Martin Luther's Teachings and Art

Martin Luther was one of the most, if not the most, important theologians and composers during the Reformation. His thoughts and actions sparked the radical movement that changed Christianity into what many Christian followers still practice today. Starting in Germany, the movement spread all across Europe and resulted in a dramatic change not only in the churches of the time, but also in society and the music. Of course, with any dramatic change comes fighting and in turn there were many battles fought during this time as well.

The Reformation was a time of political and religious upheaval that was mostly brought on by a difference in opinion about the theology behind the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was the catalyst behind it all but he wasn’t the only activist. There were two other men that helped spread this new idea across Europe. Jean Calvin led what was known as the “Calvinist Movement” and King Henry VIII also led his own movement.

While each man was essentially fighting the same battle, they all had slightly differing opinions on some of the finer details. This resulted in each of them having different groups of followers.

Martin Luther was a professor at the University of Wittenberg who taught theology. His background in humanism greatly affected the way he taught and it ultimately affected the way he thought about religion. He also thought that people could ensure their salvation not by their actions, but by their unwavering faith. This was one of the stark differences between the theology of the Catholic Church and Martin Luther’s ideas.

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In October of 1517, Martin Luther wrote many of his differing ideas and posted them on the door of the church. While he gained many supporters throughout the community for this act, he was excommunicated by the pope when the Catholic authority urged him to take back what he had said and he refused. (J. Peter Burkholder Pg. 215).,

Music in the Lutheran church was mostly in the language of the area and didn’t include much Latin. But, he did keep some of the language because he thought it was important that the young people knew how to understand Latin (J. Peter Burkholder Pg. 215). As stated previously, Martin Luther was an exemplary composer and performer. Because of this, music was an integral part of the Lutheran Church service. A very common part of many church services today is congregational singing. This practice wouldn’t be used today if it hadn’t been for Martin Luther. Singing in the Catholic church was mostly reserved for chants and sung mostly by choirs or certain special authority figures so congregational singing was a new and radical change from the typical Catholic service. Although the Lutheran service differed from the Catholic service, Martin Luther did use some of the chants that had been used in the Catholic services and modified them. He also used melodies from secular songs and put appropriate words to them. This practice is known as “contrafactum” (J. Peter Burkholder Pg. 217). The hymns (or “chorales”) Luther used for congregational singing are pretty similar to what we would classify as a hymn today. Today they are often sung in four part harmony but in Luther’s time they were sung in unison with no harmony. But, composers in this time started composing more complicated chorale settings that were mostly intended to be performed by larger groups outside of the church. But, they could of course be performed by a church choir as well. The composers who wrote these intended them to help guide the young people away from their sinful, secular ways (J. Peter Burkholder Pg. 219).

Another influential composer around this time was Orlande De Lasso. He was then known as the Duke of Bavaria and served as duke for around forty years (J. Peter Burkholder Pg. 257). During this time, the Catholic church rallied and developed what we know as the Counter-Reformation. This was basically just the Catholic Church responding to the groups that were challenging their authority. This time was just as influential in bringing about musical change as the Reformation was.

Orlando De Lasso wrote a lot of music for the church. While many people place emphasis on the success of Palestrina and his compositions, Lasso’s music was text driven which is of course important in a church setting when trying to convey the message of the Bible. Lasso wrote a plethora of masses but he is most well known for the motets he wrote.

This era of history had a radical affect not only on church and society but on music as well. The change in the Church spurred the creation of music that is still being used today. Even though most of the doctrines of the church have been changed since then, it had a profound effect on the church service and practice of religion.