Musical Offerings Soli Deo Gloria An Undergraduate Journal of Musicology Spring 2024 Volume 15, Number 1
Editor-in-Chief Sandra S. Yang, Ph.D. Professor of Music History, Cedarville University Associate Editor Kathryn P. Carnegis Digital Commons Director, Cedarville University M.B.A., Wright State University Assistant Editors Phillipa Burgess, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, Sinclair Community College Managing Editor Tricia Clark, B.A. Library Digital Services Specialist, Cedarville University Copy Editor Jacy A. Cina B.A. Music, Cedarville University Student Editor Allison Renner B.M. Student, Keyboard Pedagogy, Cedarville University On the cover: Saint Augustine, painted in 1650 by Philippe de Champaigne. In this painting, Augustine gazes up at the word “veritas,” translated as “truth,” and holds a flaming heart in his left hand. These items are to show that his heart burns with love for God and he wishes only to write truth. This painting is in public domain provided by Los Angeles County Museum of Art online database. Musical Offerings is an online, open-access journal published by the Cedarville University Department of Music and Worship. Since 2010, it has published articles in the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, music history, and church music history. This journal is available in print as well as electronically through Cedarville’s institutional repository, DigitalCommons@Cedarville. ISSN 2167-3799 (Online) ISSN 2330-8206 (Print) http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/
Contents Spring 2024 Volume 15, Number 1 Psalms and Saints in the Offices: From Prayerful Praise to Commemorating Cults 1 Paul Scanlon Making Music in the House of God: How Augustine Influenced Jean Calvin and Martin Luther’s Opinions on Musical Worship 13 Emma Ross Violin Intonation: The Connection between the Violin’s Tuning System and Performance 23 Marion Joyce Johnson
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 1 Musical Offerings 15, no. 1 (2024): 1–12 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2024, Paul Scanlon, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Psalms and Saints in the Offices: From Prayerful Praise to Commemorating Cults Paul Scanlon Cedarville University hat filled the meditations of the devoted Medieval Christian? What tune did he whistle as he worked? What truths formed the common language of Christian communities? The answers to all these questions likely would have been some anthem or antiphon from the Divine Offices. These daily services provided structure to the day and were the primary source for intaking biblical truth. Ideas that are sung are remembered, and ideas sung repeatedly shape communities. However, the question remains: What words would these chant-based services engrain in their participants? This culturebuilding shared vocabulary was adapted with the passing of time, for through the addition of saints’ feast days and the integration of the civic and religious arenas, the predominant textual content of chants in the Divine Offices evolved from Psalms to saints’ biographies. Correspondingly, the purpose of the Offices shifted from continual prayer to God to the advancement and preservation of local cults. This investigation will begin with examining the original structure of the Divine Offices before proceeding to explore their content and historical context. The Offices were a set of liturgical services for each day regularly practiced in monasteries beginning in the Middle Ages. The rhythm of services, or Hours, can be traced to the third and fourth centuries, though the standard structure of the Offices was established by St. Benedict in the sixth century.1 Each day of the Office begins at evening with Vespers followed by Compline in the late evening, Matins at midnight, Lauds at daybreak, Prime at 6 a.m., Terce at 9 a.m., Sext at noon, and None at 3 p.m.2 These Hours were additionally categorized into the major Hours (Vespers, Matins, and Lauds) and minor Hours 1 Dobszay, 1; Treitler in Rule of St. Benedict, 159. 2 Baltzer, Prelude. W
2 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints (Compline, Terce, Sext, and None) based on their length. Although the Offices originated in monasteries, they were also performed in churches and involved the laity along with the clerics.3 Like the elements of the Mass, which was derived from the Offices, the Offices were also classified as Ordinary or Proper. The Ordinary, or ferial, Offices followed the constant weekly pattern of elements while the Proper, or festal, Offices could be modified to fit the occasion.4 Though the structure of each Hour remained essentially the same no matter the day, chant melodies and some texts were altered for the celebration of church feast days. This consistent structure can be found from the beginning of the Offices in the Rule of St. Benedict. In St. Benedict’s structure, the Offices provided a systematic method for rehearsing core truths in his communities. Specifically, this Italian monk was chiefly concerned with arranging a schedule for singing through the entire Book of Psalms in a week. Indeed, Psalms are the primary textual content for each Hour. The majority of elements are chants such as antiphons or responsories, both of which St. Benedict describes by their use of the Psalms.5 To reinforce the importance of the Psalms, he closes his outline of the Offices with this admonishment: “[M]onks who sing less than the Psalter with its customary canticles in the course of a week display a lack of dedication and devotion, whereas we read of our holy fathers who arduously fulfilled in a single day what we tepid souls accomplish in an entire week.”6 Similarly, his other purposes for establishing the Offices were rooted in directives from the Psalms. He cites Psalm 119:164 — “Seven times during the day I have spoken thy praise” — as the model for his seven daytime Hours, and he supports his reasoning behind the midnight service of Matins with a verse from the same Psalm.7 St. Benedict’s vision recycled a tradition from pre-Christ Jewish communities and the apostolic church practice of psalmody (singing through the Psalms).8 Attached to the idea of psalmody is the concept of “praying without 3 Dobszay, 3. 4 Baltzer, Prelude. 5 St. Benedict, 160. 6 St. Benedict, 164. 7 Quoted in St. Benedict, 162. 8 Hoppin, 80.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 3 ceasing”9 which manifested in the Offices through the distribution of the Hours throughout the day. No more than four or five hours passed between daytime Hours and the regular reminders to praise the Lord. The sections of the day were divided by the Hours, essentially tying church and monastic life to the Scriptures and prayer. Continual praise and a posture of reverence were St. Benedict’s objectives as he sought to follow the commands from the Psalms to sing at all times to the Lord who is ever-watching.10 His organization of daily services never strayed far from the spirit of the Psalms. Psalmody also has formal precedent through the influence of the papacy. Roman liturgical practice was intensely focused on the Psalms as evidenced by the proclamations of multiple popes as recorded in Liber pontifacilis (The Book of Popes), a chronicle of the lives of the early popes that was first compiled in the seventh century.11 Pope Damus decreed that “the psalms should be chanted day and night in all the churches … and monasteries” and Pope Celestine I “appointed that the 150 Psalms of David should be chanted antiphonally before the sacrifice by everyone.”12 Although the Offices are primarily associated with rural monastic life, this papal attention to psalmody shows that the whole fabric of religious life, starting even from the top of the church hierarchy, was deeply concerned with the Psalms. The Benedictine Offices merely popularized a standardization of what was already a common practice, and their founder’s dedication to the Psalms was realized their content. Of the three musical elements of the Benedictine Offices, two, the antiphon and the responsory, derived most of their text from the Psalms. An antiphon is traditionally sung by two choirs alternating verses or half verses from a psalm. A prominent phrase is selected as a quasi-refrain (also called an antiphon) and could be interspersed throughout the chant.13 The text from this refrain antiphon also became the name for the antiphon as a whole. Antiphons make up the majority of elements within the Offices and are the chief means for singing through the Psalter.14 Responsories are musically more elaborate than antiphons and follow 9 Dobszay, 2. 10 St. Benedict, 164. 11 Loomis, xxi. 12 Loomis, 82–83, 92. 13 Weinmann, 20. 14 Weinmann, 19.
4 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints lessons and readings in the major Hours.15 Traditionally, they could contain as much as a whole chapter from the Psalms or as little as a single verse, although they evolved within a couple centuries to regularly include synthesized texts from throughout the Scriptures.16 The final musical category, hymns, was the least frequent element and they were often banned in different regions because of their non-scriptural content.17 By far, the main content of St. Benedict’s Offices was the Book of Psalms, and its constant repetition would have engraved those sacred words onto the minds of the participants. This saturation of the liturgy with Psalms was maintained, even against the first inroads of corruption in following centuries. The original foundation of the Offices in the Psalms and other Scripture was reaffirmed throughout the early Middle Ages as is exemplified through the efforts of Helisachar from the ninth century. He was employed by the Archbishop of Narbonne in Southern France to investigate the “appropriateness” of a few of the pairings of different antiphons and verses, but he found larger patterns of incongruity and lack of authority for the texts in use in that region.18 He explicitly ascribed authority only to texts directly derived from Scripture or early church fathers, and he toiled with a large team to ensure everything was derived from either of these two sources. In the end, he could declare “we have rejected those antiphons and responsories that were lacking in authority and reason and were thus unworthy to be sung in the praise of God.”19 Such intentions and diligence are commendable throughout all generations. His zeal for renewing the scriptural authority of the Offices extended even to overseeing the teaching of old forgotten melodies so that the Offices’ original spirit might be renewed. Although Helisachar’s actions were restricted to a certain time and region, they reflect a broader, conservative pattern. Even as the days for the festal Offices were increasingly standardized, the dedication to the Psalms initially remained intact. While different antiphons were selected to match the subject matter of each feast day, the exceptions to the normal structure were usually rearranging the order of the Psalms rather 15 Hughes, The Versified Office, 236. 16 Weinmann, 18–19; Baltzer, Ch. 7. 17 Weinmann, 20. 18 Helisachar, 176. 19 Helisachar, 177.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 5 than adding new text.20 While the festal Offices later came to be associated with feast days of various saints, they began mostly with sacred days tied to events in the life of Christ. Although chant in the Mass, particularly the Proper, became increasingly separated from the tradition of psalmody, this change did not pervade within the Offices until the tenth century.21 The Offices rarely wavered from the authority of the Scriptures in their early years. From the beginning, the Offices were rooted in Scripture, establishing communities who inhaled and exhaled the Psalms. This commitment to the highest authority was maintained for many generations, passed down in local communities as a conservative tradition. St. Benedict and Helisachar stand as inspiring examples of men who brought reform to their communities by reestablishing old truths. Yet, new feast days celebrating the saints slowly shifted the unified focus of liturgy for the Offices, shaking the immutable commitment to Scripture. This shift provided the opportunity for a whole new function of the Offices to emerge. Beginning as early as the seventh century, the church calendar blossomed with new feast days,22 each of which required an entire set of services for the Offices, often including a Mass as well, with new text and often new melodies.23 While early church calendars were predominantly governed by the Christocentric seasons of Lent and Advent, these were enhanced by specific feasts and supplemented by a bevy of additional feasts associated with saints.24 For example, by 1085 the Paris church calendar had expanded to fifty-four annual feast days, most of which commemorated saints.25 Although the hierarchy of the Catholic structure tended to standardize which feasts were celebrated in the various jurisdictions, the actual details of the celebrations were left to the individual churches and monasteries, leading to a rich variety of Offices as each community created their own services.26 20 Hoppin, 95, 101. 21 Hoppin, 104; This date is both arbitrary and debatable, but it is based on a synthesis of Page, Hughes, Brand, and Batzler. 22 Quoted in Aspesi, “Liturgy and History in the Early Middle Ages,” 6. 23 Hoppin, 173–174. 24 Aspesi, “Introduction,” 1. 25 Baltzer, Ch. 7. 26 Hoppin, 173.
6 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints This local authority over liturgical text spurred innovations to the Offices through the influence of the cults of the saints. Church districts and monasteries were frequently associated with a patron saint who either founded the monastery or lived in the town, and these saints became icons of sovereignty, especially over land. As Brand observes, “In the middle ages, religious communities such as churches, monasteries, or entire cities defined themselves in relation to the local saints whose relics they possessed and whose patronage they thus claimed.”27 Increasingly, land ownership was tied to an ancient saint that could be manipulated to lend support to a living landowner, count, or clergy member.28 Commonly, cults of saints were fiercely competitive with rival cults from other towns29 in a convoluted mixture of religion and politics. Even in the absence of manipulation, the cults could also bring peace to the public when there was no strong governmental power by harkening back to an idealized history.30 The cults of the saints were essentially civic phenomena that recruited and used the church to celebrate their cherished foundations. Indeed, the historical record shows that the most elaborate services for a particular saint were written and used in a town tied to their cult.31 One of the chief agents for spreading the fame of local saints was through the work of the cantors. The position of cantor was associated with the responsibility of organizing the liturgy at a church or monastery, and this manifested in several duties. Most famously, they led the community during the musical portions of services and they oversaw the other musicians in rehearsals and performances. Additionally, they selected the texts for readings and prepared the services for the different feast days. Within the monasteries, cantors also presided over the library, facilitating the work of the scribes, organizing the expanding liturgy, and writing liturgical works of their own.32 Especially within this role as librarian, the cantor “kept the time” by blending history, Scripture, and hagiography (narratives about the saints) into a personalized liturgy for the community.33 Through this liturgical function, cantors participated 27 Brand, 1. 28 Page, 400–401, 394. 29 Brand, 28. 30 Page, 403. 31 Hoppin, 173. 32 Aspesi, “Introduction,” 3. 33 Aspesi, 2.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 7 in the cults of the saints. In Medieval Cantors and Their Craft, the editors note that “[i]nstitutional history was shaped in and through hagiography, and cantors, time and again, did the work to foster, translate and maintain their communities’ treasured cults.”34 As a direct result of this framework, the Offices became focused on history as civic tradition merged with religious devotion.35 Cantors began to recast vitae (lives of saints) as historiae (biographical narratives which defended the holy status of the saint) through the medium of new, versified Offices. This was, as Richard Hoppin described it, “the final stage in the dissolution of antiphonal psalmody.”36 A versified Office is a liturgy for the Hours that is set with rhyming text. Over one thousand of these versified Offices have been found and catalogued, and most were written for the feast days of local saints.37 They were written across the continent of Europe, from Italy to Scandinavia, commemorating hundreds of traditions in a multitude of communities. 38 Within an Office for a saint, text was mostly drawn from the vitae of that saint and could be inserted into every element, from the lessons of Matins to the antiphons and responsories.39 In a stark contrast to the Benedictine office, while the basic structure remained, the content of each element no longer found its root in psalmody or scriptural quotations. It is not until the twentieth century that efforts have been made to compile such a vast repertoire, and there is not much contemporary literature that attempts to consider this complex genre as a whole.40 While case studies abound, it is not valid to draw general conclusions from individual Offices; yet the following examples do illustrate a sampling of the extent of liberties cantors employed, and they reveal motives that may have been widespread during the late Medieval period. 34 Aspesi, 3. 35 Aspesi, 1; Brand, 3. 36 Hoppin, 104. 37 Brand, 1-2. 38 Peattie, 1; Bergsagel, Introduction. 39 Baltzer, Ch. 7; Weinmann, 20–21. 40 Hughes, Late Medieval Liturgical Offices.
8 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints The first saint to inspire text modification in the Offices was the Virgin Mary.41 Her inclusion within the liturgy can be traced back into the seventh century, and the cult surrounding her created several feast days, including Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, and Nativity.42 By the thirteenth century in Notre Dame, the Little Office of the Virgin was performed almost every week day, following each of the normal Hours with an Hour from the Little Office.43 It was sung even on some feast days honoring other saints, and during the ferial days (days with no Mass or saint’s feast), “the Little Office of the Virgin ‘shadowed’ the Office of the day.”44 While the text of the Psalms is still kept for the antiphons of the Little Office, the opening phrases which were repeated throughout the antiphons were now drawn from the feast of the Assumption, and the responsories, lessons, and hymns were all focused on the Virgin Mary. The extensive veneration of the Virgin in Notre Dame, the cathedral named in honor of her, spurred daily devotion to her in the Offices that was echoed as far away as the region of Rome and papal jurisdiction.45 Two points are worthy of note concerning the Offices surrounding the Virgin Mary. First, they preserve the original focus of the Benedictine Offices on prayer, although they are redirected. Rachel Fulton Brown’s analysis of Medieval prayers in her book, From Judgement to Passion, presents countless examples of prayers to the Blessed Mother drawn from the liturgy of the day, Offices and Masses. However, while St. Benedict used Scripture itself as the content of prayers to God in the ferial Offices so that the Psalms were the textual emphasis, the prayers Brown details use the Psalms as supporting material, supplements to prayer directed towards Mary herself. The object of the Offices shifted from a universal God to a saint who could be claimed by one locality over another. Second, this emphasis on prayer eventually morphed into the “Hours of the Virgin” in the Book of Hours, a late Medieval devotional designed for private veneration.46 This legacy from the Offices seems to have endured the centuries with greater success than the Offices themselves, preserving the tradition of daily worship while removing the requirement for corporate music. 41 Weinmann, 20. 42 Brown, 205; Hoppin, 173; Brown, 216. 43 Baltzer, 463. 44 Baltzer, Ch. 20. 45 Brown, 224-225. 46 Batzler, Ch. 20.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 9 Not all cults enjoyed the same wide-spread support and expression as the Virgin’s. In 768 the Italian city of Benevento in Lombardy was rising in political power as it sought to retain independence from the neighboring city states and the invading armies of Charlemagne.47 In that same year, the Duke of Benevento sought to reinforce his power through acquiring relics and establishing cults around them, most prominently the cult of St. Mercurius and the cult of the Holy Twelve Brothers. Essential to this process was the creation of liturgies, specifically Offices, to recount the historiae of these saints in the local style. Benevento had a unique compositional method for their chants, employing melodic formulae as units which could be repeated throughout the chant (similar to Galant style schemata) and were drawn from a common repertory, and these new Offices should have been completed in this distinct style.48 Unfortunately, Charlemagne succeeded in his conquests and gained full control of Lombardy in 774. To consolidate his authority, he began to standardize the liturgies into the neo-Gregorian style, eliminating the local styles.49 This rapid power shift is observable in the Offices for St. Mercurius and the Holy Twelve Brothers which use mostly neoGregorian style but also include three antiphons in Beneventan style.50 Such an eclectic style evidences the power local Benevento culture exerted even after Carolingian standardization. This musical mixture of compositional styles demonstrates how the Offices were influenced by regional and national politics, even beyond the text. Numerous examples could be cited to demonstrate how the Offices could function politically. Count Rainulf of Caiazzo in Italy commissioned an Office for a recently translated relic to “minister instruction to the simple folk of the region,” uniting rural and city dwellers under his domain.51 The Count of Hainaut in Belgium stole the relics of St. Veronus and then commissioned an Office to confirm they were his.52 These and the other examples mentioned show how the arenas of religion and politics were thoroughly integrated, perhaps to a degree that the modern age finds difficult to understand. Political use of Offices did not necessarily imply 47 Peattie, 240. 48 Peattie, 247. 49 Peattie, 260. 50 Peattie, 245. 51 Page, 401. 52 Page, 403.
10 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints manipulation but instead often indicated a broader participation in culture. The repertoire of versified Offices contains vast troves of excellent poetry, and the immediate motivations of the world around the cantors surely provided impetus for the thousands of new melodies composed in ever-evolving styles. As participants in public culture, the later Medieval Offices aspired to something seemingly grander than mere corporate worship. From history’s broad, retrospective view, the Divine Offices were immensely influential in religious communities from remote monasteries to urban cathedrals. The daily liturgy was born from the desire to intertwine life with prayer and its method was the Psalms. Week after week, the whole of Europe reproclaimed the Psalter, pressing the words of God into memory through sheer repetition. Each Hour almost exclusively presented pure Scripture, giving honor to its author and object. The structure of St. Benedict’s Rule seems almost idealized; yet, history brought change as it normally does. The religious abstraction of the Office was used by humans with physical kingdoms and domains, and the Office could not but evolve with the culture surrounding it. As the cults of saints gained influence and the cantors were recruited to their cause, hundreds of historiae were set into versified Offices by dutiful cantors. Although worship remained at the center of the Offices, it was recast as veneration and directed at the legions of saints who represented historical anchors of sovereignty for the worshipers. The structure of the church year and its celebrations became intangibly, yet substantially, connected with land and rulers. New Offices were no longer created to draw the worshipers closer to a God in heaven but to a tradition close by on earth. The later Offices were fully works of men and served the functions of men. This stands as a warning to the current day. Christians must guard the lyrics sung in the congregation of the righteous; worship must remain directed to God. Bibliography Aspesi, Cara, Alison I. Beach, K. A. Bugyis, Anna De Bakker, David Ganz, James Grier, Paul A. Hayward, et al. Medieval Cantors and Their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, 800-1500. Edited by Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, Margot E. Fassler, and A. B. Kraebel. Boydell & Brewer, 2017.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 11 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/medieval-cantors-andtheir-craft/DE57C030313E84E76EC746FAFADFF427. Baltzer, Rebecca A., and Margot E. Fassler, eds. The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124538.001.0001. Bergsagel, John, ed. The Offices and Masses of St. Knud Lavard (1131): (Kiel, Univ. Lib. MS S.H. 8 A.8°). Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen Musicological Studies: Bd. 65/17 = Vol. 65/17. Copenhagen: The Royal Library, 2010. Brand, Benjamin. “Plainsong New and Old: The Versified Office for St. Ansanus of Siena.” Music & Letters 98, no. 1 (2017): 1–31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44652618. Brown, Rachel Fulton. From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, 800–1200. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk &AN=75359&site=ehost-live. Dobszay, Laszló. “Critical Reflections on the Bugnini Liturgy: The Divine Office.” Sacred Music 126, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 1–31. https://media.musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/di vineoffice.pdf Heim, Maximilian. “The Divine Office: Joining in the Song of the Holy Spirit.” Sacred Music 136, no. 2 (2009): 40–47. Helisachar. “Letter to Archbishop Nidibrius of Narbonne.” In Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, edited by Leo Treitler, 17578. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1998. Hoppin, Richard H. Medieval Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978. Hughes, Andrew. “Chants in the Rhymed Office of St. Thomas of Canterbury.” Early Music 16, no. 2 (1988): 185–201. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127191. ——— Late Medieval Liturgical Offices. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2007. CD-ROM ——— “Modal Order and Disorder in the Rhymed Office.” Musica Disciplina 37 (1983): 29–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20532256. ——— The Versified Office: Sources, Poetry, and Chants. Lions Bay, Canada: Institute of Mediæval Music, 2011.
12 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints Loomis, Louise Ropes. The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis). New York: Octagon Books, 1965. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb06012.0001.001. EPUB. Mocquereau, Dom Andre. “The Art of Gregorian Music.” Sacred Music (Originally published in 1896): n.p. https://musicasacra.com/history/the-art-of-gregorian-music. Nowacki, Edward. “The Gregorian Office Antiphons and the Comparative Method.” The Journal of Musicology 4, no. 3 (1985): 243–75. https://doi.org/10.2307/763758. Page, Christopher. The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years. New Haven: Yale University, 2010. Peattie, Matthew. “Old Beneventan Melodies in a Breviary at Naples: New Evidence of Old Beneventan Music for the Office.” The Journal of Musicology 29, no. 3 (2012): 239–61. https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2012.29.3.239. St. Benedict of Nursia. “From Rule of St. Benedict.” In Strunk’s Source Readings in Music History, edited by Leo Treitler, 159-164. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1998. Weinmann, Karl. History of Church Music. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1976.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 13 Musical Offerings 15, no. 1 (2024): 13–22 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2024, Emma Ross, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Making Music in the House of God: How Augustine Influenced Jean Calvin and Martin Luther’s Opinions on Musical Worship Emma Ross Cedarville University ne of the most debated and divisive topics of church history has been the role of music in worship. Many formative philosophers and early church fathers, such as Augustine, Boethius, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, expressed strong opinions regarding music. These views range from the prohibition of any music during worship to the encouragement to include instruments to accompany singing. Theologians such as Jean Calvin, Martin Luther, and Ulrich Zwingli also wrote extensively about music during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. However, these great minds of the Reformation did not arrive at their conclusions without influence. Notably, Jean Calvin and Martin Luther’s opinions on the use of music during worship were influenced by Augustine; however, his influence resulted in different individual conclusions. The influence Augustine exerted is striking due to its longevity—his opinions impacted the reformers over a millennia after he died. Calvin was directly influenced by Augustine and made copious references to him in his writing. Luther was more circuitously influenced by Augustine’s concept of music as a gift from God. This paper aims to trace Augustine’s influence on Calvin and Luther’s theology of music to understand how one theologian’s influence could result in such disparate conclusions. Augustine of Hippo’s opinions about the role and purpose of music were generally stricter than his Christian contemporaries. Christian writers during the post-Nicene period of the fourth century recognized the moral degeneracy of the Roman Empire and resisted the pagan musical practices of the day. They promoted the use of psalms and hymns in worship to counteract the secular musical traditions. Most of the worship from this time was monophonic chant, sung without instrumental accompaniment. Some philosophers, such as Clement of Alexandria, a O
14 Ross ⦁ Making Music philosopher from the second century, discouraged the use of any musical worship. He wrote in his Paidagogos, When a man occupies his time with flutes, stringed instruments, choirs, dancing, Egyptian krotala and other such improper frivolities, he will find that indecency and rudeness are the consequences. Such a man creates a din with cymbals and tambourines; he rages about with instruments of an insane cult…. Leave the syrinx to shepherds and the flute to superstitious devotees who rush to serve their idols. We completely forbid the use of the instruments at our temperate banquet.1 The church was concerned that having instrumental music would cause the congregation to associate music with the pagan festivals where it was usually heard. The solution was to dispense with music all together. Instead of mindlessly promoting the traditional thoughts surrounding Christian music in worship, Augustine had a dilemma. He wrestled with his deep regard for the value of music against what he saw as the dangers which music posed—promoting uncontrolled desires. In his Confessions, Augustine wrote: I remember the tears I shed at the Church’s song in the early days of my newly recovered faith, and how even today I am moved not by the singing as such but by the substance of what is sung, when it is rendered in a clear voice and in the most appropriate melodies, and then I recognize once more the value of this custom. . . .Nonetheless when in my own case it happens that the singing has a more powerful effect on me than the sense of what is sung, I confess my sin and my need of repentance, and then I would rather not hear any singer.2 In A New Song, Calvin Stapert presents a summary of Augustine’s philosophy towards music, writing: “It is not wrong to delight in the beauties of sound, whether in eloquent speech or harmonious music. The problem comes when we stop there, when we do not go beyond the beautifully turned phrase or the elegantly shaped melody. Delight in eloquence and music should never be an end in itself.”3 Augustine loved music and beautiful sounds. His concern was that Christians would 1 Clement of Alexandria, Paidagogos, in Quasten, 61. 2 Augustine, Confessions, 270. 3 Stapert, 193.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 15 become consumed by the love of the music and, being unable to control their sinful natures, start worshiping the song, instead of the God who made the song. Augustine’s resulting opinion of music was that, when correctly understood, it had the capacity to glorify God. However, music could become dangerous and an earthly pleasure if the senses were allowed to have control. From this philosophy of music, Augustine decided that the church should use music to facilitate worship, although he was still wary of its dangers saying, “Thus I vacillate between the danger of sensuality and the undeniable benefits. . . .I am more inclined to approve the custom of singing in church, to the end that through the pleasures of the ear a weaker mind may rise up to loving devotion.”4 While Augustine recognized the risks of luring congregants to sin, he accepted them because of the benefits offered through using music in the church saying, But if the objection is so slight that greater benefits are to be expected for those who are earnest than damage to be feared from slanderers, then the practice ought without hesitation to be maintained especially when it can be defended from the Scriptures, as can the singing of hymns and psalms, since we have the example and precepts of the Lord himself and of the Apostles.5 Augustine not only defended the idea of singing in church but went so far as to explain that “there are various ways of realizing this practice,”6 meaning that specific regulations pertaining to the use of instruments and liturgy could be freely decided. Augustine’s opinions about the use of church music in the corporate worship setting were positive, but they came with a caution. He believed that music could help point Christians towards God, “stirring the soul with piety and kindling the sentiment of divine love,”7 but if used incorrectly, it could lead to worshipping the creation, instead of the Creator. Regarding the mode of use in music, Augustine promoted instrumental and conservative worship, with few guidelines apart from stipulating that it should remain holy. He reasoned that the Bible instructed believers to worship whenever they came together, writing, “When, then, is it not the proper time for the brethren gathered in church 4 Augustine, Confessions, 270. 5 Augustine, Epistle LV, in McKinnon, 163. 6 Augustine, Epistle LV, in McKinnon, 163. 7 Augustine, Epistle LV, in McKinnon, 163.
16 Ross ⦁ Making Music to sing what is holy—unless there is reading of discourse or prayer in the clear voice of bishops or common prayer led by the voice of the deacon?”8 This promotion of worship whenever the church met, and Augustine’s opinions on music became well known throughout church history. Several other views on church music developed after Augustine, particularly during the Reformation. Jean Calvin, a leading French reformer, and theologian of the sixteenth century, was heavily influenced by the early church fathers, especially Augustine, in matters concerning the purpose of music. One of Calvin’s theological suppositions was that the spiritual life of a Christian disciple is almost exclusively inward and therefore external expression in worship is relatively insignificant. However, Calvin had to reconcile his theology with his interpretation of the manifold amounts of instructions to sing in the Bible. James Haar writes of Calvin’s dilemma and solution, “The numerous biblical injunctions to sing psalms could not be ignored, and therefore Calvin argued that a simple, dignified congregational psalmody was required for reformed worship. But this psalmody was restricted to the corporate, unaccompanied unison singing of metrical psalms to tunes of appropriate gravity that were untainted by secular associations.”9 Ultimately, Calvin argued that music must be used with care, not due to the problem of music, but rather the weakness and corruption of man. Overemphasis on the melody or other “musical” devices would neglect the meaning and turn hearts in an ungodly direction. As Steven Guthrie writes, “Calvin’s assessment of music… would seem to be not only: ‘singing engages the emotions’; but also: ‘singing engages the emotions and not the mind.’ While music ‘kindles the heart,’ it is the ‘meaning of the words’ that is perceived by ‘our minds.’”10 Practically, Jean Calvin rejected the use of instruments in worship due to their potential to distract hearts away from worship. Due to the biblical command to sing praises to God, his solution was the metrical psalm—psalms from Scripture sung in unison for corporate worship. Jean Calvin’s opinions on music were greatly influenced by Augustine. Many historians have pointed out that Calvin and Augustine shared the same philosophy that music could turn the singer to worshipping the song, and they each turned to the psalms for a solution to Biblical worship. Charles Garside comments that, “Calvin’s theology of music 8 Augustine, Epistle LV, in McKinnon, 164. 9 Haar, European Music, 394. 10 Guthrie, Resonant Witness, 383.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 17 was expressly, and, in the exactest sense of the word, essentially Augustinian.”11 Calvin and Augustine were both intrigued by the solution of singing psalms to combat distraction while still utilizing the tool of music to emphasize the text in worship. In his Institutes of Christian Religion, Calvin summarizes Augustine’s famous deliberation about music from Confessions, then records and agrees with Augustine’s approval of psalmody: Augustine confesses (Confess. Lib. x. cap. 33) that the fear of this danger sometimes made him wish for the introduction of a practice observed by Athanasius. . . .If this moderation is used, there cannot be a doubt that the practice is most sacred and salutary. On the other hand, songs composed merely to tickle and delight the ear are unbecoming the majesty of the Church, and cannot but be most displeasing to God.12 At first, Calvin was concerned with the role of instrumental music in worship, but he later shifted his focus to the text of songs, believing that singing Scripture would control the power of the music itself. The reason Calvin was wary of the power of music and turned to psalmody as an answer was shared by Augustine as well. The cautiousness shared by Augustine and Calvin resulted in their mutual uncertainty as to the specifications of church music. Rob Smith writes, “Augustine was reluctant to give singing his unqualified blessing. . . .[and] the same kind of ambivalence appears in John Calvin.”13 As Calvin recognized the power of music and pondered the problem of church music, he turned to Augustine to examine what solution the early church fathers had promoted. W. Robert Godfrey writes, “Calvin believed that he was restoring the use of music sanctioned by the Bible and followed by the ancient church. From reading the fathers (especially Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Augustine) Calvin learned that the ancient church sang exclusively (or almost exclusively) Psalms in unison without instrumental accompaniment.”14 The result of Calvin’s research was a theology of liturgical music based on singing Psalms from Scripture. Calvin references Augustine five times in his Preface to the Genevan Psalter [a collection of 126 melodies for singing metrical psalms] to explain his theological reasonings regarding psalmody. He also cites 11 Garside, 28. 12 Calvin, Institutes, 182. 13 Smith, “Music, Singing, and Emotions,” 475. 14 Godfrey, 74.
18 Ross ⦁ Making Music Augustine in warning songs to be sung with reverence. “And in truth we know by experience that singing has great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal. Care must always be taken that the song be neither light nor frivolous; but that it have weight and majesty (as St. Augustine says).”15 Calvin’s view of music, its powers, and the promotion of singing Psalms in worship were heavily influenced by Augustine. Another sixteenth century reformer, German theologian Martin Luther, hoped to reform the Catholic Church, not dissociate from it (as did his contemporary, Jean Calvin). Martin Luther’s view on music was shaped in part by his goal of reforming the Roman Catholic Church, however, the idea of reform did not take root within the Catholic Church. Luther was less concerned with separating from the grandiose musical traditions of the Catholic Church. Instead, his primary goal was to rework the text of worship to reflect scriptural truth. This approach meant that the music of Lutheran churches was much grander than the music allowed in Calvinistic services. Robin Leaver writes in “The Reformation and Music,” “In Reformed churches [Calvinistic churches] the music was minimal, comprising simple, unaccompanied singing of vernacular metrical psalms. . . .In contrast, the music associated with the teaching of the catechism in Lutheran churches was more expansive.”16 In his Formula missae of 1523 Luther wrote, “In the first place we assert, it is not now, nor has it ever been, in our mind to abolish entirely the whole formal cultus of God, but to cleanse that which is in use, which has been vitiated by most abominable additions, and to point out a pious use.”17 As a result of his opinion on music, Luther wrote a vernacular Mass (his Deutsche messe) in the German language. Unlike the practice of the Catholic church, Luther prescribed congregational singing to give the teaching of the Reformation practical expression through music. Martin Luther understood music to be a gift from God—a reference from Augustine—placing it of highest importance second only to theology and the scriptures, and desired to follow in the tradition of the early Christian church. In his Preface to Georg Rhau’s Symphoniad iucundae, Luther wrote “We can mention only one point (which experience confirms), namely, that next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest 15 Calvin, Preface to the Genevan Psalter, 3. 16 Haar, 379. 17 Luther, Formula missae, in Works of Martin Luther, 84-85.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 19 praise.”18 For Luther, the type of music was not as important as the text. He did not prohibit Catholic styles of music as long as the text or practice did not undermine reformed theology, but instead reinforced truth. For Luther, church music could follow the Catholic Mass tradition if the congregation was involved, and the content of the text aligned with scriptural principles. Martin Luther was certainly aware of the writings of Augustine, especially due to his background as an Augustinian monk.19 Although the connection is scant, there is evidence that Augustine impacted Luther’s writings. The first similarity is in how Luther and Augustine both reference music. “I would certainly like to praise music with all my heart as the excellent gift of God which it is and to commend it to everyone.”20 This description of music as a gift is full of theological significance. Miikka Anttila expounds on this idea of a gift, and how frequently it is used in his discussion of Luther’s theology. Luther’s most recurrent statement about music is that it is a gift of God. That claim may not seem surprising on its surface, but is worth a closer examination. In ‘On Music,’ Luther states that music is a gift of God, not of men (donum Dei non hominum est) and in ‘Encomion musices,’ he praises music as the excellent gift of God (donum Dei excellentissimum). Table Talk21 includes even bolder statements: that music is a great gift and divine indeed (Musica maximum, immo divinum est donum), or a distinctive gift of God and close to theology (Musica est insigne donum Dei et theologiae proxima), and finally, the greatest gift of God (optimum Dei donum).22 18 Luther, Luther’s Works, 323. 19 A member of an Augustinian order, specifically the Hermits of St. Augustine, founded in 1244 by Pope Innocent IV. Augustinian monks followed the Rule of St. Augustine which contains instructions on religious life as notated by Augustine. 20 Luther, Luther’s Works, 321. 21 Martin Luther’s work containing recorded, informal conversations held with students and colleagues in his home. During these conversations, Luther presented his opinions on a diverse array of topics. 22 Anttila, 70.
20 Ross ⦁ Making Music Augustine also refers to music as a gift from God in essential writings that Luther would have been familiar with. Another similarity between Luther and Augustine was their recognition of the power of music. Both theologians realized that music could sway feelings. They both believed that it could be a useful tool when worshipping, but unlike Luther, Augustine was also concerned about the dangers of distraction by the instruments: “Luther, along with Augustine sees the power of music. Luther was probably influenced by Augustine’s view of a delight in music and that though he was aware that this had somehow attracted him to God, he also had the feeling of having sinned when he paid more attention to music’s beauty than to its spiritual meaning.”23 Unlike Augustine, Luther believed that the positive aspects provided through music were worth any potential danger. He did not share in the “inclination towards the negative effects of music.”24 Luther could not comprehend how beautiful music could only distract. Instead, he believed that music would help to illuminate the text and that beautiful music would help to keep attention focused on the words of praise. It is worth saying that, for Luther, music cannot be too beautiful. His appreciation of the beauty of music differs remarkably from that of Augustine. Indeed, the scruples of Augustine in Confessions were utterly inconceivable for Luther. He did not see beautiful music as distracting the mind from hearing words. According to Table Talk, Luther assumed that Augustine would have agreed with him if he had lived in Luther’s time.25 Because of the way Augustine and Luther both refer to music, and their recognition of the power of music, it is possible to conclude that Augustine exerted some influence on Luther, though not as foundationally as his influence on Jean Calvin. Augustine, Jean Calvin, and Martin Luther were all church fathers who proposed widely separate views concerning the role of music in worship. Even though their opinions differed, all three men cared deeply about correctly interpreting the Bible regarding church music. While both reformers held distinct views, they each understood the power of music through Augustine. This recognition led to the encouragement of 23 Kartawidjaja, 88. 24 Kartawidjaja, 26. 25 Anttila, 184-185.
Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 21 psalmody in worship for Calvin, and the promotion of music as a tool for worship for Luther. Calvin’s numerous quotations of Augustine appears as clarification of many topics regarding church music, including the trouble of combating the distractive nature of music, while Luther’s distinctive realization of music as a gift from God came from Augustine. It is important to trace the origin of Calvin and Luther’s views on church music, to see how Augustine influenced both reformers. Although Calvin and Luther came to drastically different conclusions, they both agreed with Augustine that worship was commanded in Scripture and should not be taken lightly. The New Testament does not provide practical instructions for musical worship, causing Augustine, Calvin, and Luther to have disparate conclusions. Similar interpretive differences regarding church music persist among Christians today. Christians can learn much from the example of these God-honoring theologians, namely that although there may be differences in how people worship, the heart behind the worship is more important than the form. Bibliography Anttila, Miikka E. Luther’s Theology of Music: Spiritual Beauty and Pleasure. Berlin, Boston: Druck: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co., 2013. Arnold, Matthieu, ed. John Calvin: The Strasbourg Years (1538-1541). Translated by Felicity McNab. Eugene: WIPF & STOCK, 2016. Augustine. The Confessions. Translated by Maria Boulding. Villanova: Augustinian Heritage Instatute, 1997. Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989. ——— Preface to the Genevan Psalter. Text taken from the facsimile edition of: Les Pseaumes mis en rime francoise par Clément Marot et Théodore de Béze. Mis en musique a quatre parties par Claude Goudimel. . . (1565), published under the auspices of La Société des Concerts de la Cathédrale de Lausanne and edited in French by Pierre Pidoux and in German by Konrad Ameln (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1935). https://www.ccel.org/ccel/ccel/eee/files/calvinps.htm. Garside, Charles. “The Origins of Calvin’s Theology of Music: 15361543.” The American Philosophical Society 69, part 4 (1979): 535.
22 Ross ⦁ Making Music Godfrey, W. Robert. John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009. Guthrie, Steven R. “The Wisdom of Song.” In Resonant Witness. Ed. Jeremy S. Begbie and Steven R. Guthrie. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011. Haar, James, ed. European Music 1520-1640. Woodbridge, Suffolk UK: The Boydell Press, 2006. Hotz, Kendra G. and Matthew T. Mathews. Shaping the Christian Life: Worship and the Religious Affections. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. Kartawidjaja, Yakub E. Music in Martin Luther’s Theology. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht GmbH & Co., 2021. Luther, Martin. Works of Martin Luther with Introduction and Notes. Vol. 6. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1932. ——— Luther’s Works. Ed. Ulrich S. Leupold and Helmut T. Lehmann. Vol. 53. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965. McKinnon, James, ed. Music in Early Christian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Quasten, Johannes. Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Pastoral Musicians, 1983. Smith, Robert. “Music, Singing, and Emotions: Exploring the Connections.” Themelios 37, no. 3 (2012):465-79. https://cedarville.ohionet.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohos t.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a6h&AN=ATLA000198984 5&site=eds-live Stapert, Calvin R. A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007.
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