Deutsche Singmesse
Encyclopedia
The Deutsche Singmesse is a form of (Tridentine
) Low Mass
that developed in German
-speaking countries.
at Easter Masses is attested by medieval manuscripts dating as early as the twelfth century. The hymn Christ ist erstanden, translated from the Easter sequence
Victimae paschali laudes
, became very popular, sung with processions and also sung before the Gospel at Mass, in alternation with the Latin text. With the success of that translation, vernacular versions of other feast-day sequences followed.
In addition, vernacular adaptations of parts of the Ordinary of the Mass appeared as early as the 1260s, when a homily of Berthold of Regensburg describes a profession of faith which was sung after the Latin Credo
: "I believe in the Father, I believe in the Son of my Lady Saint Mary, and in the Holy Spirit, Kyrie eleison." By the time of the Council of Trent
, vernacular singing was so well-established that the emperor Ferdinand I
asked the Council in 1562 to preserve the existing practice and allow vernacular singing in the Mass. In 1581, a hymnal in Prague included metrical adaptations of the Kyrie
, Gloria
, Credo and the Lord's Prayer
.
era, especially in southern Germany
and in Austria
, in areas influenced by Josephinism
. Together with the Augustinian canon
and musician Norbert Hauner, the dean of the Herrenchiemsee
abbey, Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner published his book of songs and prayers Der heilige Gesang zum Gottesdienste in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Erster Theil, which presented the liturgy in the German language, at Landshut in 1777. In this book for the first time the service is conceived as a Singmesse, a form of Mass sung by the faithful. The still popular Advent hymn Tauet, Himmel, den Gerechten, for example, appears here as an offertory
song during the Sundays of Advent.
In 1795 Michael Haydn
reworked Hauner's melodic settings and created his own Deutsches vollständiges Hoch-Amt from them. This series of songs for the individual parts of the Mass (which were still spoken softly by the priest in Latin) is usually named for the first lines of the opening song Hier liegt vor deiner Majestät or simply designated as the Haydn Mass. The text reflects the spirit of the Enlightenment and, through the Singmesse, it has become part of German Catholic heritage. This second setting is the best known Singmesse and appears to this day in several regional editions of the 1975 Catholic songbook Gotteslob.
As a matter of liturgical history, the Singmesse varieties replaced the orchestral Masses previously used, which Kaiser Joseph II
had forbidden in his domain.
The most famous 19th-century Singmesse, the 1826 Deutsche Messe by Franz Schubert
, is based on Haydn's exemplar. Like his, it is not a setting of the classic Mass Ordinary, but instead offers German-language songs whose sensibility is freely related to the expressions in the Ordinary, and that express the feelings of the worshippers in Romantic style.
Other composers who wrote works in the form of the Singmesse include Leopold Mozart
and Franz Xaver Gruber.
and the Benedictines of Maria Laach Abbey
under Abbot Ildefons Herwegen, the Augustinian canon Pius Parsch
of Klosterneuburg Monastery celebrated so-called "Community Masses" (Gemeinschaftsmessen) in the Church of St. Gertrude (Klosterneuburg) in 1922, in which parts of the Mass were sung by the people in the German language. By this, he wanted to develop active participation by the worshippers and a sense of relationship with early Christianity. These celebrations amounted to the birth of the liturgical movement
in Austria and Germany. A groundbreaking event was the celebration of a Betsingmesse at the Vienna Catholic convention (Katholikentag) in 1933.
In the Betsingmesse parts of the Mass propers (the variable parts of the Mass) were presented in the form of German songs. German sung forms or songs were also developed or appointed for the Mass Ordinary. At the same time, the texts were spoken in Latin by the priest, just as before, so the two-track structure of the priestly and congregational action had not yet been overcome.
and with the introduction of vernacular liturgy in the celebration of the Missa cum populo.
The tradition of carrying out parts of the liturgy in the form of German songs that are not necessarily a German rendering of those parts of the liturgy: e.g., by a "Song at the Gloria
" or a "Song at the Sanctus
", however, has been retained in many parishes, even if it is regarded critically by liturgists and is not supported by the official documents as part of the modern Roman rite.
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
) Low Mass
Low Mass
Low Mass is a Tridentine Mass defined officially in the Code of Rubrics included in the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal as Mass in which the priest does not chant the parts that the rubrics assign to him...
that developed in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-speaking countries.
Historical precursors
In Austria, congregational singing of sacred texts in Old High GermanOld High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
at Easter Masses is attested by medieval manuscripts dating as early as the twelfth century. The hymn Christ ist erstanden, translated from the Easter sequence
Sequence (poetry)
A sequence is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Council of Trent there were sequences for many feasts in the Church's year.The sequence has always been sung...
Victimae paschali laudes
Victimae Paschali Laudes
Victimae paschali laudes is a sequence prescribed for the Roman Catholic Mass and liturgical Protestant Eucharists of Easter Sunday. It is usually attributed to the 11th century Wipo of Burgundy, chaplain to the German Emperor Conrad II, but has also been attributed to Notker Balbulus, Robert II of...
, became very popular, sung with processions and also sung before the Gospel at Mass, in alternation with the Latin text. With the success of that translation, vernacular versions of other feast-day sequences followed.
In addition, vernacular adaptations of parts of the Ordinary of the Mass appeared as early as the 1260s, when a homily of Berthold of Regensburg describes a profession of faith which was sung after the Latin Credo
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...
: "I believe in the Father, I believe in the Son of my Lady Saint Mary, and in the Holy Spirit, Kyrie eleison." By the time of the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
, vernacular singing was so well-established that the emperor Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
asked the Council in 1562 to preserve the existing practice and allow vernacular singing in the Mass. In 1581, a hymnal in Prague included metrical adaptations of the Kyrie
Kyrie
Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek κύριε , vocative case of κύριος , meaning "Lord", is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, which is also called the Kýrie, eléison ....
, Gloria
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn. The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.It is an example of the psalmi idiotici "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")...
, Credo and the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
.
Origin
The German Singmesse, in its classic form, originated in efforts toward a German-language celebration of the Mass during the EnlightenmentAge of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
era, especially in southern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, in areas influenced by Josephinism
Josephinism
Josephinism is the term used to describe the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor . During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy , he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state...
. Together with the Augustinian canon
Canons Regular
Canons Regular are members of certain bodies of Canons living in community under the Augustinian Rule , and sharing their property in common...
and musician Norbert Hauner, the dean of the Herrenchiemsee
Herrenchiemsee
Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on the Herreninsel, an island in the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, 60 km south east of Munich. Together with the neighbouring island of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel it forms the municipality of Chiemsee...
abbey, Franz Seraph von Kohlbrenner published his book of songs and prayers Der heilige Gesang zum Gottesdienste in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Erster Theil, which presented the liturgy in the German language, at Landshut in 1777. In this book for the first time the service is conceived as a Singmesse, a form of Mass sung by the faithful. The still popular Advent hymn Tauet, Himmel, den Gerechten, for example, appears here as an offertory
Offertory
The Offertory is the portion of a Eucharistic service when bread and wine are brought to the altar. The offertory exists in many liturgical Christian denominations, though the Eucharistic theology varies among celebrations conducted by these denominations....
song during the Sundays of Advent.
In 1795 Michael Haydn
Michael Haydn
Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.-Life:...
reworked Hauner's melodic settings and created his own Deutsches vollständiges Hoch-Amt from them. This series of songs for the individual parts of the Mass (which were still spoken softly by the priest in Latin) is usually named for the first lines of the opening song Hier liegt vor deiner Majestät or simply designated as the Haydn Mass. The text reflects the spirit of the Enlightenment and, through the Singmesse, it has become part of German Catholic heritage. This second setting is the best known Singmesse and appears to this day in several regional editions of the 1975 Catholic songbook Gotteslob.
As a matter of liturgical history, the Singmesse varieties replaced the orchestral Masses previously used, which Kaiser Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
had forbidden in his domain.
The most famous 19th-century Singmesse, the 1826 Deutsche Messe by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, is based on Haydn's exemplar. Like his, it is not a setting of the classic Mass Ordinary, but instead offers German-language songs whose sensibility is freely related to the expressions in the Ordinary, and that express the feelings of the worshippers in Romantic style.
Other composers who wrote works in the form of the Singmesse include Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
and Franz Xaver Gruber.
The Betsingmesse
Following the recommendations of Romano GuardiniRomano Guardini
Romano Guardini was a Catholic priest, author, and academic. He was one of the most important figures in Catholic intellectual life in 20th-century.- Life and work:...
and the Benedictines of Maria Laach Abbey
Maria Laach Abbey
Maria Laach Abbey is a Benedictine abbey situated on the southwestern shore of the Laacher See , near Andernach, in the Eifel region of the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. It is a member of the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation...
under Abbot Ildefons Herwegen, the Augustinian canon Pius Parsch
Pius Parsch
Pius Parsch, born John Bruno Parsch on May 18, 1884 in Neustift near Olmutz, Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He died on March 11, 1954 in Klosterneuburg. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He was given the name Pius when he entered the community of Canons Regular in...
of Klosterneuburg Monastery celebrated so-called "Community Masses" (Gemeinschaftsmessen) in the Church of St. Gertrude (Klosterneuburg) in 1922, in which parts of the Mass were sung by the people in the German language. By this, he wanted to develop active participation by the worshippers and a sense of relationship with early Christianity. These celebrations amounted to the birth of the liturgical movement
Liturgical Movement
The Liturgical Movement began as a movement of scholarship for the reform of worship within the Roman Catholic Church. It has grown over the last century and a half and has affected many other Christian Churches, including the Church of England and other Churches of the Anglican Communion, and some...
in Austria and Germany. A groundbreaking event was the celebration of a Betsingmesse at the Vienna Catholic convention (Katholikentag) in 1933.
In the Betsingmesse parts of the Mass propers (the variable parts of the Mass) were presented in the form of German songs. German sung forms or songs were also developed or appointed for the Mass Ordinary. At the same time, the texts were spoken in Latin by the priest, just as before, so the two-track structure of the priestly and congregational action had not yet been overcome.
Later developments
The Betsingmesse became obsolete with the liturgical reform introduced after the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
and with the introduction of vernacular liturgy in the celebration of the Missa cum populo.
The tradition of carrying out parts of the liturgy in the form of German songs that are not necessarily a German rendering of those parts of the liturgy: e.g., by a "Song at the Gloria
Gloria
-In Christian liturgy and music:*Gloria in Excelsis Deo, the main doxology or hymn of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Mass, and also known as the Great Doxology in the Eastern Orthodox Church...
" or a "Song at the Sanctus
Sanctus
The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
", however, has been retained in many parishes, even if it is regarded critically by liturgists and is not supported by the official documents as part of the modern Roman rite.
Additional Literature
- Adolf Adam/Rupert Berger: Pastoralliturgisches Handlexikon. Freiburg: Herder 1990, s.v. "Betsingmesse", pp. 61f
- Karl Eder: Auf dem Weg zur Teilnahme der Gemeinde am Gottesdienst: Bamberger Gebet- und Gesangbücher von 1575 bis 1824. St. Ottilien: EOS-Verl. 1993 (Dissertation: Theologische Reihe; Vol. 56, and: University of Bamberg, Thesis, 1992/93) ISBN 3-88096-446-7
- Barbara Krätschmer: "Die deutsche Singmesse der Aufklärung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Deutschen Hochämter von Johann Michael Haydn." In: Singende Kirche 33 (1986), p. 11–17
- Pius Parsch: Volksliturgie. Klosterneuburg 1940
- Pius Parsch: Klosterneuburger Betsingmesse. 9th edition, Wien-Klosterneuburg: Volksliturgischer Verlag 1940