CHORALE, a term in music used by English writers to indi cate the hymn-tunes composed or adopted for use in church by the German reformers (Lat. Choralis). German writers, how ever, apply the terms "Choral" and "Chorale-geesang," as Luther himself would have applied them, to any solemn melody used in the church. It is thus the equivalent of canto fermo; and the German rhymed versions of the biblical and other ancient can ticles, such as the Magnificat and the Te Deum, are set to curious corruptions of the corresponding Gregorian tunes, which adapta tions the composers of classical German music called chorales with no more scruple than they applied the name to tunes of secular origin, German or foreign. The peculiarity of German chorale-music, however, is that its use, and consequently much of its invention, not only arose in connection with the Reforma tion, by which the liturgy of the church became "understanded of the people," but also that it belongs to a musical epoch in which symmetry of melody and rhythm was beginning to assume ar tistic importance. The growing sense of form shown by some of Luther's own tunes (e.g., Vom Himmel hock, da komm' ich her) soon advanced, especially in the tunes of Criiger, beyond any that was shown by folk-music ; and it provided a massive bulwark against the chaos that was threatening to swamp music on all sides at the beginning of the 17th century.
By Bach's time all the polyphonic instrumental and vocal art forms of the 18th century were mature; and though he loved to derive the design as well as the details of a large movement from the shape of the chorale tune on which it was based, he became quite independent of any aid from symmetry in the tune as raw material. The chorus of his cantata "Jesus nun sei gepreiset" is one of the most perfectly designed and quite the longest of move ments ever based upon a chorale-tune treated phrase by phrase. Yet the tune is one of the most intractable in the world, though its most unpromising portion is the basis of the most impressive feature in Bach's design (the slow middle section in triple time.) In recent times the great development of interest in folk-music, and the discovery of the unique importance of Bach's work, have combined to tempt writers on music to over-estimate the dis tinctness of the art-forms based upon the German chorale. There is really nothing in these art-forms which is not continuous with the universal practice of writing counterpoint on a canto fermo. Thus Handel in his Italian and English works wrote no entire chorale movements, yet what is the passage in the "Hallelujah" chorus from "the kingdom of this world" to the end, but a treatment of the second part of the chorale "Wachet auf"? Again, to return to the 16th century, what are the hymns of Palestrina but figured chorales? In what way, except in the lack of symmetry in the Gregorian phrasing, do they differ from the contemporary setting by Orlando di Lasso, also a Roman Catholic, of the German chorale "Vater under im Hirnmelreich"? In later times the use of German chorales, as in Mendelssohn's oratorios and organ-sonatas, has had rather the aspect of a revival than of a development ; though the technique and spirit of Brahms's posthumous organ chorale-preludes is thoroughly modern and vital.
One of the most important, and practically the earliest collec tion of "Chorales" is that made by Luther and Johann Walther (1496-1570), the "Enchiridion," published in 1524. Next in im portance we may place the Genevan Psalter (1st ed., Strasbourg, 1542, final edition 1562), which is now conclusively proved to be the work of Bourgeois. From this Sternhold and Hopkins bor rowed extensively (1562) . The psalter of C. Goudimel (Paris, 1565) is another among many prominent collections showing the steps towards congregational singing, i.e., the restriction to "note against-note" counterpoint (sc. plain harmony), and, in 12 cases, the assigning of the melody to the treble instead of to the tenor. The first hymn-book in which this latter step was acted on throughout is Osiander's "Geistliche Lieder . . . also gesetzt, das ein christliche Gemein durchaus mitsingen kann" (1586) . But many of the finest and most famous tunes are of much later origin than any such collections. Several (e.g., "Ich freue mich in dir") cannot be traced before Bach, and were very probably composed by him. (D. F. T.)