Luther's Hymns in the Spread of the Reformation
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This dissertation has been 64—7052 microfilmed exactly as received SESSIONS, Kyle Cutler, 1934- LUTHER'S HYMNS IN THE SPREAD OF THE REFORMATION. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1963 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan LUTHER’S HYMNS IN THE SPREAD OF THE REFORMATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Kyle Cutler Sessions, B. A., M. A. S,C 5,S ijC The Ohio S ta te U n iv ersity 1963 Approved by "SdJpiser Department of History ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am grateful to the Foundation for Reformation Research for its award of a Junior Research Fellowship fo r the summer, 1963, which enabled me to complete the writing of my dissertation and to the Pritzlaff Memorial Library of Concordia Seminary at St. Louis for the use of its facilities. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................................................ i i LIST OF TABLES............................ iv INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter I Luther’s Musical Environment ........................................ 5 II Origins of Luther’s Hymns....................................................... 41 III The Creative Outpouring of 1524................................... 67 IV After 1524: Beginnings of the Lutheran Hymnody Beyond Luther.........................................................103 V Luther’s Hymns in Worship.....................................................123 VI The Printed Hymnal and the Spread of the Reformation.......................................................................164 VII The Hymn and the Schools.....................................................195 APPENDIX..............................................................................................................220 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................243 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Locales and P rin ters o f S elected Hymnal Editions, 1524 - 1546 . ................................. 214 2. Number of Selected Editions Printed per Town...........................................................................................219 iv INTRODUCTION The title, ’’Luther’s Hymns in the Spread of the Refor mation,’’ requires some elaboration on two points. The first enlargement revolves around the word ’’hymns.’’ This disser tation is an examination of Martin Luther’s hymns with the hope of adding another dimension to the historical question, "Through what means did the teachings of the Reformation be come transmitted at large in the society of the sixteenth century and enter into its thinking and understanding?" A venerable tradition of Lutheran hymnology has been that the hymnody greatly advanced the Protestant cause. However, musicological and music-historical investigators heretofore have not dealt much with this question, but have properly and happily devoted themselves to problems of identifying, dating, and authenticating the hymns for their origin and later manifestations. It is intended in this writing, using the materials developed by the musicologists and hymnologists, to pursue the historical question posed above. The central theme of the initial chapters is the probe for answers shaped in terms of potentials: The capacities of Luther’s hymns to transmit the teachings they contained. It is developed from several directions. Initially, Luther’s musical environment and education are discussed in order to evaluate his capacity as a composer and to esti mate elements in his background which strengthened the po tential of his hymns. There follows an analysis of his attitude toward the hymn, the origins of his hymns, and some of the techniques he employed in writing them. His most intensive period of composing is next examined for motivating forces, for his responses in the form of hymns, and for his sponsorship of hymnwriting and publication. The theme of potentiality closes with an outline of the ea r ly Lutheran hymnody beyond Luther p erso n a lly . The second point to be amplified revolves around the word "spread." In the remaining three chapters, the central theme is the search for conversion of potentiality into reality. It attempts to accomplish this by looking for change and development in institutions of the sixteenth century which can be attributed to the influence of the hymn. In a total sense, this ambition would be lim itless since it would touch upon virtually every institution. Consequently, the scope has been limited to three areas. Initially, Reformation liturgies are examined for the hymn’s influence in changing the orders of worship. This is done in terms of the hymn’s twofold presence in worship, as bearer of an imtimate role in conveying the Word, and as a dimension of the music of the church. Then the impact of Luther’s hymns as an element of the sixteenth-century 3 printing trade is treated. In this regard, interpretations from descriptive and statistical evidence of hymnal printing are developed to portray the effectiveness of Luther’s hymns in disseminating his teachings. Finally, there is an examination of the influence of the Lutheran hymnody in th e schools o f the Reformation period. The goals of this study, therefore, are to demon strate for Luther’s hymns a potential capacity for spreading the Reformation and to illuminate its actual manifestation in changes upon the institutional structure of Germany in the Reformation period. The doctrinal con tent of the hymns is assumed, for the interest here is not the existence of Luther’s teachings in the hymns but their spread by means of them. Because this investigation is highly interpretive in nature, it relies heavily upon the works of others to supply primary material. It would be particularly remiss to close without an admiring mention of the more important of these. In first place are the editors of Volume 35 of the Weimar edition of Luther’s works, under the general direction of Dr. Karl Drescher. Their work stands as a monument to musicological and music-historical research and criticism . The most outstanding contemporary Lutheran musicologist is Friedrich Blume, who continues the splendid traditions of scholarship initiated by Eduard Emil Koch, P h ilip p Wackernagel, Rochus Freiherr von 4 Liliencron, Friedrich Zelle, Carl von Winterfeld, and others of the nineteenth century. Their research and judgement was the starting point of this dissertation. CHAPTER I LUTHER’S MUSICAL ENVIRONMENT It is usual enough to begin a discussion of Martin Luther’s hymns with a description of his background in music. Many references have been directed to the thick vein of folkrausic in his culture. The citations of his youthful singing experiences are many. The well-known Luther sayings about music are oft-repeated. His keen understanding of the artistic music of the Renaissance is widely admired. But only implied is the realization that Martin Luther was an able and responsive musician in an age when music was a major con trib u tor to th e make up of the culture. Luther was essentially a product of his musical en vironment. He was thoroughly grounded in the leading style of his period, especially as it related to the music of the Church. His exposure to humanist studies included the musical investigations of the humanists. His childhood and youth were enriched by the folkmusic of his native region, where flowed at least three wellsprings of song, the farms, the mines, and the cities. He spent his life in a municipal environment amid co u rtly , c iv ic , and m unicipal support and patronage of music. Subsequently, when he created music himself, Luther brought to a focus his wide-range musical background. He worked with one of its prime components, a tried and sound song form, the hymn. His s e le c tio n was d icta te d la r g e ly by metaphysical convictions. But it was shaped also by the elements in him from his musical environment. In Luther’s rich and varied musical world, the pre dominating school of artistic composition and performance was known as Netherlands choral polyphony. The techniques and characteristics of this style placed a distinctive stamp on all areas of music, but the particular domain of choral polyphony was the music of the Church. Its origins- trace back through the growth during the preceding five centuries of medieval choral song to its greatest heights in the sixteenth century. This development was prompted largely by the demand for a musical vehicle more expansive than the plainsong. Unsatisfactory early efforts included organum (diaphony), rejected because it merely duplicated the first note series with a second, separated by fixed intervals. A more promising development, coming about 1100, was discant, which involved a freer-flowing, more imaginative second line of notes—and even third and fourth—reflecting but not necessarily duplicating the first. The problem presented by discant was to develop mechanics of horizontal, linear compo sition which would allow freedom and flexib ility to each line 7 but would at any given moment produce a beautiful sound. A successful solution, known as counterpoint, was obtained first in Paris and spread from there into the Low Countries The Netherlands were well disposed to receive the musical advances out of Paris. The highly cultured, so phisticated Burgundian rulers sustained a patronage