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 HYMNODY

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HYMNODY

the fifty-second volume and will be completed in six more volumes and several indexes. This work, however, only lays the foundations for a history of hymnody, which had hitherto been practically non- existent. We have been and are still in an incompar- ably worse state in regard to the hymnotly of the Orient ; for the Syrian, Armenian, and Greek hymns, in spite of the meritorious work of Pitra, Zingerle, Bickell, Krumbacher, and others, remain for the mo.st part unpublished and even uninvestigated. For this reason also, only the broadest outlines of the origin and development of hymnody can be given at present, and we must expect many future corrections and many additions to the long list of hymn w-riters. The latest researches have already changed the whole aspect of the subject.

II. The Eakliest Beginnings of Hymnody. — To praise God in public worship through songs or hymns in the widest meaning of the word (see Hy.mn) is a custom which the primitive Christians brought with them from the Synagogue. B^or that reason the eccle- siastical songs of the Christians and the Jews in the first centuries after Christ are essentially similar. They consisted mainly of the psalms and the canticles of the Old and New "Testaments. The congregation (in contradistinction to the cantors) took part in the service, it seems, by intoning the responses or refrains, single acclamations, the Doxologies, the Alleluias, the Hosannas, the Trisagion, and particularly the Kyrie- Eleison, and so originated the Christian folk-song. Genuine hymns even in the broadest sense of the term were not yet to be met with. Even the four songs handed down to us through the "Constitutiones .4pos- toliciie " which were intended as hymns in the morning, in the evening, before meals, and at caniile light- ing, cannot be considered hymns. They are rather prayers which, in spite of the lyric tone and rhythmic quality evident in some passages, must be considered as songs in prose, similar to the Prefaces of the Mass, and which are mainly composed of extracts from the Scripture.

The first of these four interesting songs is the Morn- ing Hymn (iJ^i-os euir6s is its heading in the Codex Alexandrinus of the fifth century in London; and irpoaivxk i'^Siv-fi in the seventh book of the "Constitu- tiones Apostolicae"; we call it the " Hymnus Angeli- cus"): A6|a iv inj/la-rois flei? (Gloria in excelsis Deo). The first part of this song of praise was written before 150 A. D., and Saint Athanasius, after translating it into Latin, inserted the whole in the Western Liturgy (see Stimmen aus Maria- Laach, LXXIII, iv. 43 sqq.). The Evening Hymn: Alvetre, TraiSej, Kvpiov^ alpeiTe rb Brn/m Kvplov is the same as the "Gloria in excelsis " in a shorter form and with the first verse of Psalm cxii as introduction. The Hymn of Grace at meals begins: £1^X0777x69 el, KiJpte, 6 rp^tpojv p^ 4k ve6Tr)T6i p.ov, 6 SiSois Tpo^rji/ Trcto-a aapKl. These words show plainly their origin in the Holy Scriptures, and from them can be seen to what extent, if at all, they are ruled by rhythm and metre. The fourth song, the celebrated "Candle-light Hymn" beginning ^ws l\aphv which St. Basil describes as old in his day, is more rhythmical than the others. It is usually divided into twelve verses; these verses vary between five, six, eight, nine, ten and eleven syllables. This at most is the very beginning of what is termed a hymn in metrical language. The fact that in the fifth and later centuries these songs and prayers were called "hymns" is another instance of the error com- mitted in determining the origin of hjTnnody by de- ductions from passages in ancient writers where the expression vpvoi or hymnus occurs.

The earliest safe historical data we find in endeav- ouring to trace the origin belong to the fourth century. The writing of Christian hymns intended to be sung in Christian congregations was first undertaken to counteract the activity of the heretics. The Gnostics

Bar-Daisan, or Bardesanes, and his son Harmonius had incorporated their erroneous doctrine in beautiful hymns, and, as St. Ephraem the Syrian says, "clothed the pest of depravation in the garment of musical beauty". As these hymns became very popular an antidote was needed. This induced St. Ephraem (d. 373) to write Syrian hymns. His success inspired St. Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 3S9) to counteract the heresy of the Arians by Greek hjTnns. About the same time St. Ambrose (d. 397) composed Latin hymns although the productions of his forerunner in Latin hj-mnody, St. Hilary of Poitiers (d. 366), had been unsuccessful because they failed to please the popular taste. Thus the earliest known founders of hymnody in the East and West appear at the sarne period. Even before them Clement of Alexandria (d. about 21.5) had composed a subhme "song of praise to Christ the Redeemer " which begins with 1t6p.iov iriiXuv adauv, and at the end of the third century we had the glorious song of the virgins 'Avueei', wapdivoi, /SoTjs iyepahcKpos ^x"' of St. Methodius (d. about 311). But the latter song from the 'ZvpTrbaiov of the Bishop of Olympus is to be classed rather under Christian dramatic than lyric verse, while the song added to the 110150701765 of Clement is probably not by him, but is of an earlier date. Thus, to conclude from known facts, the writing of hymns proper begins towards the middle of the fourth century in the East and soon afterwards appears in the West. There are many points of contact between the two hjTnnodies; just as a certain influence was exerted by the SjTians on the Greeks and by both together on the Armenians in respect to the content and form of hymns, in like manner the East, particularly the half-Semitic, half- Greek Syrian Church influenced the development of Western Latin hymnody. But as to the extent of this influence, there is still much uncertainty and opinions consequently differ greatly. Most likely this influence is often over-estimated. At all events the East and West followed separate paths in hjTn- nody from the very beginning, and in spite of their common characteristics the outward form of the hjTnns w^as very different.

III. Metre of Christi.vn Hymnody. — By degrees Christian hymnody became more opposed in outward form to the ancient pagan verse. Nor was this a dis- advantage. Christian verse was intended specially for the congregation, for the people, who in those days took a much more active and important part in the Liturgy than is now the case. Christian hymnody is therefore originally and essentially a poetry of the people. The popular and primitive principle of poetic forms is the rhythmical principle; the rise and fall in the verse is governed, not by quantity of sylla- bles — which only the learned recognize — but by the natural accent "of the word. To this principle of rhythm or accentual principle the quantitative prin- ciple is directly opposed as the latter regards only the length of syllables without heeding the usual in- tonation of the word. The Kunst-Dichtung or arti- ficial verse used the latter principle, but not with lasting success. For the essence of language and the natural tendency of the people favour the accentual principle. The "Humanists and many of the learned for a long time regarded the rhythmical verse form with contempt; but this false prejudice has di.sap- peared. The decisive verdict of Krumbacher on Greek hymnody, which is of great importance for the right va"luation of Christian hymnody, is as follows: " None could reach the heart of the people with tones that found no echo in their living speech. The dan- ger that lurked here will not be under-estimated by the historian; for had there not been invented and re- ceived at the appointed time another artistic form of expression, the Greek nation would have lost forever the treasure of a true religious poetry. Thanks to this new form alone a sort of literature arose which in