Leise

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The Leise or Leis (plural Leisen; from the Greek kyrie eleison) is a genre of vernacular medieval church song. They appear to have originated in the German-speaking regions, but are also found in Scandinavia, and are a precursor of Protestant church music.

Leisen arose in the Middle Ages as brief responses in the vernacular to sung elements of the Latin Mass, especially sequences sung on feast days of the ecclesiastical year, and were also sung during processionals and on pilgrimages. They often consist of a single stanza, ending in some form of Kyrie eleison, which is supposedly the origin of the name.Fritz Baltruweit, "Geistliche Volkslieder: Motoren der Reformation und lebensnaher Ausdruck des Glaubens bis heute", in "Und was ich noch sagen wollte ...": Festschrift für Wolfgang Kabus zum 80. Geburtstag, ed. Johannes Hartlapp and Andrea Cramer, Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2016, {{ISBN|9783732903139}}, pp. 77–94, [https://books.google.com/books?id=adxtDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 p. 85, n. 32] {{in lang|de}}[https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/l/leise "Leise"], The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, retrieved 2 June 2017.

File:In Genesin, BSB Clm 6260, folio 158v, Unsar trothîn hât farsalt.jpgd manuscript of the Petruslied, Unsar trothîn hât farsalt, the oldest known Leise]]

The oldest known Leise, the Petruslied, is found on the last page (folio 158v) of a manuscript of In Genesin by Hrabanus Maurus, dated circa 860, formerly in the cathedral library of Freising, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. It is a song to St. Peter, with the title Unsar trothîn hât farsalt, and was added to the manuscript in the ninth{{r|grove}} or in the early tenth century.{{r|bsb}} Another early example is the Adalbertuslied (for Adalbert of Prague), which was popular in Bohemia and was sung at the saint's grave during droughts; they were also sometimes sung before battles.Josef Sittard, Compendium der Geschichte der Kirchenmusik mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des kirchlichen Gesanges: von Ambrosius zur Neuzeit, Stuttgart: Levy & Müller, 1881, {{OCLC|215806306}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qtMTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA174 p. 174] {{in lang|de}}. They are an early expression of popular piety.

Martin Luther expanded several leisen into chorales, and they are therefore forerunners of German Protestant hymnology.