chorale
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chorale
(kōrăl`, –räl`), any of the traditional hymns of the German Protestant Church. The form was developed after the Reformation to replace the plainsongplainsongor plainchant,
the unharmonized chant of the medieval Christian liturgies in Europe and the Middle East; usually synonymous with Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church.
..... Click the link for more information. of the earlier service and as a means of congregational participation in the liturgy. Early chorales were mainly translations of Latin hymns set to folksong melodies. The chorale is strophic, written in simple language, and has a simple melody, but its phrasing and metrical structure are less regular than those of the English hymn. J. S. Bach reworked nearly 400 existing chorales and composed 30 new ones.
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chorale
, choral1. a slow stately hymn tune, esp of the Lutheran Church
2. Chiefly US a choir or chorus
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