Luther Music Theory Final Draft 231011 Online

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LUTHER’S THEORY OF MUSIC ANDREAS LOEWE provided a useful oversight of Luther’s statements on music in THE MELBOURNE COLLEGE OF DIVINITY English, as Schalk explained, their works ‘caused frustration because of a lack of documentation’: where Nettl’s slender ‘Musica est optimum’: monograph was entirely unreferenced, Buszin’s study ‘was Martin Luther’s Theory of Music restricted because of its brevity’.2 In addition, both studies subscribed to a now largely outmoded Protestant paradigm of the reformation and therefore require substantial re-evaluation.3 Abstract: Schalk’s principal concern, however, was not to provide such a Martin Luther’s appreciation for music as a practical instrument to promote reassessment, but to sketch a thorough overview of the the message of the reformation by the creation of vernacular hymnody and ‘relationship between music and [the church’s] common life’ in specifically Lutheran liturgical music has dominated studies on Luther and the writings of Martin Luther.4 This he undertook by tracing music. The examination of his systematic understanding of music, on the other ‘certain paradigms of praise’ in Luther’s statements on music and hand, has been consistently neglected. This article argues that, more than twenty years into his reformation, the philosophical basis of his music theory relating them to a theological understanding of music that, in his remains very much indebted to the work of Johannes de Muris and his view, continued to influence music-making in Lutheran churches humanist successors, shedding light on his understanding of music as a to date.5 quadrivial art form and the queen of philosophical learning. The work of Robin Leaver significantly extended Schalk’s scholarship, while sharing Schalk’s emphasis on the practical 1. Introduction: implications for liturgy and music-making in Luther’s writings on music. In 1989 Leaver’s long-established interest in hymnody and Some twenty years ago, Carl Schalk published a slender volume, liturgical music led him to address the liturgical reforms of Martin Luther on Music (1988), one of the first academically rigorous Luther.6 From 1997-2006, he published a stream of articles on studies on the subject. Schalk’s work significantly updated earlier Luther, Lutheranism and music, which he combined in a studies in English on the reformer’s understanding of music, in particular Walter Buzsin’s Luther on Music (1946) and Paul Nettl’s popular Luther and Music (1948).1 While Buszin and Nettl !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luther und die Musik: Eine Gabe an das deutsche Volk zum Reformations-Jubiläum ! (Zwickau: Herrmann, 1916). Neither appear to have been aware of the article All translations my own. I should like to thank Dr Katherine Firth, Prof ‘On Luther’s Love for and Knowledge of Music’ The Musical Times, 1.11 (1845), Markus Rathkey, Dr Grantley McDonald and my research assistant Philip 82-83, 87, by an anonymous ‘German Student’, which provides a first Nicholls for valuable feedback on the article, Alistair Clark for proofreading, comprehensive English-language compilation of Luther’s sayings on music. and the State Library of Victoria Melbourne and Ms Sabrina Lindemann for 2 Schalk (1988), 7. readily granting reproduction rights for the images used in this article. 3 In particular, Nettl (1967), 2-6: ‘Music in the Catholic Church and in the 1 Carl F. Schalk, Luther on Music: Paradigms of Praise (St Louis, MO: Concordia, Reformed Churches’, 105-112. 1988), 19; Walter Buszin, ‘Luther on Music’, The Musical Quarterly 32 (1946), 80- 4 Schalk (1988), 31. 97; Paul Nettl, Luther and Music (Philadelphia, PA: Muhlenberg Press, 1948; 5 Schalk (1988), 31. reprint New York: Russell & Russell, 1967). Where Nettl’s work is indebted to 6 Robin A. Leaver, ‘The Lutheran Reformation’, in: Ian Fenlon, ed., The Johannes Rautenstrauch, Luther und die Pflege der kirchlichen Musik in Sachsen Renaissance from the 1470s to the End of the Sixteenth Century (Englewood Cliffs: (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1907), Buszin’s is based in part on Karl Anton, Prentice Hall, 1989), 263-285. ! ! 2 ANDREAS LOEWE LUTHER’S THEORY OF MUSIC comprehensive study, Luther’s Liturgical Music (2007).7 Both considering his music theoretical base in favour of his practical Schalk’s and Leaver’s works concentrate on Luther’s practical approach: ‘For Luther as a theologian, music was not primarily a reforms to liturgical music and the history of the music employed matter for mystical or allegorical speculation, but a practical art, in Lutheran worship and education, especially Luther’s hymnody. closely tied to … the proclamation of the Word’.11 Neither addresses in any detail the theoretical basis that More specialised studies on sixteenth-century German underpins the reformer’s insights into music, though both Schalk music, among them Ralph Lorenz’ dissertation, Pedagogical and Leaver acknowledge—in passing—that the reformer is Implications of musica practica in Sixteenth-Century Wittenberg (1995), or indebted to late-medieval philosophy for his theoretical specifically Lutheran music, including Rebecca Wagner understanding of music.8 Oettinger’s Music as Popular Propaganda in the German Reformation Schalk’s and Leaver’s emphasis on Luther’s practical use (1999) and Christopher Brown’s Singing the Gospel (2005), also of music rather than his theoretical understanding of music tended to focus on the practical uses of music for Lutheran should not surprise: previous studies on Luther and music almost education and the importance of music as an instrument to universally concentrated on Luther’s aptitude as a musician, his disseminate reformation thought, rather than exploring Luther’s enthusiasm for music as an art form, and his practical use of philosophical or theoretical understanding of music.12 From the music to further his reformation, and so bypassed the subject of outset Leaver’s magisterial Luther’s Liturgical Music (2007) affirms his music theory altogether.9 Even studies that intentionally set that the work is principally dedicated to an exploration of out to investigate Luther’s philosophy of musical aesthetics, such Luther’s liturgical music and invites other researchers to as Joe Tarry’s ‘Music in the Educational Philosophy of Martin undertake the task of revealing ‘more about Luther’s Luther’, banish the subject of his music theory to a couple of understanding of music’.13 footnotes.10 While Schalk at least affords an entire paragraph to The present contribution takes on Leaver’s challenge and Luther’s theory of music, he dismisses the importance of presents a detailed assessment of the reformer’s music theory. ! Rather than speculate on what Luther might have written in a 7 Robin A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications, Lutheran projected (but never written) treatise on music, however, this Quarterly Books 6 (Grand Rapids IL: Eerdmans, 2007). article examines only extant sources in order to establish a 8 Schalk (1988), 18; Leaver (2007), 27-30, 34-5. 9 Johannes Rautenstrauch (1907), 6, comments on Luther’s ‘theoretical knowledge’ [theoretische Kenntnisse], although only with reference to his knowledge of the musical genre, in particular Luther’s understanding of ! harmonics and his ability to offer practical advice on how compositions might 11 Schalk (1988), 19. be improved. Similarly, Nettl (1967), 31-32, offers a brief general overview of 12 Ralph Lorenz, Pedagogical Implications of musica practica in Sixteenth-Century the development of a late-medieval philosophy of music but confines his Wittenberg, unpublished Doctoral Dissertation (Bloomington IN: Indiana observations on Luther to practical reforms. University School of Music, 1995); Rebecca Wagner Oettinger, Music as Popular 10 Joe E. Tarry, ‘Music in the Educational Philosophy of Martin Luther’, Journal Propaganda in the German Reformation 1517-55, unpublished Doctoral of Research in Music Education, 21.4 (1973), 355-365, unfortunately does not Dissertation (Madison WI: University of Wisconsin, 1999); Christopher follow up on his suspicions, 356n, that Luther’s understanding of music was Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation influenced by Boethius and, 357-8, that he regarded music as one of the (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005). quadrivial arts. 13 Leaver (2007), 19-20. ! 3 ! 4 ANDREAS LOEWE LUTHER’S THEORY OF MUSIC theoretical framework for Luther’s music theory.14 Drawing on studied music theory as a compulsory part of his liberal arts his writings and Table Talk, in particular his sustained systematic degree at Erfurt. In a letter dated 1520, a fellow-student and later reflection on music, the Preface to the Symphoniae Iucundae (1538), rector of Erfurt University, Crotus Rubeanus [Johannes Jäger] the article outlines Luther’s theory of music and, wherever addressed Luther: ‘You were among our group of students the possible, identifies and follows his own classification of music.15 musician and erudite philosopher’, suggesting that among his It contends that, despite the fact that Luther had already contemporaries Luther excelled in his understanding of music as significantly departed from late-medieval philosophy in many of a philosophical discipline.17 his theological writings, in his writings on music he remained Certainly from the twelfth century onwards music had strongly indebted to a late-medieval understanding of music as a been classified as

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