ssical German music called chorales with
no more scruple than they applied the name to tunes of secular origin,
German or foreign. The peculiarity of German chorale-music, however, is
that its use, and consequently much of its invention, not only arose in
connexion with the Reformation, by which the liturgy of the church
became "understanded of the people," but also that it belongs to a
musical epoch in which symmetry of melody and rhythm was beginning to
assume artistic importance. The growing sense of form shown by some of
Luther's own tunes (e.g. _Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her_) soon
advanced, especially in the tunes of Crueger, beyond any that was shown
by folk-music; and it provided an invaluable bulwark against the chaos
that was threatening to swamp music on all sides at the beginning of the
17th century. By Bach's time all the polyphonic instrumental and vocal
art-forms of the 18th century were mature; and though he loved to derive
the design as well as the details of a large movement from the shape of
the chorale tune on which it was based, he became quite independent of
any aid from symmetry in the tune as raw material. The chorus of his
cantata _Jesus nun sei gepreiset_ is one of the most perfectly designed
and quite the longest of movements ever based upon a chorale-tune
treated phrase by phrase. Yet the tune is one of the most intractable in
the world, though its most unpromising portion is the basis of the most
impressive feature in Bach's design (the slow middle section in triple
time).

The national character of the German chorale, and the recent great
development of interest in folk-music, together with the unique
importance of Bach's work, have combined to tempt writers on music to
over-estimate the distinctness of the art-forms based upon the German
chorale. There is really nothing in these art-forms which is not
continuous with the universal practice of writing counterpoint on a
_canto fermo_. And it should never be forgotten that, however
fascinating may be the study of the relation between artistic forms and
the spirit of the age, no art can successfully express more of the
spirit of the age than its own technical resources will admit. Choral
music in all ages has tended to consist largely of counterpoint on a
_canto fermo_ (see CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS). Where there are not many canto
fermos in constant use in the church, composers will be driven to use
them rather unsystematically as special effect