Cantate!


Cantate! is a German Catholic hymnal first published in 1847, and continued in seven editions until 1879. It was a collection of 444 old and new songs, edited by the educator and hymnwriter Heinrich Bone. Several of the song are still part of the common Catholic hymnal in German, Gotteslob.

History

Heinrich Bone published the hymnal Cantate!, a collection of 444 songs, which appeared between 1847 and 1879 in seven editions. It was the first Catholic hymnal which was used in multiple German-speaking dioceses. A book with melodies for the songs appeared in 1852.

Program

The hymnal has a programmatic title in Latin, referring to the traditional language in the Catholic Church. It is subtitled "Katholisches Gesangbuch nebst Gebeten und Andachten für alle Zeiten und Feste des Kirchenjahres". Bone published traditional Latin hymns as the basis for singing in church, and also translated medieval and Baroque texts to a contemporary language, such as "Komm, Schöpfer Geist, kehr bei uns ein" as a paraphrase of the 9th-century Veni Creator Spiritus, to make the return of traditional hymns to Catholic services possible. It also contained new hymns.
For the second, expanded edition of 1851, Bone wrote a foreword of several pages explaining his program, dated Christmas 1850. It is followed by an alphabetic index of the songs, first the songs in German, then those in Latin. A list of prayers and contemplations is followed by a list of the feasts, naming a saint for each day of the year. The songs begin with Latin hymns, listed with parallel German versions. The section with songs in German follows the liturgical year, beginning with Advent. Hymns often refer to original Latin hymns.

''Gotteslob''

The common German hymnal Gotteslob of 1975 contained several songs from Bone's Cantate!, some with revised wording. Some were included in its second edition of 2013, and some also in the Protestant hymnal EG. In the folling list, the GL number refers to the 2013 edition, with the former number in brackets.