Religion and Music

(Latinized form of Heb. halleluyah: ‘praise God’; Gk. allēlouïa)

Chant of the Mass in the Western Church and of the Divine Liturgy in the Eastern Church.

James W. McKinnon

The alleluia of the Mass is a Proper chant sung during the Fore-Mass after the gradual (see Gradual) except on liturgical occasions associated with penitence and fasting (most notably during Lent), and on ones associated with sorrow (such as the Requiem Mass), when it may be replaced by the Tract. During Paschal Time, beginning with Low Sunday, the gradual is omitted and two alleluias are sung.

The alleluia is performed in a responsorial manner: first the word ‘alleluia’ is sung, concluding with an extended melismatic flourish – the Jubilus; then a verse (rarely, two or three verses) is chanted in a moderately elaborate setting; and finally the alleluia is repeated. Throughout much of the Middle Ages a cantor intoned the alleluia without its jubilus and the chorus answered with the entire alleluia; one or two cantors sang the verse and the chorus entered for the final word or two (usually concluding with a melisma echoing that of the jubilus); the chorus, finally, repeated the alleluia. Early sources fail to indicate such involvement by the chorus, but it might well be that the chorus performed at least the final repetition of the alleluia....

(Gk.: ‘chanted service’)

The urban or ‘cathedral’ Office of the Byzantine rite, performed at the Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In its complete form it is preserved in liturgical manuscripts copied between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The asmatikē akolouthia originally differed from the monastic Office celebrated in Palestine: the cathedral rite used music in the performance of its fixed psalms (psalms appropriate to the hour of the day) as well as responsorial chants and sung refrains; in monasteries, however, there was little or no singing, merely the verse by verse recitation of the complete Psalter throughout each week. (See Psalm §III 1..)

By the 11th century, the two traditions had gradually merged into a new, hybrid rite, although a strong element of the monastic ordo of Constantinople remained. Monasteries absorbed the fixed psalmody, ceremonial and the melodious chanting of the urban Office, while the presence of urban monks affected the shape of the cathedral rite. By ...

Baptists are an evangelical Christian denomination whose name is derived from the distinctive doctrine of believers' baptism, usually administered by means of total immersion. Traditional Baptist beliefs also include the authority of the Bible, the soul-competency of the individual believer, a symbolic interpretation of the Lord's Supper, and the autonomy of the local church (although churches have often joined together in voluntary associations and conventions). In most other doctrines Baptists are similar to other mainstream evangelical groups. From modest beginnings in the 17th century Baptists have grown into one of the world's largest evangelical Christian denominations; in 1994 their numbers were estimated at over 37 million worldwide (Wardin, 1995, p.8).

The earliest English Baptist churches grew out of 17th-century Separatism. In 1607 John Smyth, the pastor of a Separatist congregation at Gainsborough, led his flock to Amsterdam to avoid persecution. Smyth came under the influence of continental Anabaptist ideas and, in about ...

The various musical instruments mentioned in the Bible (Old and New Testaments). The nature and significance of the biblical instruments has been the subject of considerable discussion from the early Middle Ages onwards. The following article focusses on the meaning of the words as they appear in the original languages of the various biblical texts (Heb., Aramaic, Gk.), using archaeological evidence and other literary sources to establish as far as possible the identity of the individual terms; it also addresses the interpretation of other musical terminology in the Bible. (See also Jewish music, §II.)

References to particular biblical passages follow the Revised Standard Version and the abbreviation IAA is used for the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The controversy surrounding the identity and significance of the ‘biblical instruments’ derives from the complexity of the original source. Even the term itself is ambiguous, since it may denote the instruments of the period described by any given text of the Bible, those of the period and environment in which the written tradition originated, or those that have remained in the memory of society from a certain stage of the oral tradition. Furthermore, should a reference to an instrument be regarded as a theological symbol or a historical document? Must it be placed in the relevant context by archaeological finds before it may be regarded as concrete fact? It is possible to discuss the subject only if an interdisciplinary approach is adopted involving ‘new and processual archaeology’, recent studies of the Pentateuch, and modern archaeomusicology. Although the organological information provided by the biblical texts themselves is scanty, the social and symbolic context of the music can often be established quite precisely (see Kolari, ...

[cantus melodicus; melodía]

The practice of plainchant embellishment used at Toledo Cathedral in Spain between the 15th and 19th centuries. Traditionally attributed to St Eugenius (d 657), Archbishop of Toledo, cantus eugenianus was performed with the versicles and responsories of the Office, and the gradual and antiphons of the Mass on ferias, as well as during the Christmas Eve liturgies of the Songs of the Sibyl and the Shepherds. A prebend for a claustrero and maestro de melodía in charge of cantus eugenianus and responsible for teaching it to the seises (choirboys) was established in 1448. Notated examples written by the 18th-century maestro de melodía Gerónimo Romero de Avila are extant; they consist of simple melodic and rhythmic formulae of divisions of chant notes in duple metre (for ferias) and in triple metre (for feasts).

Saint of the early Christian Church, traditionally honoured as patroness of music. Until recently there seemed to be little reason for Cecilia’s long association with music as its patroness. Only fleetingly is music mentioned in her Acts, the Passio Caeciliae, a largely fictitious document composed about 500 ce; and not until very much later was she awarded a musical emblem in art. The mystery surrounding her musicality matches the mystery surrounding her person. Late in the 5th century she suddenly appears, among the most venerated of Roman saints, yet any firm evidence that she existed is lacking. Delehaye, who called the case ‘the most tangled question in Roman hagiography’, suggested that the legend developed when Christians who saw the tomb of a lady called Cecilia near the popes buried in the catacomb of St Callistus concluded that only a great martyr would have been interred in so hallowed a spot. Others (e.g. Josi), with considerable justification, think it improbable that an invented saint would have been listed in the Canon of the Mass, and insist on her historicity while admitting that nothing sure is known about her. More recent archeological work has shown Delehaye’s theory to be untenable, but has also further strengthened the evidence against the historicity of the legend....

The liturgical chant sung by the Churches of the Celtic-speaking peoples of the Middle Ages before they conformed to the unitas catholica of the Roman Church.

The liturgical practices observed in Christian worship by Celtic-speaking peoples were developed in monastic communities in Ireland, Scotland, Cumbria, Wales, Devon, Cornwall and Brittany. However, Celtic influence was also evident in certain areas controlled by the Anglo-Saxons, such as Northumbria, and extended to the Continent through the efforts of Irish missionaries during the 6th and 7th centuries. Chief among these last was St Columbanus (c543–615), founder of the monasteries of Luxeuil and Bobbio. His followers spread the customs of the Columbanian abbeys throughout centres in what are now France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Several of the most important sources for the early Celtic liturgy are associated with the Columbanian foundations in Gaul.

It is somewhat misleading to refer to ‘the Celtic Church’, since there was no single, uniform institution under central authority, and medieval Celtic-speaking Christians never considered themselves ‘Celtic’ in the sense of belonging to a national group, although an awareness of common purpose may be said to have existed for a brief period during the late 6th century and the early 7th. Nonetheless, the term serves as a useful way of classifying regional and cultural distinctiveness, by identifying what was essentially a network of monastic communities that shared a similar kind of structure and between whom there was regular, sometimes close, contact....

(from Lat. cento: ‘patchwork’)

Composition by the synthesis of pre-existing musical units. The term is modern, borrowed from poetry by Ferretti in 1934, and has been applied mainly to Gregorian and other chant. Some later studies have sought to expose weaknesses in the concept it represents.

Since the 19th century scholars have recognized the role played in some music by traditional aptness rather than originality; the notion of centonization has gradually grown out of this recognition. Gevaert (1881) wrote of ‘prototype melodies’ and ‘melodic schemes’ (type mélodique, schéma mélodique) which he claimed musicians in ancient Greece used to build up compositions, as did composers of Latin chant, and musicians in ancient and modern India. These ideas were developed by Peter Wagner (1921), who described the ‘wandering melismas’ of Gregorian chant: certain melodic formulae that recurred in different contexts in some of the oldest chants of the repertory, such as graduals. He attributed an archaic oriental origin to this formulaic procedure and, by contrast, saw a Latin ‘drive towards order and clarity’ in the ‘freely composed’ melodic repetition structure of the alleluias, in which formulaic structure scarcely occurs (Wagner, 417). He categorized the recurrent melismas in Gregorian graduals of the 2nd mode, and Frere similarly studied responsories of the 2nd mode....

[Cherubic Hymn]

The offertory chant in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy. Introduced into the liturgy in the 6th century by the Emperor Justin II, it is sung at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Faithful (after the Dismissal of the Catechumens) and accompanies the Great Entrance when the Holy Gifts are transferred in procession from the prosthēsis (table of ‘preparation’) to the altar. For ordinary use the text begins ‘Hoi ta cheroubim mystikōs’ (‘We who mystically represent the Cherubim’), but during Great Lent and Holy Week other texts are used: ‘Nyn hai dynameis tōn ouranōn’ (‘Now the powers of the heavens’) at the Liturgy of the Presanctified; ‘Tou deipnou sou tou mystikou’ (‘At thy mystical supper’) on Holy Thursday; and ‘Sigēsatō pasa sarx’ (‘Let all mortal flesh be silent’) on Holy Saturday.

The Cheroubikon was originally sung in simple style as an antiphon to prescribed psalm verses, but, like the Byzantine communion hymn (...

The musical practices and attitudes of Christians from Apostolic times to the mid-5th century ce. The definition of early Christian music is broader than that of formal ecclesiastical chant. It embraces not only the psalmody of the Mass and Office but also the great variety of hymnody, psalmody, declamation and acclamation employed by Christians in any number of settings from eucharistic gatherings to night-time vigils. It includes, moreover, the hymns of heretical groups, and, finally, the attitudes of Christians towards every aspect of music, whether it be their own liturgical song, the diverse manifestations of pagan music or the classical philosophy and theory of music.

The choice of the mid-5th century as the date by which to limit the following discussion of early Christian music is appropriate for two reasons. First, by this time the golden age of patristic literature in both East and West had come to an end; eminent figures such as...

The White Monks, or Cistercians, came into being at an important turning-point in the history of Western monasticism, when a wave of reform was sweeping across Europe. The founders of the order were a group of hermits living in the Forest of Colan in Burgundy. In 1075, under the leadership of St Robert, they settled at Molesme, where their way of life was similar to that of the Camaldolese. Although recruits flocked to the monastery, many of the monks grew dissatisfied with the lack of definition of the life. 21 of them, including some of the original hermits, finally left Molesme in 1098 to make a fresh start in Cîteaux, a remote and desolate spot south of Dijon. They chose a life of silence and seclusion in the exact observance of the Rule of St Benedict. To make this possible they dispensed with the embellishments that had gradually been added over the centuries. Simplicity and restraint in architecture and liturgy became the outward characteristics of the Cistercian tradition....

In the Western Christian Church, an order of monks in a congregation affiliated to the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy. An offshoot of the Benedictines, this order was distinguished in the Middle Ages for the care it lavished on the performance of the liturgy.

Cluny was founded by William III, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Auvergne, as a house of 12 monks directly under the protection of the pope; William placed it under the authority of Berno, abbot of Gigny and Baume, on 2 September 909. From this time until the mid-12th century, daughter Cluniac foundations were established, first in Burgundy and Auvergne, then in northern France and England, and finally in northern Italy and the Holy Roman Empire (see maps 47 and 48 in J. Martin: Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte, Freiburg, 1970, 2/1987). Most of these were near principal routes of communication, especially those leading to Santiago de Compostela. Five of the early abbots of Cluny were particularly responsible for the high reputation of the congregation, Odo (927–42; ...

(from Lat. communio)

The last of the Proper or variable chants of the Mass. The communion is described in the early 8th-century Ordo romanus I as an antiphon and psalm sung during the distribution of Communion. The psalm was sung to the same psalm tones as the introit (see Introit). By the 12th century most sources provide only the antiphon, indicating a curtailment of the earlier format that is most probably due to the decline of frequent Communion among the faithful.

The singing of a psalm during the distribution of Communion is attested by several 4th-century patristic authors. It could be said, then, that the communion chant is a particularly ancient item in the Mass Proper; but it might be more appropriate to think of it as a chant of the Mass Ordinary at this early period, because most sources specify the same psalm – Psalm xxxiii (Vulgate numbering). It appears to have been sung in its entirety by the lector or cantor with its appropriate verse 8, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’, serving as a congregational response. This proto-communion retained a central position in the medieval Byzantine liturgy, where it served as the regular ...

(from Lat. completus: ‘completed’)

One of the services of the Divine Office. Traditionally performed at the end of the day, Compline seems to have originated as a form of prayer before going to bed; this was once the purpose of Vespers, with which it shares common theological themes, but Compline was never as variable or as imposing as its earlier counterpart. Basil the Great (d 379) mentioned a form of Compline, perhaps still very rudimentary, in his so-called Longer Rules. Both he and the monastic rule written for Arles by St Aurelian (bishop 546–51) referred to the singing of Psalm xc (Vulgate numbering) during the Office. Two very early Western sources, the Ordo monasterii attributed to Alypius of Thegaste and the Institutiones of John Cassian, imply the singing of fixed psalms. It is perhaps because of this long-established tradition that the Rule of St Benedict (c530) excludes the service from its regular course of psalms....

A tradition of monophonic sacred music peculiar to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt (for music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, also called ‘Coptic’,see Ethiopia, §II). Except for a few pieces that, on special occasions, are performed with a vigorous percussion accompaniment, the music is sung unaccompanied, solely by men. The texts of the chants are Coptic, with passages of Arabic interspersed according to local taste and need. Where Copts have emigrated to other lands, parts of the rite may now be sung in French, German or English; such linguistic changes, however, have had little effect on the music.

The term ‘Copt’ (Arabic qib ṭ), now synonymous with ‘Egyptian Christian’, derives from the Greek Aigyptos (‘Egypt’), which is itself derived from the Egyptian ‘Ptaḥ’’, the name for an important deity of Pharaonic Egypt. The Coptic language is the latest stage in the development of Ancient Egyptian, which, during Ptolemaic times, was written in the Greek alphabet with seven additional characters from the demotic (Egyptian) script. Coptic has also borrowed many words and phrases from Greek, which was the original language of the rite. There are two main dialects – Sahidic for Upper Egypt and Bohairic for Lower Egypt; the latter has become the dialect now used in all Coptic rites and in the authorized version of the Coptic Bible....