Peront ⦁ Re-forming Music 54 advocated for this denomination to be called the “Evangelical church,” preferring his name to be unaffiliated; nevertheless, over time, the term “Evangelical Lutheran Church” became standardized. This denomination differed from the Catholic Church in both theology and church practice. Furthermore, this movement separated Luther from his contemporary, Jean Calvin, who led the Reformation in France beginning around 1536, a few decades after Luther did in Germany. Though Luther and Calvin agreed on the theological basis of the Reformation, they differed greatly in their beliefs regarding the methods and content of congregational worship. Both men contributed greatly to church music in creating new melodies. Luther expanded upon counterpoint and polyphony, but Calvin denied any beneficial qualities of these methods. Calvin considered anything other than monophony to be unholy or improper.16 He believed that polyphony was a distraction in worship; the contrasting melodic lines blurred the lyrics, which made it, in his opinion, a less worthy method of praise. On the other hand, Luther argued that counterpoint was remarkable; he was fascinated by the intertwining of voices, singing independent lines simultaneously.17 For Calvin, music had to be directly tied to biblical texts,18 while Luther wrote many of his own original chorales simply inspired by the Scriptures. This also differed from the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. In “Catholic and Calvinist thought alike, religious song was primarily a human activity intended to satisfy a debt of worship, whether due to the saints or to God himself….For Lutherans, the hymns were a form of God’s Word, through which God himself was active to strengthen and comfort his people in faith.”19 While all of these groups saw worship as a way of communicating with God, the Calvinists saw any music that was not directly scriptural as being sensuous and unfit for worship.20 Luther, however, saw the power of all music to be genuine and applicable to church worship in every way. Furthermore, he believed that denying oneself of the enjoyment of music is to blatantly reject a gift that God has given to mankind.21 16 Westermeyer, 159. 17 Witte and Wheeler, 76. 18 Witte and Wheeler, 80. 19 Brown, 24. 20 Tarry, 356. 21 Tarry, 357.
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