Type of Submission
Podium Presentation
Keywords
Church, music, Luther, Deutche Messe, Contrafactum Lieder, Kantorei, Lutheran Mass, Vernacular hymns
Proposal
After the Reformation in 1529, Martin Luther’s theology began to influence the customs of church worship leading to widespread modifications in both the role and function of music in the Lutheran church. This paper explores how Luther thought of music in church worship and how his philosophies resulted in gradual changes in the musical liturgy of the Lutheran church throughout the sixteenth century. As was true of the Catholic church, Lutheran music served to structure the service, but it also served as a means of broadcasting the theological doctrine of the Lutheran church through vernacular hymns that elaborated on the essential Reformed doctrines Luther wished to instill in the congregants. Additionally, elements in the music itself became representative of certain theological truths. Because the congregation could understand the words to the songs, the music now served another new role of unifying the church as a community set on glorifying God. While still maintaining the integrity of the music and its foundations in Latin chant, Luther promoted the practice of composing using Contrafactum Lieder based on secular tunes that would be easy for the congregants to learn. For example, he took the words of portions of the Latin Mass Ordinary and translated them into German in the Deutche Messe. Thus, through the work of Martin Luther and other musicians in the newly formed Lutheran congregations, church music was changed in a variety of ways that would pour into the centuries to come.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
2023
The Role of Music in the Sixteenth-Century Lutheran Church
After the Reformation in 1529, Martin Luther’s theology began to influence the customs of church worship leading to widespread modifications in both the role and function of music in the Lutheran church. This paper explores how Luther thought of music in church worship and how his philosophies resulted in gradual changes in the musical liturgy of the Lutheran church throughout the sixteenth century. As was true of the Catholic church, Lutheran music served to structure the service, but it also served as a means of broadcasting the theological doctrine of the Lutheran church through vernacular hymns that elaborated on the essential Reformed doctrines Luther wished to instill in the congregants. Additionally, elements in the music itself became representative of certain theological truths. Because the congregation could understand the words to the songs, the music now served another new role of unifying the church as a community set on glorifying God. While still maintaining the integrity of the music and its foundations in Latin chant, Luther promoted the practice of composing using Contrafactum Lieder based on secular tunes that would be easy for the congregants to learn. For example, he took the words of portions of the Latin Mass Ordinary and translated them into German in the Deutche Messe. Thus, through the work of Martin Luther and other musicians in the newly formed Lutheran congregations, church music was changed in a variety of ways that would pour into the centuries to come.
