(from Lat. cantio: ‘song’; Cz. kancionál; Ger. Cantional, Kantional).
A collection of sacred songs; a hymnbook, especially in central Europe.
JIŘÍ SEHNAL (1), WERNER BRAUN (2)
The word ‘kancionál’ (pl. kancionály) arose in Czech in the early 16th century as a name for a book of sacred songs. In the course of time it replaced the older Czech term ‘písně’ (‘songs’), which was too broad. For those of non-Catholic denominations the kancionál was a liturgical book; for Catholics who used Latin and plainsong during the church service it was a non-liturgical book, which contained liturgical elements only in exceptional cases. Since the kancionál was designed above all for laymen it was made up mainly of Czech strophic songs, and the presence of compositions of any other type (plainsong, or its translation into Czech and polyphonic compositions) was not a decisive factor. It is a characteristic of every kancionál, however, that at least part of its contents was made up of songs designed to be sung by the whole congregation. Several music manuscripts of the 15th century were later referred to as kancionály because they also contained, among other things, Czech spiritual songs and could not be fitted into any other category of liturgical book. The Vyšebrodský sborník (Vyšebrod anthology) from the early 15th century or the Hussite Jistebnický kancionál (Jistebuice songbook) from the mid-15th century belong to this type of kancionál.
The tradition of folk spiritual song in Bohemia is much older than the kancionál. In 1406 the Prague synod granted official permission for the singing of four old Czech hymns of which one, Hospodine, pomiluj ny (‘O Lord, have mercy on us’), was sung publicly as early as the mid-11th century. During the Hussite period congregational singing became of prime importance in Czech liturgy, creating a basis for the development of Czech spiritual songs and for the origin of the kancionál. From the 15th century it became a basic element in the liturgy of Bohemian nonconformist churches; it was adopted also in Catholic churches from the 17th century.
The heritage of Hussite song was adopted above all by the Union of Bohemian Brethren, which originated in the second half of the 15th century from a radical Hussite wing, and by the Utraquist Church, which professed more peaceful Hussite tendencies and was closer liturgically to the Catholic Church. In the Hussite period hymn melodies and texts were written in about equal numbers, but by the second half of the 15th century more texts than melodies were being produced. A consequence of the overproduction of texts was the easing of the semantic dependence of the melody on the text, which subsequently became characteristic of Czech sacred song. From the end of the 15th century new texts were usually sung to the melodies of older or other generally known songs; usually the heading of such a song in a kancionál would include the direction ‘sung like…’. A special form of this practice was the ‘common tune’, a term used to distinguish every melody suitable for texts of four eight-syllable lines. A song which had its own tune usually bore a note to that effect in its heading. Because musical notation was replaced by references to tunes, many kancionály were published without music. In spite of acute dogmatic differences between various denominations, where music was concerned there was a certain amount of tolerance among churches, and many of the tunes were shared by them. The melodic fund of most non-Catholic kancionály in the 16th century was taken from Gregorian chant and Hussite songs; a considerable number were also taken from Latin cantiones (sacred songs, the composition of which was particularly rich in 15th-century Bohemia) and Czech folksong. From the mid-16th century the influence of German Protestant songs also became apparent in kancionály among Czech Brethren, and still more so among Czech Lutherans along the northern border regions of Moravia and Slovakia.
The real development of kancionály in Bohemia followed the invention of printing. The oldest Czech printed kancionál was published in Prague in 1501 and contained 88 song texts. Manuscript kancionály co-existed with printed ones until the beginning of the 19th century, although from the 18th century they were generally copies of printed ones. The most zealous publishers of hymnbooks in the 16th century were the Czech Brethren. Their hymnbooks were painstakingly prepared, not only in dogmatic and linguistic aspects but also musically, typographically and visually. The earliest Brethren publications of the kancionál (1505, 1519) have not survived and can be documented only bibliographically. Only a German translation of the Brethren's kancionál has survived (Ein new Geseng Buchlen), published by Michael Weiss (Mladá Boleslav, 1531) for the German members of the sect. Weiss's kancionál was the largest printed hymnbook to have appeared, and it was the first to be organized by category, arranging some hymns according to the church year and grouping others according to their topics. The oldest extant kancionál containing the music as well as the texts of the Bohemian Brethren is in Písně chval božských (‘Songs in praise of God’) by Jan Roh (Prague, 1541), which contained 482 songs. It was translated into Polish by Walentin z Brzozowa (Königsberg, 1554). The Bohemian Brethren's production of hymnbooks culminated in the edition prepared by Jan Blahoslav (1523–71), a bishop of the Brethren who was not only an outstanding philologist but also an accomplished musician, theorist and composer; his hymnbooks are among the greatest achievements of 16th-century Czech religious culture. The first edition appeared under the title Písně chval božských (Szamotuły, 1561). The second, entitled Písně duchovní evangelistské (‘Evangelical religious songs’), appeared in Ivančice, Moravia, in 1564 and contained 567 texts and 317 melodies (see illustration). By the end of the 16th century this kancionál had been published another six times in various forms. The Brethren's series of kancionál publications concluded with the kancionál by Jan Amos Komenský (Amsterdam, 1659, published when he was exiled after the Battle of the White Mountain), containing 605 melodies.
In contrast to those of the Brethren, the Utraquist kancionály were illuminated folio manuscripts designed above all for singers of the ‘literati’ brotherhoods. (Most printed Utraquist hymnbooks contained only texts, and thus are less important.) The literati brotherhoods were voluntary associations of laymen, mostly towns-people, organized like guilds, whose aim was the performance of solemn music in church. Their members were called literati because they were considered to be educated people (homines litterati). The literati sang mostly plainsong and Czech spiritual songs, but they were also the main composers of polyphony in 16th-century Bohemia; for this reason their hymnbooks are among the most important sources of Czech polyphony. Typically the music favoured by the literati brotherhoods consisted of polyphonic arrangements of Czech spiritual songs with a cantus firmus in the tenor. In the aftermath of the politico-cultural changes in Czech lands after 1620 and the rise of the professionalization of the higher forms of church music, the literati brotherhoods became Catholic in the 17th century and gradually devoted themselves more to the spiritual needs of their members than to music. When they were abolished by the court decree of Joseph II in 1785, their manuscript kancionály had already long been in disuse.
Printed kancionály of the 16th-century Utraquists were not as important from the musical point of view as the manuscript ones because they were published mostly without music. The most prolific composer of Utraquist songs was the priest Václav Miřínský (d 1492), who wrote 591 song texts. Czech Lutherans did not begin to publish their own hymnbooks before the mid-16th century. The first was Kancionál český (‘Czech hymnbook’, Olomouc, 1576) by Jakub Kunvaldský, which contained 324 melodies, followed by Písně chval božských (Prague, 1602) by Tobiáš Závorka Lipenský, containing as many as 770 melodies. Greatly favoured, particularly by the Slovak evangelists, was Cithara sanctorum (Levoča, 1636), edited by Juraj Tranovský (1592–1637). After the Battle of the White Mountain, exiled Czech Protestants published hymnbooks which they then smuggled to their secret fellow believers in the Czech lands. They were always printed in a small format without music, and because of their characteristic shape were known as špalíčky (‘wooden tablets’). The most renowned publisher of these hymnbooks was the exile Václav Klejch whose first volume appeared in Zittau in 1717.
Catholics began to publish their own hymnbooks even later than the Lutherans, beginning with those printed by Šimon Lomnický z Budče (Prague, 1580 and 1595). The energetic drive of the Counter-Reformation at the beginning of the 17th century encouraged an increase in the production of Catholic hymnbooks. Jan Rozenplut published the first large-scale Catholic Kancionál (Olomouc, 1601), containing 425 texts and 215 tunes, followed by the kancionál of Jiří Hlohovský (Olomouc, 1622), Jiři Šípař's Český dekakord (Prague, 1642) and Adam Michna's Česká mariánská muzika (‘Czech Marian music’), the first kancionál to include figured bass accompaniments. The first Slovak Catholic hymnbook appeared in Trnava in 1655 under the title Cantus catholici and contained 209 melodies. Michna's modernized hymns (Prague 1647, 1653, 1661) rejuvenated the existing hymnbook repertory, and quickly gained wide favour, appearing in all later hymnbooks. They influenced in particular the most important Baroque Catholic hymnbook, the Český kancionál (Prague, 1683), published by Matěj Václav Šteyer. This contained over 1000 melodies as early as its second edition (Prague, 1687), and by 1764 it had been issued six times with only minor alterations. Another significant Catholic hymnbook was Slavíček rajský (‘Heavenly nightingale’, Hradec Králové, 1719) by Jan Josef Božan, where the majority of songs were arranged with figured bass. The hymnbook Kaple královská, (‘Royal Chapel’, Prague, 1693) by Václav Karel Holan Rovenský, was exceptional because it contained polyphonic arrangements of hymns and short cantatas with instrumental accompaniment.
The influence of the 18th-century Enlightenment gradually brought about a decline in Bohemian sacred song. The songs of the hymnbooks were sung only by the lower social strata of the population in Bohemia, while choirs usually performed music modelled on contemporary opera style. The stylistic gap between the two types of music continually widened, apparently because the major part of the hymn repertory was more than 100 years old and new songs of artistic quality were not appearing. Although during Joseph II's reign there was an emphasis on congregational song, creating the so called mass song, a strophic paraphrase of parts of the Ordinary, the majority of new songs were of little aesthetic value. The most successful hymnbook of the early 19th century was that compiled by Tomáš Fryčaj (Olomouc, 1788), which appeared in seven editions during the first three decades of the century; it probably owed its success to its attempt to reflect contemporary taste. In the second half of the 19th century interest in old hymns revived under the parallel influences of Romanticism, which encouraged a search for the roots of Czech national music, and the Cecilian reform movement. The expression of these endeavours was the Kancionál compiled by Vincenc Bradáč (Prague, 1863–4), which, however, did not establish itself because of its old-fashioned style.
While the old kancionály were intended for all dioceses in Bohemia and Moravia, in the 20th century individual dioceses began to produce their own songbooks. At this time there was a significant increase in the number of mass songs whose texts freely paraphrased the Ordinary of the Mass. After World War II there was renewed pressure for a songbook that was compulsory for all dioceses, which led to the publication of the Kancionál (Prague, 1973-90). The choice of songs was governed by liturgical demands, by their popularity and by their poetic and musical value. In addition to the old songs, new compositions by contemporary composers were included. As a consequence of the liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council, pre-existing mass songs were recast as so-called Proper songs, and their place was taken by new settings of the Czech texts of the Ordinary.
Cantional, §1: The Czech kancionál
J. Jireček: Hymnologia Bohemica (Prague, 1878)
K. Konrád: Dějiny posvátného zpěvu staročeského [History of early Czech sacred song] (Prague, 1881–93)
Z. Nejedlý: Dějiny předhusitského zpěvu v Čechách [History of pre-Hussite song in Bohemia] (Prague, 1904, 2/1954 as Dějiny husitského zpěvu, i)
Z. Nejedlý: Počátky husitského zpěvu [The origins of Hussite song] (Prague, 1907, 2/1954–5 as Dějiny husitského zpěvu, ii–iii)
J. Mocko: História posvätnej piesne slovenskej a história Kancionálu [History of Slovak sacred song and history of the hymnbook] (Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, 1909)
Z. Nejedlý: Dějiny husitského zpěvu za válek husitských [History of Hussite song during the Hussite wars] (Prague, 1913, 2/1954–5)
D. Orel: Kancionál Franusův z roku 1505 [The cantional of Johannes Franus from 1505] (Prague, 1922) [CZ–HKm 43]
Jiří Tranovský: sborník k 300. výročí kancionálu Cithara sanctorum [Memorial volume for the 300th anniversary of the Cithara Sanctorum hymnbook] ed. V. Klecanda (Bratislava, 1936)
S.Š. Osuský: Tranovského sborník [Tranovský's memorial volume] (Liptovský Sv Mikuláš, 1936)
Knihopis českých a slovenských tisků od doby nejstarší, až do konce xviii. století, ii: Tisky z let 1501–1800 [Book production by Czech and Slovak printers from the earliest times to the end of the 18th century, ii: Printing from 1501–1800] (Prague, 1925–67)
L. Burlas, J. Fišer and A. Hořejš: Hudba na Slovensku v xvii. storočí [Music in Slovakia in the 17th century] (Bratislava, 1954)
J. Bužga: ‘Capella regia musicalis Václava Karla Holana Rovenského’, Časopis Národního musea, ccxxiv (1955), 154–70
J. Bužga: ‘Slavíček rajský Jana Josefa Božana’ [Božan's heavenly nightingale], Časopis Slezského musea, v (1956), 31–41
J. Bužga: ‘Zur musikalischen Problematik der alttschechischen Kantionalien’, Mf, xii (1959), 13–25
J. Kouba: ‘Kancionály Václava Miřínského’ [The hymnbooks of Václav Miřínský], MMC, no.8, (1959), 1–148
M. Bohatcová: ‘Bratrský kancionál z roku 1519’ [The Brethren's hymnbook of 1519], MMC, no.13 (1960), 27–35
J. Kouba: ‘Václav Klejch a jeho Historia o vydání kancionálů v národě českém’ [Klejch’s history of hymnbook publishing in the Czech nation], MMC, no.13 (1960), 61–204
J. Kouba: ‘Blahoslavův rejstřík autorů českobratrských písní a jeho pozdější zpracování’ [Blahoslav's list of songwriters of the Bohemian Brethren and its later adaptations], MMC, no.17 (1962), 1–175
J. Bužga: ‘Holan-Rovenský, představitel měšt'anské hudební kultury koncem 17. století’ [Holan-Rovenský, representative of middle-class musical culture at the end of the 17th century], HV, iv (1967), 420–39
J. Černý: ‘Soupis hudebních rukopisů Musea v Hradci Králové’ [List of music manuscripts in the Hradec Králové museum], MMC, no.19 (1967), 1–240
O. Settari: ‘Über das Gesangbuch des Johann Amos Comenius’, Sborník prací filosofické fakulty brněnské university, H2 (1967), 89–95
C. Schoenbaum: ‘Jan Joseph Božans Slavíček rájský und die tschechischen katholischen Gesangbücher des 17. Jahrhunderts’, Studia Hieronymo Feicht septuagenario dedicata, ed. Z. Lissa (Kraków, 1967), 252–67
J. Kouba: ‘Das älteste Gesangbuchdruck von 1501 aus Böhmen’, Jb für Liturgik und Hymnologie, xiii (1968), 78–112
J. Kouba: ‘Období reformace a humanismu (1434–1620)’ [The period of Reformation and humanism (1434–1620)], Československá vlastivěda, ix/3 (Prague, 1971), 53–86
L. Brezanyová: ‘Das Kantional Písně chval božských von Tobiáš Závorka Lipenský’, Sborník prací filosofické fakulty brněnské university, H7 (1972), 7–11
J. Sehnal: ‘Die Entwicklungstendenzen und Stilschichten im tschechischen barocken Kirchenlied’, Musica antiqua Europae orientalis III (Bydgoszcz, 1972), 127–60
J. Sehnal: ‘Das Gesangbuch des Pavel Bohunek aus Rychnov nad Kněžnou’, Sborník prací filosofické fakulty brněnské university, H7 (1972), 13–28
J. Kouba: ‘Německé vlivy v české písní 16. století’ [German influences in Czech 16th-century songs], MMC, nos.27–8 (1975), 117–77
J. Sehnal: ‘Písně Adama Michny z Otradovic (1600–1676)’, HV, xii (1975), 3–43
M.E. Ducreux: ‘Counter-Reformation and Early Czech Catholic Kancionály in the Kingdom of Bohemia (1588–1683)’, Slovakia 1982–1983 (Middletown, PA), 36–50
M.E. Decreux: ‘L'hymnologie catholique tchčque de la Contre-Rčforme’, Jb für Liturgik und Hymnologie, xxix (1986), 169–79
J. Kouba: ‘Nejstarsí ceské písnové tisky do roku 1550’ [The oldest Czech prints of hymns up to 1550], MMC, no.32 (1988), 21–92
J. Sehnal: ‘Cesky zpĕv pri msi’ [Czech singing in the Mass], HV, xxix (1992), 3–15
The word ‘Cantional’ never gained general acceptance as a formal definition in German, although it has been used occasionally to indicate a collection of sacred songs (cantiones) or chorales for ecclesiastical use. It was probably coined relatively recently, by analogy with such words as ‘Graduale’ and ‘Antiphonale’, whereas the similar title Cantual was derived by analogy with Manual. The title Cantional usually emphasized the official nature of both the repertory selected for inclusion and the order of its presentation, and the official sanction implied by such a title naturally favoured the adoption of a hymnbook in church schools as well as in official liturgical use.
Cantionale (the spelling Kantionale is also often used) were generally published as a single volume, either in a large folio format, suitable for use by a Kantor and choir reading from a single copy on a lectern, or in octavo volumes for individual choristers or pupils; collections of hymns and chorales distributed in partbooks were usually given some other name. The term ‘Cantional’ in the title of a collection did not imply any unity of repertory or even any particular style. German Cantionale, including both printed and manuscript volumes, might contain only monophonic hymns in German and Latin or these monophonic repertories might be combined with settings of the Passion (such as Johannes Keuchenthal's Kirchen Gesenge, Wittenberg, 1573, described in the foreword as a ‘Cantional Buch’). Some polyphonic hymnbooks called Cantionale were devoted to settings of a particular aspect of the liturgical repertory, such as the Latin and German hymns ‘zur Vesper und Predigzeitten in den Evangelischen Kirchenzu Regenspurg’ in the folio manuscript of Andreas Raselius's Cantionale oder Kirchengesange (1587–8). The best-known Cantional is probably Schein's Cantional oder Gesangbuch Augspurgischer Confession (Leipzig, 1627), which contains adaptations of both Latin and German hymns. The Cantionale sacrum (Gotha, 1646–8) was a compact descant book intended for use in both schools and churches, and C.F. Witt's Psalmodia (Gotha, 1715), described in its foreword (and in a 1726 supplement) as a Cantional, was a chorale book including, somewhat uncommonly, figured bass accompaniments for organists.
Since the publication of Blume's study of monophonic evangelical music (1925) the term ‘Cantional’ has been applied broadly to all hymn collections in chordal four-part settings with the tune in the upper part published between 1586 (Lucas Osiander's 50 geistliche Lieder und Psalmen) and 1631 (Melchior Franck's Psalmodia sacra), and the characteristic musical style of such collections began to be called Cantionalsatz or Cantionalstil (see Chorale settings, §I, 2). Because the simple Cantionalsatz style of the music included was regarded as typical of ‘church counterpoint’ at the time and because the tunes were commonly popular ones to encourage the congregation to join in the singing, it seems reasonable to apply the term ‘Cantional’ generally to all harmonized hymnals in score or choirbook form. Use of the term for domestic hymnals not explicitly sanctioned by church authorities, such as Samuel Besler's Concentus ecclesiastico-domesticus (1618) or those published for itinerant boys’ choirs, such as the Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (1588) of Georg Weber (ii), however, is still open to question.
Of the Cantionale explicitly designated as such, only that of Schein corresponds to the preconceived notions of evangelical hymnologists in the overwhelming predominance of four-part contrapunctus simplex, organization according to the liturgical year, and its composition largely by one man. Schein's Cantional, published and distributed by the composer, presented evangelical hymns in a modernized style adopting some contemporary innovations in German secular music. For the first time in a Cantional a figured bass was included, so that a chordal accompaniment could be provided without resort to German tablature, and the book contained a wealth of original melodies and texts as well as modernizations of some old tunes that rendered them virtually unrecognizable. Five hymns were arranged for five parts in the first edition, and another 21 such arrangements appeared in the second, posthumous, edition; all 26 are justly admired for their rich and occasionally adventurous harmonies. Seven five-part chorale motets were included as well, under the heading ‘Contrapuncti compositi’; these keep the melody in the top part throughout, and have a running accompaniment which may have been intended for instrumental performance, even though all parts are texted. It may be that these motets were modelled on those included in Melchior Franck's Contrapuncti compositi deutscher Psalmen (1602). The extensive distribution of Schein's Cantional is explained by its practicality, novelty and artistic quality. Large sections of it were adopted into other printed or manuscript collections, including Christoph Peter's Andachts-Zymbeln (Freiburg, 1655).
See also Chorale and Chorale settings, §I, 2.
BlumeEK
MGG1 (‘Kantional’; A. Adrio, A. Forckert)
WinterfeldEK
P. Wackernagel: Bibliographie zur Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes im XVI. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1854–5/R)
P. Wackernagel: ‘Zur Bibliographie’, Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts, i (Leipzig, 1864/R), 365–830
J. Zahn: Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vi (Gütersloh, 1893/R)
F. Blume: Das monodische Prinzip in der protestantischen Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 1925/R)
W. Reindell: Das De-tempore-Lied des ersten Halbjahrhunderts der reformatorischen Kirche (Würzburg, 1942)
L. Finscher: ‘Das Kantional des Georg Weber aus Weissenfels (Erfurt 1588)’, JbLH, iii (1957), 62–78
W. Braun: ‘Das Eisenacher Begräbniskantional aus dem Jahre 1653’, JbLH, iv (1958–9), 122–8
W. Braun: Die mitteldeutsche Choralpassion im 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1960)
M. Jenny: Geschichte des deutschschweizerischen evangelischen Gesangbuches im 16. Jahrhundert (Basle, 1962)
W. Braun: ‘Musik am Hof des Grafen Anton Günther von Oldenburg (1603–1667)’, Oldenburger Balkenschild, xviii–xx (1963), 19–21
W. Reckziegel: Das Cantional von Johann Hermann Schein: seine geschichtlichen Grundlagen (Berlin, 1963)
G. Kratzel: ‘Die deutschen Vorlagen des Thorner polnischen Kantionals von 1587’, JbLH, xi (1966), 171–81
K. Hławiczka: ‘Zum Problem des polnischen Kantionals von 1578’, JbLH, xiv (1969), 145–9
J. Grimm: ‘Die “Andachts-Zymbeln” des Christoph Peter (1655)’, JbLH, xiv (1969), 152–79
J. Grimm: Das Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch des Gottfried Vopelius (Leipzig, 1682): Untersuchungen zur Klärung seiner geschichtlichen Stellung (Berlin, 1969)
W. Blankenburg: ‘Das Gothaer Cantionale sacrum’, JbLH, xv (1970), 145–53
R. Bockholdt: ‘Zum vierstimmigen Choralsatz J.S. Bachs’, IMSCR XI: Copenhagen 1972, 277–87
W. Braun: ‘Drei Kantionalsätze von Samuel Michael in Gotha 1648 (1655?)’, JbLH, xxxiv (1992–3), 108–11