even than the Breviary. These tropes (q. v.) came to be known as "Tropus ad Kyrie", "Tropus ad Gloria", etc. or "Troped Kyrie", "Troped Gloria", and so on. (3) Rhyth- mical or Metrical Masses (missie rythmatce). — We in- clude under this heading Masses in which the above mentioned parts (under B, 2) are either entirely or partly composed in metrical form. This form of poetry found very few devotees. (4) Processional Hymns (hymni ad proccsaionem) used during the pro- cession before and after Mass, and therefore having their place in the Missal or Gradual. They have nearly all a refrain.

II. Non-Liturgical Hitmnody. — A. Hymnody in- tended for Singing. — (1) Canticles (eantione.i), spir- itual songs which do not belong to the liturgy, but still were employed after an<I during the liturgy, without being incorporated, like the tropes, with it. They gave rise to the folk-songs, from which the canticles are differentiated by being written in eccle- siastical Latin and being sung by the official cantors, but not by the people. (2) Motets (muteti, motelli). — These are the artistic forerunners of the canticles

and nearly related to the tropes of the Mass, inasmuch as they grew out of the Gradual responses of the Mass as will be shown more fully in the article Hymnody AND Hymnology'. In general they may be defined as polyphonic church songs which were to be sung a cappella (without musical accompaniment).

B. Hymnody intinded for Silent Private Devotion. — The general name for these poems is in Latin rhythmi or pia dictamina. As they were intended for prayer and not for singing, they may be called rhyth- mical prayers (in Cierman Reimgebete). Among the various kinds of these poems are the following: — (1) Rhythmical psalters {psalteria rhythmica), that is, poems of 150 strophes, corresponding to the 150 Psalms, mostly treating of Christ or His Blessed Mother. Originally every single strophe treated of the psalm corresponding to it in number. (2) Rhythmical ro- .saries (rosaria rhythmica), similar poems, but which had only fifty strophes corresponding to the fifty "Hail Marys " of the Rosary. (3) Hours-Songs (officia parva); these were rhythmical prayers which supple- mented (for private meditation) each of the canonical hours with a strophe or a group of strophes. (4) Gloss- Songs, which paraphrased, extended, and explained each separate word of a popular prayer or a church antiphon (e. g. the Lord's Prayer, the "Hail Mary", the "Alma Redemptoris", and so on) by a separate strophe or, at least, a separate verse. The.se spiritual poems, of which about 30,000 are preserved and again rendered generally accessible by the great collection known as "Analecta hymnica medii a'vi", fall within the general acceptation of the word hymn. Sev- eral of the more important kinds are treated under separate articles, see Rhythmical Offices, and Sf,- QUENCES and Tropes. Their development and lofty meaning will be more fully treated under HymnodV

AND Hy'MNOLOGY.

Clemens Blume.

Hsonnody and H3Tnnology. — Hymnody, taken

from the (ireek i'/i>'<f)5'",nieans exactly "hymn song", but as the hymn-singer as well as the hymn-poet are in- cluded under vfii'^fdis, so we also include under hym- nody the hymna! verse or religious lyric. Hymnology is the science of hymnody or the historico-philological investigation and aesthetic estimation of hymns and hymn writers.

I. Preliminary Remarks. — Hymnology is still re- cent in its origin. Lentil lately the vast material of Latin hymnody lay buried for the most part in the manuscripts of the different libraries of Europe, not- withstanding the interest taken in .spreading among the people a knowledge and love of hymns, especially of Latin hymns, as early as the twelfth century; and despite the activity with which the subject has been investigated in England, France, and Germany since the middle of the last century. As the " Realencyclo- piidie fur protestantische Theologie" as.serts: "Re- search in regard to hymns, as in general concerning the Latin ecclesiastical poetry of the Middle Ages, has made as yet but little progress in spite of the studies so actively pursued during the nineteenth century. Although it may have been thought that the compila- tions of Neale, Mone, Daniel, and others had provided fairly complete materials for research, we have since learnt how incomplete in quantity and quality the hitherto known material was by the publication of the "Analecta Hvmnica", begun by the .Jesuit Father Dreves in IS.Sri, continued after ISOO with his fellow Jesuit Father Bhimc [and since 190G carried on by the latteraided by Rev. H.M. Bannister] Un- til this magnificent compilation is completed a com- prehensive description of the Latin hymnody of the Middle Ages will be impo.ssible; and even then it will first of all require a most minute and thorough exam- ination" (Op. cit., 3rd ed., s. v. " Kirchenlied", II). The " Analecta Hymnica " in the meantime has reached