Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

a
;
'
606 SONG
the Song-booka the aharp was never marked,
but undoubtedly always used.
Consideration has thus far been given to the
very important contiibutions of the Volkslied
to the determination of permanent form in
music ; but its influence on contemporary music
also requires notice.
It has already been shown that the composers
of other countries in the 14th, 15th, and 16th
centuries, took secular tunes as themes for their
masses, motets, and other sacred works. The
German composers did the same to a certain
extent, but they more commonly employed the
secular tunes in their secular polyphonic works.
Nevertheless, as regards Church music the Volkslied
occupied a higher place in Germany than
elsewhere ; for it is not too much to say that
more than half the melodies of the chorale-books
were originally folk-songs, and these melodies
were among tiie simplest and most beautiful
ever created. (See Chokale.) Heinrich von
Lauffenberg (or Loufenberg) in the 1 5th century
systematically set his sacred words to secular
tunes,! especially using the favourite Tage and
Wdchterliede/r ; but the Eeformation made the
practice verymuch more common. The Reformers
wished the congregation to join as much as
possible in the singing of hymns, and with that
object they naturally preferred words in the
vernacular, and melodies which were familiar
with the people.^ A well-known example of
the combination of sacred words and secular
melody is the song ' Isbruok, ich muss dich
lassen, ' set by Heinrich Isaak in four parts in
1475,3 yyith the melody in the upper part—
rare arrangement at that time. After the
Reformation this tune was adapted by Dr. Hesse
to the sacred words Welt, ' ich muss dich
lassen'; and in 1633 Paul Gerhardt wrote to
it the evening hymn Nun ruhen '
alle Walder,'
in which form it still remains a favourite in all
Lutheran churches.* After many transformations
the old love-song 'Mein Gmiith ist mir
verwirrt ^ ' now lives in one of the most beautiful
and solemn chorales of both the Lutheran and
Roman Catholic churches, namely Haupt
'
voU Blut und Wunden,' which Bach has introduced
so often in his Passion music according
to S. Matthew. Again Ebnt ' ich von hertzen
singen ' (one of the most famous of the many
Wdchterlieder and Tagewdsen melodies the
Church borrowed) was adapted to the chorale
1 Ambros, ill, S75,
2 Naumann [nut. of Mut. p. 454 et seg.) points out that Lnther
being both a practical and tbeoretlcal musician aaw clearly how
powerful a factor the Volkslied had become in tonal practice, and
in using it he insisted on the importance of the appropriateness of
the melody to the sacr^ words, and on correctness of accent.
3 Georg Forster, i. No. 38. The words are supposed to be by the
Emperor Maximilian I. in whose coiirt Isaak was llTlng.
4 See ISAAS. Also BOhme, '
Altd. Liederbuch,' p. 332, where the
song is given in its original form with a mclismo. Bdhme also
gives an interesting i-emark on the admiration Bach and Mozart
evinced for this song.
5 This aong is to be found in Hans Leo Haasler's Liutffarten neiter
teutscher Qeadnge, etc. , Nuremberg, 1601. The melody was also used
for a death-song
* HerzUch thut mich verlangen,' and later it was
set to the univeFsallyBung ' Beflel du deine Wege' (Handel employed
it in 1709, previous to Bach)..
'
Hilf Gott, das mir gellnge '
;
' Ich hort ein
frewlein klagen ' to Hilf ' Gott, wem soil ich
'
klagen ; '
Ueber Hans, versorg dein Gans
to ' lieber Gott, das dein Gebot' ; and 'Venus
du und dein Kind ' to Auf meinen lieben Gott.
'
Many dance -songs, especially the so-called
Evngel and Seigentanze, were likewise set to
sacred words.*
It is clear that the chorale gained rather
than lost by the adoption of secular melodies ;
they emancipated it from stiffness and formality
they gave it heart and living warmth. So far
removed from irreverence were the secular
melodies, and so appropriate to the sacred
text, that the music is generally more expressive
of the words in the Chorale than in the Volkslied.
But perhaps the true explanation of this
is, that in the case of the Chorale, the words
were either written expressly for a chosen
melody, or the melody was selected for its
appropriateness to particular words.^ The
melody of that just mentioned, Haupt voU
'
Blut und Wunden,' is obviously secular, but
what melody could better express a deep and
poignant religious sorrow ? In the Roman
Catholic Church the use of the Volkslied was
chiefly confined to the hymns to the Blessed
Virgin (Marienlieder) and to the Saints, and
to the Christmas Carols, especially the sacred
cradle-songs, such as the lovely 'Josef, lieber
Josef mein.' But upon the whole, the Roman
Catholic hymns are all conceived in the ' traditional
fixed cadence of the Gregorian song.'
The progress of polyphonic music in Germany
had been checked by the discontinuance of the
mass after the Reformation, but a new impetus
was given to it by the contrapuntal treatment
of the Volkslied by great composers. As
examples of such treatment may be mentioned
'Allein dein G'stalt,' 'Ach herzig's herz,' by
H. Finek
' ; Mir ist ein roth Goldfingerlein, ' by
L. Senfl
' ; Der Gutzgauch auf dem Zaune sass,'
by L. Lemlin. This brings us to the JSunstlied,
which in its primary sense signified only
the contrapuntal tifeatment of the song by
learned musicians.' With the polyphonic
Kunstlied we have here no concern, beyond
what just sufiices to point out the change
through which it successively passed, and the
important part the Volkslied held in it. The
composers who used the Volkslied thus were
masters of every form of counterpoint ; sometimes
they worked one melody with another,
as Arnold von Bruok, who combined the song
'
Es taget vor dem Walde ' with Kein ' Adler
in der Welt ' ; » or if they did not treat the
melody as a canon, as Eckel treated Ach
'
fl
See BShme, 'Altd. Liederbuch.' p. 368 et seg, BUhme gives a
list at p. SIO of secular melodies with sacred words.
^ The sacred Volkslieder IgeistUche VolkiUeder) differ from the
chorale in that the former were prlni»d on broadsheets and sung
by the people of every class, whereas the chorales were written for
and sung by the cultivated only.
B The very much wider significaticoi which the term Euntttied
afterwards acquired has been referred to at the outset of this
article. ^ Reissmann, Getch, A, deutgchen lAedes, p. 69.