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.
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