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LVOV, Alexei Fyodorovich. b. 5 June 1798, Reval (now Tallinn), Estonia; d. Kovno (Now Kaunus), Lithuania, 28 December 1870. Lvov was the son of Prince Fyodor Petrovich Lvov, the director of music at the Court Chapel at St Petersburg. He served as an officer in the Imperial army, rising to the rank of General, and becoming an aide-de-camp to the Tsar. He succeeded his father as musical director at St Petersburg in 1837, remaining in post until 1861, when he was forced to retire owing to...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
The earliest period
The Bulgarians officially accepted Christianity under Tsar Boris I in 865, and were granted an autonomous archbishopric in 870, whose seat was in Pliska. This archbishopric was under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, from where the first hierarch, clergy, and theological and liturgical books naturally came.
The very early...
Introduction
Between the 16th and the beginning of the 19th century, Croatian congregational hymns ('Kirchenlied') and sacred folk songs ('geistliches Volkslied') played a role that significantly surpassed their primary sacred and spiritual purpose. This corpus of liturgical and paraliturgical music, distinguished from Croatian art music of the time, did not reach the heights of artistic expression, but its function was not dependent on its aesthetic merit. The most notable efforts to promote...
PHOTEINOS (MORAITĒS), Dionysios. b. Achaias, Palaias Patras, Peloponnesios, Greece, 1777; d. Wallachia, 10 October 1821. He studied Byzantine music with his father Athanasios (personal physician of the sultan Abdul Hamit and Domestikos of the Great Church of Constantinople), and then at the Patriarchal School in Constantinople as apprentice of Iakobos Peloponnesios* (Protopsaltes) and Petros Byzantios Fygas (d. 1808). In 1797 he attended the Imperial Academy in Bucharest. He was a tambour,...
See 'Estonian Methodist hymnody'*
Lauluraamat Piiskoplikule Metodistikirikule Eestis (Tallinn, 1926; The Estonian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal). The Estonian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as ESMEH 1926), like its Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts (see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'* and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*), was strongly dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German and Swiss Methodist Episcopal Church', Bremen, 1896, cited as GBMK 1896). It...
FILOTHEI the Hieromonk. b. Wallachia, ca. 1640; d. ca. 1720. A Romanian interpreter, translator and author of Byzantine hymns and liturgical texts, Filothei studied Byzantine music with priest Teodosie from the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia. He spent a few years in the monasteries on Mount Athos, improving his knowledge of Byzantine music and the Greek and Medieval Slavonic languages. He returned to Wallachia before 1700 and is known as a hieromonk (a monk who has also been ordained as a...
SIMONS, George Albert. b. LaPorte, Indiana, 19 March 1874; d. Brooklyn, New York, 2 August 1952. Son of a Methodist pastor, George Henry Simons and his wife Ottilie Schulz, Simons attended Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, New York; German-Wallace College (now Baldwin-Wallace College), Berea, Ohio (AB, 1899; DD, 1908); New York University (AB, 1903); the Theological School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1905). In 1899, after finishing theological studies, he was ordained in the Methodist...
Hungarian Hymnody
This entry is in two parts. The first, on the medieval period, is by Judit Fehér. The second, from the 16th century to the 20th century is by Ilona Ferenczi.
Medieval hymns and hymnals
Medieval Hungary consisted of two archbishoprics (Esztergom and Kalocsa), and a regional unit covering the eastern part of the medieval country (today mostly Transylvania). Each of these three regions had its own liturgical rite.
The Use of Esztergom
Esztergom, founded in 1001 by King St...
Infant holy, infant lowly. Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed* (1885-1933).
This is a translation of a Polish carol, beginning 'W Żłobie Leży', found in Spiewniczek Piesni Koscielne (1908), thought to be from the 13th or 14th century (Milgate, 1982, p. 104). Gillibrand's translation was published in Music and Youth 1/12 (December 1921), and later published in the Congregational Church's School Worship (1926), after which it became very popular:
Infant holy, infant lowly, For his bed a cattle...
PROKHANOFF, Ivan Stepanovich. b. Vladikavkas, Russia, 17 April 1869; d. Berlin, Germany, 6 October 1935. Prokhanoff was a gifted author, preacher, poet and hymn writer, and a primary leader of the evangelical community in Russia. St Petersburg was the center of his activity. Here he founded the Russia Evangelical Association (1905), and the All-Russian Evangelical Association (1908).
His parents grew up in the Molokan ('milk drinkers') tradition of Russia, a pietistic movement that emerged...
HUS, Jan. b. ca. 1370; d. 6 July 1415. Born at Husinec (or Hussinecz), southern Bohemia, he was educated at the University of Prague (BA 1393, Bachelor of Theology 1394, MA 1396). He taught at the University after graduation, and was Dean of the Faculty (1401) and Rector (1402-03, 1409-10). In 1402 he was appointed capellarius (chaplain and preacher) of the Bohemian chapel in Prague, a chapel founded to encourage preaching in the Bohemian language. Hus's preaching there, much influenced by the...
HEERMANN, Johann. b. Raudten, Silesia (now Rudna, Poland), 1585; d. Lissa (Leszno, Poland), 17 February 1647. He was educated at Raudten and at Wohlau. He then attended the Gymnasium at Breslau (Wroclaw) and then at Brieg (Brzeg), later matriculating as a student at the University of Strasbourg (1609). His studies were cut short by a serious eye infection, and he returned to Silesia, where he was ordained deacon in 1611, becoming assistant to the elderly pastor at Köben (now Chobienia, Poland)....
HORN, Johann. b. Domaschitz, Bohemia ca. 1490; d. 11 February 1547. His original name was Johann Roh, but he styled himself Cornu in Latin and Horn in German. He was ordained priest in 1518 and became a senior cleric in the Moravian church. He is known for two books: his Písnĕ chval božských (Prague, 1541), and his edition of the Bohemian hymnbook Ein Gesangbuch der Brüder in Behemen und Merherrn published in Nuremberg in 1544; he may have been the author or at least the translator of many of...
TRANOVSKÝ, Juraj (Tranoscius). b. Teschen, Silesia (Cieszyn, Poland), 9 April 1592; d. Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, Hungary, 29 May 1637. He studied at the Gymnasium (Grammar School) at Guben from 1603-05 and at Kolberg, and later at Wittenberg (1607-12), returning to Prague, where he taught in the St Nicholas Gymnasium, later becoming rector of a school in Holešov, Moravia. He was ordained in 1616, and became pastor of Meziřiči. In 1623 he was imprisoned during the persecution of Protestants...
KOMITAS. Komitas I Aghtsetsi, Catholicos of All Armenians. b. ca. 560; d. 628. A well-known churchman, poet, and musician. When he was Catholicos (primate) of the Armenian church (615-628) the relics of a group of nuns, headed by Gayanē and including Hrip'simē, who was of famed beauty, were discovered in Edjmiadsin. Komitas constructed the Church of St. Hrip'simē in 618, where the remains were interned, and composed the hymn 'Andzink' nvirealk'' ('Devoted souls') to celebrate the occasion. He...
See 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*, 'Latvian Lutheran hymnody'*.
History
The territory of present-day Latvia, a country of approximately 25,400 square miles, situated on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, has been inhabited since 9,000 BCE and by Baltic tribes since 2,000 BCE. These tribes settled various regions that have come to be known by their tribal names – Kurzeme (Courland), Zemgale (Semigallia), Latgale (Letgallia) and Vidzeme (Livland). These regions differed linguistically, with all but the Livs, who were Finno-Ugric speakers like their...
Dseesmu Grahmata Biskapu Metodistu baznizai Latwija (Rigâ, 1924) [The Latvian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal].
The Latvian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as LAMEH 1924) has some similarities with that of the Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal (cited as LIMEH 1923, see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'*). Both hymnals included a preface by George Albert Simons*, the Methodist Episcopal Superintendent of the Baltic States; both were heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten...
See 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'*
Lietuviška Giesmių Knyga (Kaunas, 1923) [The Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal]. This hymnbook (cited as LIMEH 1923) was published in 1923 with Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal pastors Karlas Metas and Jonas Tautoraitis as editors. Like the other Methodist hymnbooks of the Baltic states (see 'Estonian Methodist hymnody'*and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*) it was heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German...
MAKARIOS the Hieromonk. b. ca. 1770; d. 1836. A professor of Byzantine chant, typographer, translator and composer, Makarios was born in Perieţi, Walachia (southern Romania); his date of birth, accepted by most of his biographers, remains uncertain: estimates oscillate between 1750 (Bishop Iosif Naniescu) and 1780 (Ion Popescu-Pasărea). Makarios was a pupil of Constandin (Căldăruşani Monastery), affiliated with the teacher Şărban, the protopsaltis of Walachia. In 1817 he learned the New Method...
OPITZ, Martin. b. Bunzlau, Silesia (Boleslawiec, Poland), 23 December 1597; d. Danzig (Gdansk, Poland), 20 August 1639. The son of a master butcher, he was educated at Bunzlau, the Magdalene-Gymnasium at Breslau, and the University at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. He studied at Heidelberg for a year (1619-20) before travelling as a tutor to a young Danish nobleman in Holland and Jutland. He was briefly professor of poetry at the Gymnasium at Weissenberg, Transylvania (1622-23), before being employed...
SARBIEWSKI, Mathias Casimir (Maciej Kazimierz). b. near Plonsk, Poland, 24 February 1595; d. 2 April 1640. Sarbiewski entered the tutelage of the Jesuit order at the age of seventeen. After a thorough grounding in rhetoric, philosophy, and the humanities, he journeyed to Rome in 1622, where he was ordained as a priest in 1623. It was perhaps during this time that he first encountered Maffeo Barberini, a man educated by and sympathetic to the Jesuits (Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII in...
MOLDOVEANU, Nicolae. b. Movileni, Romania, 3 February 1922; d. Sibiu, Romania, 12 July 2007. Following the early death of his father, Nicolae was sent to live with an uncle who enrolled him in the Army's Children, a military program for destitute children. The conductor of the military's brass ensemble recognized his love for music and encouraged him to develop musically. Then as a young teenager, he began writing religious texts and original melodies under the influence of Oastea Domnului...
Numai harul ('Grace and mercy'). Nicolae Moldoveanu* (1922-2007).
This hymn, written in 1973, is the most familiar of Moldoveanu's compositions. It was written immediately after a severe trial, when he discovered that not even all he had done for the Lord could serve as groundwork for the people of faith. It is based on a famous excerpt from the Biblical Pauline letter to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 2: 8-9), and captures the message that Jesus' death on the cross alone is the foundational...
1. Latin Hymns of the Catholic Church
Poland has always served as fertile ground for the cultivation of the Latin hymn. The monophonic Latin hymn repertory was introduced in Poland in the 10th century, and was gradually transformed by the introduction of folk idioms and the addition of new compositions. Early Polish manuscripts show that the Romano-Frankish chant was often seasoned with melodic leaps and pentatonic leanings, suggesting that folk music influences blended in with the imported...
As inhabitants of the territory north of the Lower Danube, Romanians participated in Byzantine culture, in common with most Christian peoples in the region. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were established in the 14th century and organized into two metropolitan churches dependent on Constantinople. This was followed by the spreading of Slavonic hymns and, secondarily, of Greek hymns, in forms almost identical to those of the Romanians' southern neighbours. Hymn books spread from...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
Historical background
Kievan Rus' was the result of the coming together of the eastern Slavic tribes in the 9th century, under Count Oleg (879-912). Christianity had existed in Kiev at least from the mid-10th century (there is evidence of a community with a church at the time of Count Igor, where in 945 the Count's troops made a contract with the...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
From conversion to the 18th century
The early years
Serbia converted to Christianity between 867-74. The first contacts were with Latin Church priests in coastal areas dominated by the Byzantine Empire; later contacts were with the Slavic missionaries, the Thessalonian brothers Cyril and Methodius. St. Cyril reputedly created the Slavic script,...
The Period of Great Moravia
The beginnings of hymn use in the territory of present-day Slovakia should be sought in old Slavonic liturgical singing, which was established by the Thessalonian brothers Saints Constantine (who took the name Cyril as a monk) and Methodius in the 9th century. While in this period evidence post-dates events, the Life of Cyril makes it clear that Pope Hadrian approved the old Slavonic liturgy in 868, after which the Mass and the Divine Office were performed in old...
The Early Years (750?-1550)
The first Slovenian musical records date from the second half of the 16th century. Prior to that date there were sacred songs, defined as songs of religious content that are sung at church service. Their contents are based on the Bible (psalmic hymns), religious truths (catechetic hymns) and on the lives of the saints (hymns of the saints and pilgrimage hymns). This survey will give an outline of the sacred music that took place on the Slovenian territory and was...
Romanians in Transylvania were almost all Orthodox until the early 18th century, when the Romanian Church United with Rome was founded (Greek Catholics or Catholics of Byzantine Rite). This Church, in full communion with Rome but retaining the Byzantine liturgy, played an important role in resisting Magyarization in 19th-century Transylvania. By the early 20th century, half of the Romanians in Transylvania were Orthodox; the other half were Greek Catholics. On their tradition, see Romanian...