Psalms to Plainchant: Seventeenth-Century Sacred Music in New England and New France

W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1989 Psalms to Plainchant: Seventeenth-Century Sacred Music in New England and New France Caroline Beth Kunkel College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Recommended Citation Kunkel, Caroline Beth, "Psalms to Plainchant: Seventeenth-Century Sacred Music in New England and New France" (1989). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625537. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-874z-r767 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PSALMS TO PLAINCHANT Seventeenth-Century Sacred Music in New England and New France A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Caroline B. Kunkel 1989 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Caroline B. Kunkel Approved, May 1990 < 3 /(yCeJU______________ James Axtell A )ds Dale Cockrell Department of Music (IlliM .d (jdb&r Michael McGiffertA / I All the various affections of our soul have modes of their own in music and song by which they are stirred up as by an indescribable and secret sympathy. - St. Augustine Sermo To my parents TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......... vi ABSTRACT............................................... vii PROTESTANT SACRED MUSIC IN THE OLD WORLD............. 2 PROTESTANT SACRED MUSIC IN NEW ENGLAND............... 17 CATHOLIC SACRED MUSIC IN FRANCE....................... 31 CATHOLIC SACRED MUSIC IN NEW FRANCE.................. 49 THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN CONVERSION...................... 73 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......................... 84 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express appreciation to Professors James Axtell, Dale Cockrell, Michael McGiffert and John Selby for their guidance and criticism of the manuscript. I would also like to thank the following for their assistance: Professor Stephen Blum, The City University of New York; Ms. Elisabeth Gallat-Morin, University of Montreal; Mr. James Hunter, Director, Huronia Museum; and Ms. Sandra Saddy, Technical Services Librarian, Huronia Historical Resource Centre. I am indebted to my parents, Arlo M. and Miriam R. Kunkel, for their unceasing support and encouragement throughout my academic career. I extend special thanks as well to my friends from the University of Michigan, my museum management classmates, and, especially, to Ken, for all the times they listened and for the support they offered. ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to compare the music of the Puritans in New England with that of the Catholics in New France during the seventeenth century, 2) to examine the separate European musical characteristics and histories that shaped the music of the Puritans and French Catholics, and, 3) to explore the use of music in converting the Indians of the New World to Christianity. The Reformation begun by Martin Luther, the teachings of John Calvin, and the Protestant movement in England, all contributed to the Puritan philosophy concerning sacred music. The Puritans sang the Psalms, as translated from the original Hebrew, almost exclusively. The Puritans* preference for singing the Psalms was a result of their emphasis on the spoken Word. In their attempts to convert the Indians, the Puritan preachers included psalm-singing in the services both as a teaching-tool and for the enjoyment of the Indian congregations. The conservative musical ideals of France established by the sixteenth-century ecumenical Council of Trent and maintained by the monarchy, set the standards for the major French composers. This conservatism was challenged to some degree by the religious orders in France and New France. Both the Jesuits and Ursulines soon realized that sacred music could be used to attract the attention of Indian children and adults as well as introduce them to elementary religious ideas. The Puritans and French Catholics continued to abide by the tenets of their respective religions in terms of how they conducted their services and the types of music employed. However, the New England Puritans, in search of an even greater unadulterated translation of the Hebrew Psalms, wrote the Bay Psalm Book, which came to be used in Scotland and England. The New French missionaries found their masses often had to be simplified and modified due to the lack of instruments, voices, sacred accessories, or by the rustic environment in which their masses were frequently held. The Puritans and Catholics each carried their own musical traditions to the New World. Music played a significant role in their sacred services, provided them with a familiar source of solace and inspiration, and was a useful tool in the challenging task of educating and "civilizing” a foreign people. vii PSALMS TO PLAINCHANT; SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SACRED MUSIC IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW FRANCE PROTESTANT SACRED MUSIC IN THE OLD WORLD Germany The traditional Mass of the sixteenth century, performed in the classical language of the Catholic liturgy, was a rich scene played within a Gothic monument. When a monk nailed his 95 Theses to the great door of the All Saints* Church in Wittenberg, both conservatives and radicals questioned the familiar Catholic ritual. Martin Luther ushered in a reformation not only of worship but of church music as well. His tolerance of congregational participation was to open the door to congregational psalm-singing among Protestants in Europe and America. Thus, the history of church music in New England begins in sixteenth-century Germany, with the father of the Reformation. 2 Luther never condemned the music of the Roman Catholic Church.1 In fact, Luther enjoyed music and considered it an important part of church life. He wrote in 1524: I am not of the opinion that all the art should be stricken down by the Gospel and disappear, as certain zealots would have it; on the contrary, I would see all the arts, and particularly music, at the service of Him who created them and gave them to us.2 Luther even wrote his own hymntunes, the majority of which were printed in 1523 and 1524. In some respects these hymns did not depart from their pre-Reformation predecessors. Like the older polyphonic style, his "chorales," as they have come to be called, had irregular rhythms with a stress occurring on different notes as the cadence of speech required.3 Luther preserved some of the traditional chant and polyphonic motets, which John Calvin would later abandon. When Luther wrote his Formula Missae in 1523, the liturgy remained in Latin. It was not until 152 6 that Luther 1Robert M. Stevenson, Patterns of Protestant Church Music (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1953), 3. 2Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England; From Cranmer to Hooker. 1534-1603 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 378. 3Erik Routley, The Music of Christian Hvmns (Chicago: G.I.A. Publications, Inc., 1981), 21-2; Helmut T. Lehmann, gen ed., Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965), vol 53, Liturgy and Hvmns. by Ulrich S. Leupold, 204. 4 provided a vernacular liturgy in Deutsche Messe.4 Luther also made use of contemporary innovations in his chorales, including the replacement of ancient church modes by the major and minor scales we know today. Luther*s chief influence in terms of the Protestant movement was in the gradual acceptance of the vernacular in worship.5 Luther encouraged the singing of hymns in German rather than Latin in small towns and villages. His vernacular translations used simple verbs and nouns, many of them monosyllabic. He employed few adjectives, avoiding the ornate language and abstract images the Catholics used. The result was a plainer verse that received its enrichment from the music.6 The words of Luther*s hymns were often designed to convey a Biblical message to the congregation. The Reformer had great regard for Scripture, as MVater unser,** a version of the Lord's Prayer, and MAus der Tiefe," Psalm 130, exemplify. Yet, the Lutherans also sang devotional 4Henry Raynor, A Social History of Music (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1972), 110-111; Encyclopedia Britannica. 1970 ed., s.v. "Martin Luther." 5Davies, Worship and Theology in England. 381. 6Leupold, Liturgy and Hvmns. 198. 5 poems. One renowned example is Luther's Christmas song "Von Himmel Hoch," or "From Heaven on High."7 Luther brought a revolutionary flexibility, accessibility, and vernacularism to the church music tradition. However, he retained the rhythmical irregularities of pre-Reformation music, preferred choral singing to congregational, and never prohibited the use of the organ or other instruments in the Mass. The true "Protestantization" of sacred music, which descended to the Puritan settlers of New England, was initiated by John Calvin.8 Geneva The music of Calvinism was as much a radical departure from Catholicism as were the premises of the Calvinist religion. Unlike Lutheranism, Calvinism had direct influence on the development of Protestant music in England and New England. The music historian, Horton Davies, writes that the Calvinists: considered . .. the intricacies of plain- song or polyphony ... unsuited to the needs and capacities of the ordinary congregation, and that the use of the prose psalms and canticles in requiring a trained choir for their rendering filched from the 7Albert Christ-Janer, Charles W. Hughes, and Carleton Sprague Smith, American Hvmns Old and New (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 5. ^outley, Music of Christian Hvmns. 29, 33, 36. 6 whole congregation its right to sing the praises of God.9 John Calvin's main concern with congregational singing was that the music not distract the worshiper from the message of .the words.

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