Deutsche Singmesse

The Deutsche Singmesse is a form of (Tridentine) Low Mass that developed in German-speaking countries.

In Austria, congregational singing of sacred texts in Old High German 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.

The German Singmesse, in its classic form, originated in efforts toward a German-language celebration of the Mass during the Enlightenment 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.

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