Congregational Singing in Medieval Liturgy

In his book on Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism, Joseph Herl argues that, though Luther advocated congregational singing, the Lutheran liturgy remained a largely choral liturgy for the first generations after the Reformation. Along the way to making his case, he dispels some myths about the medieval mass.

Contrary to popular perceptions, Catholic worship was not monolithic: “The pre-Reformation church was marked by liturgical diversity. It was not until the Tridentine missal appeared in 1570 that uniformity in liturgy was imposed on the Catholic Church. Before that time, each diocese or religious order had its own liturgical books with their own texts, music, and rubrics. Often there were variations from city to city within a diocese and even between different churches in a single city. Cathedrals, court chapels, and collegiate churches (such as the All Saints Foundation in Wittenberg) frequently had their own versions of the liturgy” (23).

There were common elements: “All used the Roman Rite, the liturgy of nearly all western Europe. The overall shape of the mass and offices was the same. Sermons were widely held throughout the German-speaking region, and processions and pilgrimages were popular.” Differences were evidence in “the assignment of proper texts, the placement of certain variable elements (such as the sermon and congregational songs), the presence or absence of certain propers (such as the communion antiphon), the melodies used to carry liturgical texts, and the musical performance of the liturgy (for example, whether and in what way organs and choral polyphony were used)” (24).

Herl is especially interested in congregational and choral singing in the medieval church. Some German churches truncated or omitted parts of the “public sung mass, substituting paraphrases or unrelated texts in the vernacular.” These vernacular substitutes were sung by a choir. He quotes one scholar’s conclusion: “In the east as in the south, in the north as in the west of Germany around 1500 as well as before and after, in several churches German hymns and songs were indeed sung at high mass, both where there were no clerks and schoolboys (that is, in the country), but also even there where clergy were employed as singers in the choir, and in fact in various places: at the Gloria, during and after the Epistle, at the Sequence, before and after the sermon, at the Creed, at the Offertory, at the Preface, after the Elevation and at the Pater Noster” (24-25).

Herl admits that “It is difficult to determine the extent of congregational singing before the Reformation because, although German hymns are known from a large number of manuscripts and books, in many cases we cannot be sure if they were sung by the entire congregation or only by the choir or, indeed, in church at all.” Yet he points to evidence that there was congregational singing at some services in some areas: “There do exist throughout the German-speaking region books variously called Agenda, Breviarum, Directorium, Ordo, Liber Ordinarius, Ordinarium, Consuetudo, or Ritus from the twelfth century and later that contain references to German hymns, mostly incipits; these hymns, at least, we know were sung in church. . . only a very few sources unequivocally refer to singing by the assembly. Anthony Ruff cites instances from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries in which the people sang the Kyrie, Christ ist erstanden, and other songs. Johannes Janota cites a reference from the thirty-first sermon of Berthold of Regensburg (d. 1272) to the people singing a creedal paraphrase in the vernacular: ‘For thereafter follows what is called the Credo in unum; that is, the Creed. You begin thus and sing with common supplication: I believe in the Father, I believe in the Son of my lady Saint Mary and in the Holy Spirit; Lord, have mercy.’” Beginning in the early thirteenth century there are many references to vernacular songs sung before and after the sermon. The vernacular Christ ist erstanden was interpolated into the Easter sequence Victimae paschali and sung by the entire congregation, this practice being widespread. Other vernacular hymns were later interpolated between the lines of the Christmas and Pentecost sequences as well, and the Lutherans retained what was to them an ancient tradition of singing these sequences with their interpolations on the appropriate days” (27-28).

This is enough evidence to show that “congregational singing was practiced prior to Luther’s time,” though “it is still uncertain how widespread congregational singing was across the German-speaking region and how frequently churches where it was in use actually employed it” (28).