Martin Luther\u2019s Reformation opened the doors to a more colourful church music landscape. Simon Heighes explores how composers adapted to their new licence to thrill <\/p>
The reformation was <\/span>a religious, political and cultural upheaval that split Catholic Europe in the 16th century. It began in the German town of Wittenberg in October 1517 with the publication of Martin Luther\u2019s \u201895 Theses\u2019 protesting at the Pope\u2019s sale of \u2018indulgences\u2019 (offering time off from penance), followed later by Luther\u2019s wholesale rejection of the power of the papacy.<\/span><\/p>\n Christians should, he said, be free to follow their faith through the teachings of the Gospel. This led to new forms of worship and a growing Lutheran church galvanised by Luther\u2019s writings, widely circulated through the new power of the printing press. <\/span><\/p>\n By the second half of the 16th century, Lutheranism had become the state religion throughout much of Germany. The key ideas of the Reformation \u2013 a call to purify the church and a belief that the Bible, rather than tradition, should be the sole source of spiritual authority \u2013 inspired reforms across Europe, putting Henry VIII in a stronger position as regards the English Reformation, and encouraging the more extreme views of John Calvin in Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n There were, in effect, several Reformations, triggering wars, persecutions and ultimately the so-called Counter-Reformation almost 30 years later, the Catholic Church\u2019s tardy but powerful response to the Protestants which, from the mid-16th century, saw the Catholic church grow more spiritual, literate and educated.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Martin Luther (1483-1547) was an Augustinian monk and theologian who took a stand against the Roman Church, reputedly nailing his 95 objections to Catholic excesses to the doors of All Saints\u2019 Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. <\/span><\/p>\n After eventually breaking away from Rome, Luther created the climate within his new \u2018reformed\u2019 church for a fresh musical tradition to develop \u2013 one which found its perfect fulfilment in the music of Bach. Some 500 years after Luther\u2019s spiritual reforms, the musical legacy of the Reformation lives on, with a wider reach and greater universal appeal than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n The rather bleak austerity of Protestant reformers like John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli in Switzerland has rubbed off a little on Martin Luther\u2019s posthumous reputation. But while Calvin and Zwingli were suspicious of music, either banning it entirely or limiting its use in church, Luther \u2018always loved music\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n He was, by his own admission, an enthusiastic singer, lutenist and composer who delighted in the finest polyphonic music<\/a><\/strong> of the age. He particularly admired his contemporary Josquin Desprez<\/a><\/strong> (c1455-1521), who \u2018preached the Gospel through music\u2019 with \u2018compositions which flow freely, gently, and cheerfully, are not cramped by the rules, and are like the song of the finch\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n Luther believed that \u2018he who knows music has a good nature\u2019, and was determined that music should play a central part in children\u2019s education. There\u2019s a very modern ring to his calls that \u2018Necessity demands music be kept in schools. A teacher must be able to sing \u2026 and before a young man is ordained into the ministry, he should practise music regularly\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n At a deeper level Luther saw music and theology as inextricably linked, likening the Gospel to \u2018music in performance\u2019, and acknowledging that music had often \u2018induced and inspired me to preach\u2019. It was a powerful symbiotic relationship which encouraged him to devise new services for his church with music and preaching at their heart. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s something of a surprise to discover just how musical these services were. Rather than removing the old Catholic Mass and Vespers from the liturgy, he revised them, and so was able to retain both traditional plainchant and a great deal of Latin polyphonic music by composers like Josquin. <\/span><\/p>\n But Luther\u2019s major innovation \u2013 with far-reaching consequences for Protestant church music \u2013 was the addition of an entirely new musical element. In 1523 he said he would introduce \u2018as many songs as possible in the vernacular which people could sing during Mass\u2019. With texts by Luther himself and his close colleagues, these congregational songs \u2013 or chorales \u2013 spread like wildfire, and drew congregations in ever greater numbers. <\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing new under the sun, of course, and while Luther may have presented his congregational hymns as something of a novelty, many were just adaptations of music people had been singing for generations: overnight Veni sancte spiritus <\/i>took on a more regular metre and became Komm Heiliger Geist<\/i> (\u2018Come Holy Spirit\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Who was Martin Luther?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How Luther\u2019s reformation influenced music<\/h2>\n