Formation of the paraliturgical chant genre and the deep structural characteristics of texts (based on the example of German Catholic hymnography)

Abstract

This article examines the development of the genre of German Catholic paraliturgical hymnody. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time, it has been established that similarities are found not among collections that follow one another chronologically, but rather among collections that are not aligned by this criterion. The study investigates quantitative characteristics of hymn complexity grouped by cultural-historical periods. The research employed quantitative metrics used to assess textual complexity (the Flesch Index, the coefficient of lexical diversity, average word and sentence length in the texts, and the average number of tokens of different parts of speech per sentence), as well as corpus analysis methods. The results of the analysis show that the first edition of “Gotteslob” draws on the historicist traditions of the second half of the 19th century, a period when Gründerzeit and Wilhelminism dominated culture and art. Hymnography of the second half of the 19th century, in turn, adopts the traditions of Baroque-Mannerist paraliturgical hymns, whereas the second edition reveals a paradigm shift, underpinned by cultural-historical transformations in German society – from the restoration conservatism of post-war Germany to the quasi-democratic sensibilities of the present day.

Research materials

1. Gotteslob 1975. Katholisches Gebet- und Gesangbuch. Ausgabe für das Bistum Trier. Trier: Paulinus Verlag, 1975.
2. Gotteslob 2013. Katholisches Gebet- und Gesangbuch. Ausgabe für das Bistum Trier. Stuttgart: Katholische Bibelanstalt; Trier: Paulinus-Verlag, 2014.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: April 21, 2026.
• Published: May 26, 2026.

Keywords

• немецкая католическая гимнография
• паралитургические песнопения
• история жанра
• сложность текстов
• корпус текстов
• German Catholic hymnography
• paraliturgical hymns
• genre history
• textual complexity
• text corpus

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