Filed under: Music
Martin Luther grew up in the tradition of the old church, where only the learned were allowed to sing (chant) in religious services. At the same time, he grew up on the poorer side of a festival society, which to a large extent relied on festivals for merriment and escape from earthly indigence. Music was a great part of his life on that end of things as well. He learned to play the lute, and he learned to compose music.
When Luther came to find himself at the head of the movement which was to take Europe by storm (not entirely by his own choice), his translation of the bible became the stepping stone for both a new, more inclusive society, and for a new era, in which ‘gospel songs’ could be sung by every tongue.
Here, Luther is quoted in a ‘Christian History Institute’ article:
“With all my heart I would extol the precious gift of God in the noble art of music….. Music is to be praised as second only to the Word of God because by her all the emotions are swayed.”
Luther wrote many hymns, and by many, is also considered the founder of Protestant song, though he is only one in a chain of like ‘reformed’ composers in his era (16th century).
These ‘reform’ hymns found their way into all of Europe like wildfire, hitched to the societal explosion that Luther unwittingly set off. In Germany, the chorale form took shape and developed over the hundred years after Luther into a fine and precise form of ‘ornamenting’ simple liturgical texts using nothing but tonal harmonies and contrapuntal progressions.
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