Det gåtfulla 1700-tale

Studier kring upplysningstidens svenska koralrevolution

Abstract

The Enigmatic 18th Century. Some Research on the Swedish
Chorale Revolution during the Age of Enlightenment
The beginning of the 18th century in Sweden brought a sudden reshaping of the rhythmical chorale of the 17th century in favour of an increasingly pronounced isometry, with time signatures and bar lines and a strong inclination in favour of fourbar periodicity (see musical example 1). The author discusses the causes of this development, which is reflected by two early chorale MSS by Westmann and Zellbell the Elder in the 1730s, which, the present writer maintains, are virtually identical. Certain minor deviations are then noticeable in a chorale book by Miklin from 1760 (musical example 5). The picture of the 18th century chorale development is complicated by the many different ways at this time of treating the organ, which was now coming to be used more and more in conjunction with hymn-singing. The melody could be played as the upper part in the right hand (musical example 9), it could be played as a solo, often elaborately ornamented, in the right hand, accompanied by chords in the left (musical example 10), or it could be played with chords in both hands (musical example 11). There could also be interludes between the lines of the hymn, as for example with Westmann (musical example 12). Ultimately, however, performance as shown in musical example 9 became the norm. This new chorale form set the pattern of subsequent developments in all essential respects and, on the whole, until as recently as the latest Swedish chorale book, published in 1986, which, like all new chorale books in the Nordic countries and German-speaking Europe, marks, in principle, a reversion to the rhythmical, more variegated type of chorale of the 16th and 17th centuries.