User:Weberc/Lutheran music

Lutheran church music is sacred music influenced by the Lutheran Reformation movement from the Renaissance to today. Such music includes Lutheran hymnody, liturgical settings, masses, cantatas, anthems, canticles, and psalms settings. In the spirit of the Protestant Reformers, early Lutheran church music incorporated much music which was already in use (now Roman Catholic chant); though as a defining characteristic, music increasingly was written in the vernacular. Lutheran church music was further influenced by the Pietistic movement, the rise and fall of the chorale, revival of church music in general in the 19th century, New World hymnody, the camp meetings movement, African Lutheran church music, African American gospel and spiritual music, Taizé community music, Lutheran music revival in the 19th and 20th century, and the musical revisions of Vatican II.

History

Lutheran church music has its origins in the Lutheran Reformation of the 16th century. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk expanded on the teachings of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus in starting the movement in 1517. Being a monk, Luther's life was steeped in the musical traditions of Roman chant and he had a deep love for music as a singer, lutenist, and composer. Luther would make use of his musical skills to become a tool for promoting the teaching reforms of the movement.

Luther and the German Reformation

Luther's own hymns date from 1523 to 1543. The earliest of these hymns were published in a hymnal in 1524 along with hymns by Paul Speratus. Luther wrote 37 hymns which survive today, though he perhaps wrote additional texts which were passed around informally. The most well known of Luther's hymns are Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; Vom Himmel Hoch da komm' ich her; Christ lag in Todes Banden; Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott; Wir glauben all' an einen Gott; Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin; Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott; Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort; Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir; Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist; Vater unser im Himmelreich; and Jesaia dem Propheten. These and many of the other hymns written by Luther would constitute the base of many chorale-based compositions by Schütz, Bach, Brahms, and others.

However, not all of Luther's melodies are original. Many were borrowed from a diverse group of music which Luther and the lay people were exposed to. These include Latin chants, German songs, secular and sacred folk songs, and hymns from the Bohemian community. Claims that some of Luther's hymns were based on bar tunes or drinking songs perhaps expounded from the use of popular tunes in his hymns, and from later musical terminology that referred to many of these hymns as being in bar form. However, there is no evidence that actual drinking songs were used as hymn tunes.

In addition to hymns, Luther also composed German liturgical chants used in the new German mass of 1526, as well as chant settings for various canticles, litanies, and a motet. Even so, Luther's most notable musical legacy is the German hymnody where, as was the impetus with much of the Reformation, the focus was on including the laity in the liturgy. Involving the laity with hymns was a teaching tool, as many hymns were modeled after sections of Luther' small catechism. For example, Vater unser is based on the Lord's Prayer. These hymns served as teaching tools for the poorly educated laity (and priests for that matter) during that time period, which was a major concern for Luther and his contemporaries. These Lutheran hymns were generally sung unaccompanied, but organs and choir supported congregational singing where such resources were available. Organ music would play a large role in Lutheran music later on.

One important note is that Luther never enacted liturgical rules, and even fought against such movements. There is little doubt that Luther was reacting to the strict rigors which defined Roman Catholic worship, but an absence of such rules would be problematic in years to come.

Late 16th Century and Early 17th Century

The Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation came to a climax in the mid-16th century with the Council of Trent. These reforms gave rise to more polyphonic music being used in the church. Such polyphonic works include oratorios, mass settings, and polychoral works. These new innovations in music influenced Lutheran musicians and ushered in the German baroque style.

Melchior Vulpius, Philipp Nicolai, Johann Crüger, and Paul Gerhardt were important hymn writers during the late 16th and early 17th centuries; while Michael Praetorius was influential in bringing Venetian styled music to Germany and Lutheran circles. Despite their work, much of the musical development during this period was stunted by the Thirty Years' War, which was fought throughout predominantly Lutheran areas of Germany. Both church and court musicians were a luxury most could not afford.

Organ

The organ had a peripheral role in church music beginning in the 8th or 9th century. In Lutheran church music, it was used to help lead congregational singing, playing verses in alternation with congregation or choir. By the end of the 16th century, organ music was being incorporated more and more frequently in the liturgy, providing meditative music in the form of preludes on hymn tunes or voluntary music during portions of the liturgy. Jan Sweelinck, Samuel Scheidt, and Franz Tunder were influential church organists during the early 17th century, but it was not until the rise of Bach and baroque organ music that the instrument solidified its place of prominence in Lutheran liturgical use.

Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz was instrumental in bringing the musical styles of Gabrieli and Monteverdi to Germany and Lutheran music. This Italian baroque style included polychoral elements, new counterpoint methods, emotive music, and textually focused compositions.

Almost all of Schütz's choral music finds its source in Biblical texts. He composed impressive settings of psalms, canticles, motets, and other sacred choral music. While polychoral music is a defining characteristic of Schütz's work, setting sizes varied with the time. When the Thirty Years' War pulled funds and people away from court music, works were written smaller in scale.

Schütz also wrote several large pieces in the oratorio style popular in Roman Catholic Italy. These pieces were multi-movement works, often having large instrumental sections which depicted scenes from Christ's life, such as the Nativity, Passion, or Resurrection. One of Schütz's most well known compositions, the Musikalische Exequien, was a requiem which utilized well known Lutheran hymns.

Mid-Baroque

Most well known for for his Canon in D, Johann Pachelbel was an influential Lutheran church musician. Also of importance during this period was the German-Danish composer Dieterich Buxtehude. Both musicians composed vocal, choral, chamber music, and organ works; and played significant roles in the development of the chorale prelude, fugue, and cantata. Pachelbel and Buxtehude continued to develop the chorale prelude, improving upon it as a musical form which eventually reached its peak in Bach's day. In addition to the chorale prelude, Pachelbel's use of the fugue and Buxtehude's use of the cantata were highly influential on Bach.

Other notable Lutheran musicians of the mid-baroque period included Johann Krieger, Franz Tunder, Nickolaus Bruhns, Johann Kuhnau, and Georg Telemann. Yet it was Bach who turned German Baroque into its highest form, and would rise to become one of the greatest musical composers of all time.

Bach and the Late-Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach was the zenith of German Baroque music, and the most influential Lutheran musician of all time. He was well known in his day as an organist, though generally not as a composer. His own music was received with mixed reviews, sometimes being sought after and at other times being reproached for being too secular, too popular, too obscure, or of inappropriate length.

Bach's compositions include sacred organ music such as chorale preludes, sacred and secular cantatas, concertos, and secular organ works; and his music has a quality of virtuosity both in composition and performance. Like other Lutherans before him, much of Bach's sacred music was based on German chorales; and chorale preludes were brought to a new height under Bach. Many of his sacred cantatas were based on a single hymn. For example, Bach's cantata on Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140) uses the popular melody in three movements. Bach also composed much larger works such as passions, a mass setting, and a setting of the Magnificat.

Bach's music has lived on to influence generations of musicians. Lutheran musicians influenced by Bach are uncountable, yet would certainly include Brahms, Mendelssohn, Reger, and Distler.

Pietism

A Lutheran movement parallel to Bach was pietism, which emphasized personal relationship with Jesus Christ and spiritual rebirth. From this movement came a host of new Lutheran hymnody

External links

• example.com