Protest songs and the singing of Psalms – Luther as a musician
Photo: epd-bild/Frank SommarivaLuther, making music in the circle of his family (Painting by Gustav Adolph Spangenberg).Singing was one of the earliest traits of people of Lutheran faith – and one of the sharpest weapons of the Reformation. Luther himself wrote and composed catchy tunes, which the Protestants belted out as protest songs. The German Reformer was a talented musician, who loved melodious voices and instruments. His musical work certainly gave a strong impetus to the culture of singing and orchestra music in Germany.
Unlike the Swiss Reformers Zwingli and Calvin, Martin Luther never uttered criticism about music. In his table talks, he praised "musica" as a "wonderful and divine gift", which makes the people "joyful". A gift that the devil "does not like to gain".
Luther's great appreciation of music probably made a vital contribution to music culture in Germany – in Protestant as well as in Catholic circles. Music at school is considered to be of high pedagogical value. Some families cultivate the tradition of private concerts. Around 1875, the painter Gustav Spangenberg created the history painting "Luther makes music with his family" and popularised for his era the idea of the Lutheran primordial cell of domestic music. Perhaps Luther has played a part in the fact that Germany has brought fourth many famous composers.
As a caroler from door to door
Martin Luther developed his love for music at exactly the place where the theme year of the Luther Decade "Reformation and Music" is just being opened: in Eisenach. Here, in his parents' home town, Luther attended Latin school for four years from 1497 onwards. He studied music theory and sang in the Chorus Musicus of the church of St. George. The naves, in which 14-year-old Martin is likely to have sat at that time, can still be seen there today.
Photo: Wikimedia-Commons/Prof.WeißLuther as caroler in the house of the Cotta family (painting)Luther also sang with the Eisenach Carolers, a choir of schoolchildren that sang for money during celebrations and other events. With other carolers he walked through the city in order to beg for "Parteken" (i.e. particles, things which are necessary for life) at the doors of the rich patricians. Later, in one of his table talks, Luther called the mendicant carolers "Parteken stallions".
He also belonged to the circle of students around the patrician family Cotta, where he was much liked. Simple songs and polyphonic motets were sung there in a sociable atmosphere. Later, at the University of Erfurt, Luther not only studied theology but also music and counterpoint, a technique of song and composition. He played the lute and was such an accomplished musician that a fellow student praised him as "musicus et philosophus eruditus“, an erudite musician and philosopher.
“Only the choir of clerics sings"
Later, when the 95 theses, several disputations, and his courageous appearance before the Emperor in Worms had made him famous, Luther introduced German congregational song to the church services in his university city of Wittenberg.
In his treatise "Formula missae“ (1523) he lamented that "only the choir of clerics sings and responds when the bishop blesses the bread or holds Mass." In order to revive the early Christian practice of congregational song, he demanded "German songs for the people to sing during Mass" – they did not yet exist.
In Wittenberg, Luther was able to have his demands met. German Songs can already be found right at the beginning and after the reading of the Epistle during the German Mass of 1526, the Wittenberg church service in German. After the Gospel reading, Luther's hymn "Wir glauben all an einen Gott" ("We all believe in one God") was sung. During the liturgy of the Lord's Supper, the congregation also sang. Soon, the songs were printed in special hymn books for the congregation –together with prayers, liturgical customs and explanations and reflections.
Effective propaganda for the cause of the Reformation
However, it is not due to Luther's liturgical reform that singing became the signature trait of the Protestants. Luther wrote his first famous song because he was angry about the execution by burning of Augustinian monks who were in favour of the Reformation, which had happened on July 1st, 1523, in Brussels. Luther was shocked about the harsh consequences his followers had to bear, and commented on the gruesome event with music. In the style of mendicant minstrels, he described the tortured victims as heroes. His song was spread on broadsheets:
With joy they submitted themselves,
praising God and singing.
The sophists lost their courage
because of these new events
where God made himself known.
The verses of the song were catchy and could be easily memorised. They proved to be an effective propaganda for the cause of the Reformation.
Proclamation of the "glad tidings"
In the same year, Luther wrote several more songs. They proclaimed the program of the Reformation. As a continuation of his preface to the New Testament in German (1522), where he explains the word "Gospel" as "good news", as "glad tidings … about which one sings, talks and is joyful", he rhymed:
Now rejoice, Christian fold
and let us dance with joy
that we sing with gladness and love,
confidently and united.
The song was published at the end of 1523 in the "Achtliederbuch" (Book of Eight Songs) in Nuremberg, which was the first collection of Reformation songs. It contained "several Christian hymns, songs of praise, and psalms, from the Holy Scripture according to the Word of God, created by several scholars and meant to be sung at church, as it is already the custom in Wittenberg." Four of the eight songs were written by Luther, three by the Reformer Paul Speratus, who worked in Moravia, one is anonymous.
Singing as consolation and defiance
It seemed that Luther took a fancy to writing songs. He created 24 of them in the following twelve months, amongst them the well-known Psalm "From depth of woe I cry to thee" (after Psalm 131). The melody of the hymn, as we know it today, was also composed by Luther. It demonstrates his musical abilities and his artistic talent. With the second word "depth", the melody descends a fifth, in order to raise with the word "woe" towards a mournful semitone above the original note. All 24 years that were written during that year were published in Johan Walter's choir book of 1524, skilfully set in harmony for the use of school choirs.
The most famous Reformation song, "A mighty fortess is our God" was composed comparatively late – around 1529, perhaps even around the time of the Imperial Diet of Speyer, where the Lutheran leaders left the assembly in protest (and thus created the name "Protestants"). This setting to music of Psalm 46 is a song of consolation, a self-ascertainment of the Protestants: Christ holds the fort, God's word fells the devil – and the Kingdom of God remains reserved for those of the right faith.
The "old believers" were "sung down"
"A mighty fortress" was not actually meant to be a song in remembrance of the Reformation. In the church year, Luther allocated it to the time of fasting before Easter, But soon it was sung as a protest song. Legend tells that, in 1532, a congregation in Schweinfurt "sang down" a priest of the old faith. Even more, the young people sang the song on the streets of Schweinfurt, and soon the Reformation was introduced in the city.
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsProtest song of the Protestants: "A mighty fortress is our God", first printed in the Klugsches Gesangbuch (1533).Other Lutheran songs are also said to have been used as protest songs. Elsewhere, a preacher of the old faith was drowned out with "Look down, oh Lord, from heaven behold". Craftsmen from Göttingen interrupted a procession on Corpus Christi Day with "In deep distress I cry to thee" and other German psalm songs – until the "kyrie eleis" was not audible any more. In the valley of Gastein near Salzburg, citizens are said to have disrupted funerals in a similar manner.
Singing was one of the sharpest weapons of the Reformation. In the episcopal city of Hildesheim, it was therefore forbidden to sing on the streets – at first in 1524, and then again in 1531. In 1526, shoemaker apprentices were reported to the priest, because they sang Protestant songs amongst themselves. Until today, songs are often part of protests. There was a lot of singing during the blockade of the nuclear weapons base in Mutlangen, during demonstrations at the nuclear waste disposal facility in Gorleben and during the peaceful revolution in 1989 in the German Democratic Republic – even including Protestant songs like "Come, Lord, bless us so that we may not be separated".
Even today, Luther is the most popular poet in Protestant hymn books
Since it was first published in 1535, one of Luther's most popular hymn is considered to be a children's song: "From Heaven above to Earth I come.“ The angel of annunciation, who sings about the "glad tidings", presents himself like a mendicant minstrel on the market place. As a matter of fact, Luther used a secular original and made hardly any changes:
I come from foreign lands
and bring you many tidings
I bring so many tidings,
more than I want to tell you now.
In 1539, Luther added his own melody. It moves within an octave from the highest to the lowest note. This his how the song, which is a well-known Christmas carol today, describes the movement of the angels from heaven to earth.
The year before Luther died in 1546, he had still written a preface to the most concise Lutheran hymnal of that time: the Babstsches Gesangbuch. Until the 18th century, Lutheran hymnals use this collection as an orientation. And today, Luther is still the most popular poet in Protestant hymn books.
Foto: chrismon.deBurkhard Weitz ist editor of the Protestant magazine "chrismon", as well as director of the portal zivil.de, the website for Protestant voluntary services. He has studied theology and religious science in Bielefeld, Hamburg, Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Philadelphia (USA), is a trained pastor and journalist.
