~Caldara~, Antonius. Born at Venice 1678, a pupil of Legrenzi and Fux, and the writer of many operas, and much church music. He was successively Capellmeister at St Mark’s, the Court of Mantua, and to Charles VI. at Vienna. He was a clever imitator, but had little inventive genius. On coming to Germany, his style improved in vigour. Bach admired him sufficiently to copy his Magnificat in C.
~Cantor~, Choirmaster. The office is rarely held by the organist as in England, since the cantor has to conduct the “Hauptmusik” with a baton while the organist plays.
~Cembalo~, or clavicymbal, or clavessin, or clavecin, for which Bach wrote his clavier works, was in shape like the modern grand piano, but its interior construction was something after the model of the organ. It had, in common with the organ, the defect of being unable to produce piano or forte by the touch alone, this being done by stops. A complete cembalo had the compass of [F on fourth ledger line below bass clef] to [G on fourth ledger line above treble clef] and two manuals. Each note had four strings producing 4, 8, and 16 ft. tone, two being of 8 ft. The strings were sounded by plectra made of quill, called jacks. The instruments were sometimes also provided with organ pedals. It will be seen at once that a piece played on 16, 8 and 4 ft. stops would sound far fuller than when played on the modern piano with only unison strings.
The cembalo was used to play the basso continuo in all concerted music outside the church; and even in a concerto for clavier, a second cembalo appears to have accompanied. The lute or regal, however, sometimes took its place, for convenience of porterage.
Transposing clavicymbals, and clavicymbals with keyboards at both ends were in use. The tuning was very troublesome, and had to be done before each performance. Other names were Gravecymbalum, Flügel, Schweinskopf, Steertstück. The claviorganum was a combination of clavicymbal and positive.
~Choral~ is the German name for the Plainsong of the Roman Church. After the Reformation the name Choral (English “Chorale”) was given to the hymns which were either translated from the Latin, or originally written in the fourteenth century by Johannes of Salzburg, Muscatblüet, Hans Foltz, Michel Beheim, Johannes Gosseler, Jörg Breining, and Heinrich von Laufenberg, and which took a firm hold on the German people through the efforts of Martin Luther, Michael Vehe, W. Heintz, Joh. Hofmann, and others. The peculiar variety to be observed in the metrical construction of the German Chorale is directly traceable to the influence of the Volkslied, for Luther himself wrote sacred words for secular melodies. Other names connected with the chorale are Valentin Triller, Veit Heefen, Count Albrecht the younger of Brandenburg, Culmbach, Speratus, Spengler, Hans Sachs, Schensing, Decius Graumann, Joh. Walter, a friend and fellow-worker of Luther, L. Senfl, von Bruck and Fink. Later poets were Nic. Hermann, P. Nicolai, Calvisius Hassler, &c., H. and J. Prætorius, Neumark, Flemming, Teschner, Gerhard and Crüger. The music of the chorale was brought to perfection by J. S. Bach.