Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship

Music and Meaning in German Reformation Controversies
Patrick Gilday, Jesus College, University of Oxford

When Johannes Cochlaeus wrote, in 1549, that Lutheran doctrine frequently clashed with the faith of the Church catholic, he chose his metaphor carefully: Lutheranism was, he opined, “dissonant” with real Christianity. That Cochlaeus--musical treatisist and Catholic controversialist--should have condemned Lutheranism via a musical reference might appear to be merely poetic writing. But others employed the same mechanism, and it is clear that in early sixteenth-century Germany, musical difference was an important metaphor for doctrinal difference. Georg Witzel, for instance, an ex-Lutheran Catholic hymnologist, reckoned in 1548 that Lutheran singing practices were actually proof of heresy. Conrad Wimpina (1528) doubted that doctrinal conformity could be separated from the way that doctrine was sung. The (reformed) hymnologist of Strasbourg, Katharina Zell, maintained in the foreword to her 1535 hymnbook that reformed song was necessarily godlier than its unreformed equivalent. Even Martin Luther himself claimed that what was sung by an individual believer somehow made the believer’s confession efficacious.

On closer inspection, however, two different approaches to the relationship between music conformity and religious orthodoxy emerge, and they break along chronological lines. Those writers old enough to have experienced the Reformation personally (Zell, Eberlin von Günzburg, Cochlaeus, Eck, Luther and Wimpina) imply that music is a form of confession, rather than a vehicle for it. This understanding of music is common to both sides of the confessional divide. Younger writers (Witzel, and the music treatisists Listenius and Faber) whose experience of the Reformation was second-hand find greater significance in what is being sung than in the practice of singing itself.

The distinction between the older view on the one hand, and the more modern humanists’ on the other, can be distilled to a question of where each side placed music in terms of its relationship to meaning. This paper examines that relationship in the writings of Lutheran and Romanist theologians in early sixteenth-century Germany, and seeks to draw wider conclusions about how we might view musica poetica--musical poetics--in the context of early modern German religious discourses.

No Need of Much and Elaborate Singing”: Another Look at Martin Luther’s Theology of Music
Carl Bear, Yale Institute of Sacred Music

In the preface to his Deutsche Messe, Martin Luther outlines three possible shapes that a reformed liturgy could take. The first two options are well-known: the Formula Missae, and the Deutsche Messe. The last option, however, has not often been considered. This “Third Way” proposes liturgical reforms that are much farther reaching than either of the other options. In this single paragraph, Luther describes what he considers to be an ideal worship service, which is suitable only for “earnest” Christians. These believers should meet in a house for a simple service of word and sacrament, prayer and works of love. Emphasis is placed on actively living a Christian life, which is especially manifested in giving to the poor. In addition, Luther writes that “here would be no need of much and elaborate singing.” This statement, which minimizes the importance of music in Luther’s ideal liturgy, is surprising in light of the very affirmative view of music with which he is usually associated.

On closer investigation, however, this statement is not as surprising as it initially seems. In fact, Luther frequently criticized the use of liturgical music throughout much of his career. These negative statements about liturgical music are closely related to Luther’s liturgical theology. A detailed investigation of Luther’s liturgical and sacramental writings reveals that the ideas presented in his Third Way, including his reservations about music, are integral elements in his understanding of the liturgy. For Luther, liturgical music is one of the many external ceremonies added to the original simplicity of the sacrament as instituted by Christ, and therefore is unnecessary and even problematic. In an ideal liturgy, music could be omitted. But Luther did not live in an ideal world, so he allowed and encouraged the use of liturgical music as a pastoral concession for the weak.

Schütz’s Interpretations of the Jubilate
Joshua Waggener, Durham University

Scholarship on Heinrich Schütz’s sacred compositions has traditionally focused on the composer’s skill in interpreting biblical texts through music using procedures such as Baroque music figures and precise text declamation (Leaver, Fain, Jones). More recently, however, Bettina Varwig has shown how Schütz’s overall rhetorical skill combines such practices with structural procedures to express texts artfully and convincingly. In her study of Schütz’s “formal-expressive strategies,” rhetorical strategies are explored in a wide range of compositions, including three settings of Psalm 8 (“Herr, unser Herrscher,” SWV 449, 27, and 343) and the famous “Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich” (SWV 415). In her analysis, she demonstrates how Schütz applies his innate knowledge of Erasmian rhetorical practices to effectively set biblical texts in unique, expressive ways.

This paper applies Varwig’s methodology to one of Schütz’s settings of the Jubilate, Psalm 100, a brief psalm that features prominently in the composer’s output. Of his five extant settings, one is found in his Der Schwanengesang (1671): “Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt” for two choirs and continuo (SWV 493). Through various compositional techniques, this setting demonstrates a rhetorical emphasis of at least two themes: first, the theme of “joyful singing and praise,” and secondly, an emphasis on knowing the identity of God and his people. By investigating the compositional and rhetorical procedures in this Jubilate setting, this paper considers Schütz’s theological interpretation of Psalm 100. His theological interpretation is then related to theological emphases in early Lutheranism, especially in the doctrine of Martin Luther. Lastly, Schütz’s approach to psalm interpretation is related to Luther’s hermeneutical approach to the psalms.