On the subgenre system in medieval German catholic hymnography

This paper is an analysis of church hymns in the folk language using medieval German-speaking Catholic hymnography as a case study. Understudied by literary scholars, this phenomenon used to be in the center of attention of liturgics scholars. The only exceptions included philological and historical studies of ancient writings in the German language. The existence of church chant (German Kirchenlied) is manifested by a separate genre, which, in contrast to the views of Germanic language philologists in Germany is not a special case of the spiritual song (German Geistliches Lied). In relation to the German Middle Ages, the emergence is described of church hymns as a genre represented by the most ancient artifacts of the German language. A borderline is drawn between seemingly similar phenomena: translations of Latin hymnography into German, which did not always have liturgical / paraliturgical significance, and actual church chants. Analysis of the writings (more than one and a half thousand texts) suggests a six-part subgenre system in medieval German Catholic hymnography (translated hymns, acclamations, leisen, canticles, antiphonic chants, church readings and macaronic songs). The peripheral role of German-speaking church chants in medieval pre-reformation Germany is highlighted.