A chorale was originally a hymn of the Lutheran church sung by the entire congregation. A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther In casual modern usage, the term also includes classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character.

Chorales tend to have simple and singable tunes, because they were originally intended to be sung by the congregation rather than a professional choir. They generally have rhyming words and are in a strophic form (with the same melody being used for different verses). In Music, strophic form (or chorus form) is a sectional and/or Additive way of structuring a piece of Music based on the Within a verse, most chorales follow the AAB pattern of melody that is known as the German Bar form. The Bar form is an old musical form in which each stanza follows the pattern AAB.

Martin Luther argued that worship should be conducted in German rather than Latin. Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer He thus saw an immediate need for a huge repertory of new chorales. He composed some chorale melodies himself, such as A Mighty Fortress. In Music, a melody (from Greek μελῳδία - melōidía, "singing chanting" also tune, voice, or " A Mighty Fortress Is Our God " (German Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott) is the best known of Martin Luther 's Hymns Luther wrote For other chorales he used Gregorian Chant melodies used in Catholic worship and fitted them with a new German text. History Gregorian chant was organized codified and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries with later additions A famous example is Christ lag in Todesbanden, which is based on the tune of the Catholic Easter Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes. Christ lag in Todesbanden ( Christ lay in death's bonds) BWV 4 is a Cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Victimae paschali laudes is a sequence prescribed for the Roman Catholic Mass of Easter Sunday.

Chorales were at first monophonic tunes (melody only). In Music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of Melody without accompanying Harmony. However, as early as 1524, Johann Walter published a book of these chorales arranged for four or five voice parts. Johann Walter (Blanckenmüller (1496 – 25 March, 1570) was a Lutheran composer and poet during the Reformation period

Today, many of the Lutheran chorales are familiar as hymns still used in Protestant churches, sung in four-voice harmony. In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously and chords actual or implied in Music. Often the harmonizations are taken from the final sections of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" The melodies of the chorales were only in a few instances composed by Bach; the large majority of melodies were based on chorales that were already familiar to his congregation.

Chorale tunes also appear in chorale preludes, pieces generally for organ designed to be played immediately before the chorale in worship. In music a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a Chorale tune as its basis The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each A chorale prelude includes the melody of the chorale, and adds other contrapuntal lines. In Music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and Rhythm, and interdependent in Harmony One of the first composers to write chorale preludes was Samuel Scheidt. Samuel Scheidt (baptized November 3 1587 &ndash March 24 1654 was a German Composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era Bach's many chorale preludes are the best-known examples of the form. Later composers of the chorale prelude include Johannes Brahms and Max Reger. Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger ( March 19 1873 &ndash May 11 1916) was a German Composer, conductor

Derived from his understanding of musical settings of liturgy and Bach's chorale preludes, the symphonies, masses and motets of Anton Bruckner make frequent use of the chorale as a compositional device, often in contrast to and combination with the fugue. A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions In music a chorale prelude is a short liturgical composition for organ using a Chorale tune as its basis Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 &ndash 11 October 1896 was an Austrian composer known primarily for his symphonies, masses, and Motets In Music, a fugue (ˈfjuːg is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred

Chorales have been the subject of many different musical treatments, most but not all from the German Baroque. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750. See chorale setting for a description and a list of all the different types of musical setting and transformation that this important liturgical form has undergone. A chorale setting is any of a very wide variety of musical compositions almost entirely of Protestant origin which use a Chorale as their basis

"Chorale" is also casually (though not strictly correctly) used as a synonym for choir—a group of singing voices. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers

References and further reading

• "Chorale", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. , 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, ed. Don Randel. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5

External links

• Chorale at the Classical Music Pages
• Chorale discussion by Bernard Greenberg in the J. S. Bach FAQ (archived copy)
• Complete sets of all four-part Bach chorale settings in MIDI or QuickTime format
• American Choral Music, 1870-1923, LoC