CHAPTER III
THE FIRST CENTURY OF PROTESTANT CHURCH MUSIC
Martin Luther; the chorale as the nucleus of German Protestant church music--Early Reformation composers: Walther, Eccard, Prætorius; influence of church choir schools in Germany during the Reformation period--English Protestant music, music of the Anglican liturgy: the anthem, its early history and style--The spread of congregational song; psalms and hymns.
I
Christian art in its general outlines has followed upon the heels of Christian thought and doctrine with the fidelity and persistence of a shadow. Ever since it first learned definite articulation, it has responded with childlike obedience to the varying conditions which the church has experienced in its endeavors to win and to hold the allegiance of humanity to its spiritual leadership. Music, the youngest of the arts, strikingly illustrates this attitude of dependence. Consequent on the doctrine of the universality of the church, a marked sameness and uniformity existed in the ritual-music of French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English church composers, as long as the supremacy of the church was undisputed. This absence of variation in style, form, and expression, this suppression of national and individual characteristics, was the natural manifestation of the doctrine of the complete surrender of the individual, which governed all his relations to the church. The workings of the forces of humanistic thought in the sixteenth century brought about some deviations, even in sacred music, from this uniform mode of expression, and in Italy we can easily find points of differentiation between the music of Venetian, Roman, and Neapolitan composers, though all were loyal adherents of the same faith.
But when Luther struck the mighty blow at the spiritual and political power of Rome which loosened a large part of northern Europe from its grasp and changed the whole current of the world’s religious thought, it was quite natural that there was a resounding echo in the musical methods and forms of expression that accompanied the manifold developments of this new religious movement. In the discussion of this movement as it relates to the subject in hand, two facts need constant reaffirmation--(1) that even before Luther’s time there had been many evidences of the impending change in religious thought, evidences that run back with more or less frequency even to the Middle Ages,[41] and (2) that Luther was first of all a reformer, not a destroyer, of the ancient church and her modes of worship. For a full understanding of the music of the Reformation it must be kept in mind that the doctrinal points back of Luther’s revolt included the denial of the mediatorial function of the priest, the declaration of the universal priesthood of believers, and the stout insistence on the inalienable right of the individual believer not only to freedom of reason and conscience, but to direct access in prayer to Deity at all times. The whole character and color of Protestant music is derived from this recognition of the individual, and his duties and privileges in the direct worship of God. This freer, more spontaneous and democratic conception of worship threw the emphasis upon the congregation, and Luther’s form of public worship was built up around this central fact. The two changes most responsive to this new conception were the substitution of the people’s vernacular for Latin as the official language of the service[42] and the restoration to the people of the office of song, which had been withdrawn from them at the very beginning of the development of elaborate liturgic forms. This newly-found liturgic use for the people’s song caused a prompt development of the singularly rich and impressive hymnody of the early German Protestant Church and Luther, in the order of services which he prepared for the Wittenberg churches in 1526 (the _Deutsche Messe_), gave especial prominence to this element.
Luther’s fervent desire was to bring all elements of the church service within the comprehension of the whole congregation; it was to be a people’s service. The congregational hymns, so conspicuous in his scheme of public worship, were not only sung in the mother-tongue, but many of them were sung to melodies whose origin was equally close and dear to the people’s heart. Luther was the founder of German Protestant hymnody (though not of German hymnody, as we shall see), and in furnishing tunes to the multitude of hymns which he and his helpers wrote, translated, or adapted, to give voice to the new religious aspirations and ideals of the Protestant faith, recourse was had to two popular sources, the rich treasury of religious folk-song that had been in existence for centuries[43] and contemporary secular folk-song of the more noble and sedate type. In thus transferring the familiar and beloved melodies of home and social life to the use of the sanctuary, an intimate and personal relation of the congregation to the church service was established that was wholly lacking in the old church associations. A third source of Luther’s melodies was Gregorian chant and the stately Catholic hymns. Many of the melodies were original, and this was more and more the case as time went on, but the musician of this period, as has been pointed out in the discussion of Netherland music, was thoroughly accustomed to borrowing his melodies (subjects) either from popular song or plain-song. The name ‘chorale’ was soon given to these hymn-melodies, from whatever source they were derived, and the chorale, from its importance in the Lutheran liturgy, promptly became the nucleus of the whole Lutheran musical system, in exactly the same sense that plain-song was of the Roman musical system. Its close relation to the sturdy folk-song gave to the chorale and to the entire literature of religious music evolved from it a virility and vitality that made it, of all the artistic products of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alone comparable with the superb creations of Palestrina and his school. The origin of probably more than half of the melodies of the Lutheran chorale-books may be traced to folk-songs of some kind or period. Moreover, in wedding his hymns to music Luther was careful to provide strongly rhythmical melodies, which naturally made a more lively appeal to the people than did the unrhythmical Latin music of the Roman service, a fact whose significance has been largely overlooked by historians. The militant and assertive ring of many of the early chorales, contrasting strongly with the calm, contemplative mood of so many of the Catholic hymns, finds at least partial explanation in this fact.
The place of Luther in German religious music is quite easy to estimate now, though it has required over three centuries to disentangle the great reformer’s actual achievement in this field from the gross exaggerations and inaccuracies of partisan bias in both attack and defence. But if it now seems to be well established that Luther actually composed only a few[44] of the 137 melodies once attributed to him, and that only five of the thirty-six hymns which he wrote are entirely original, this does not detract one whit from his greatness or his wisdom as a leader in pointing musical aspirations in a new direction, for his real significance in German music, whether he composed melodies or not, lies, not in new forms, but in the new spirit that he gave to his followers and infused into sacred music. He had no thought of breaking with the past. In preserving intact the line of continuity, he was wise enough to retain many forms and practices in the old Church that he regarded as vital and permanent and to build them firmly into the structure of his new liturgy. Realizing the importance of having an abundance of hymns for his followers, Luther once said to Spalatin, ‘We are looking everywhere for poets,’ and in a short time his wish was more than realized in the thousands of original hymns that were poured forth. But in addition to these he and his collaborators did not hesitate to look in other directions. As he had freely utilized existing material for his hymn-melodies, so he borrowed liberally from the magnificent store of religious poetry that had gradually accumulated during the centuries. The principal sources thus drawn upon were (1) old Latin hymns which were translated and modified (as _Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich_ from _Da pacem Domine_, a sixth-or seventh-century antiphon; _Der du bist drei_ from _O Lux beata_, a fifth-century Epiphany hymn; and _Herr Gott, dich loben wir_ from the _Te Deum_); (2) early German translations of Latin hymns which were amplified; (3) early German hymns which were corrected or arranged; and (4) Latin Psalms and other Biblical passages which were translated and paraphrased in metrical German verse. A fifth and prolific source must not be overlooked--secular songs, favorite songs of love and praise of Nature, which were recast into religious hymns by the simple device of altering a few words or lines.
[Illustration: Luther in the Circle of His Family] _After the painting by E. Spangenberg_
The importance of music in the Lutheran service was greatly enhanced by Luther’s relentless war on the worship of images and pictures. The arts of painting and sculpture practically disappeared from the church edifices or were put under almost prohibitive restrictions. Music thus became almost the sole artistic accessory to religion in the service of the Reformed Church. But in music Luther recognized that there was no real conflict between Protestant and Catholic ideals; hence he retained the principal features of the musical system of the ancient Church, and readjusted them in accordance with his altered conception of worship. We have observed how he exalted the German hymn, which had existed in pre-Reformation times only as an occasional religious utterance and then always in extra-liturgical services, to a place of chief importance in congregational worship. In his enthusiasm for congregational song, however, there was no antagonism to the choir; on the contrary, he made ample provision for it and urged every encouragement of the use of contrapuntal music. Luther introduced only one real innovation into his musical system--the congregational chorale; for the rest it was based squarely on existing methods, adopting with no essential changes the three chief features of the Roman system: (1) the principles of the old polyphony as developed by the Netherlanders and Italians; (2) the use of borrowed subjects (_canti firmi_) as the basis of the church polyphony, the subjects being taken from chorales, however, instead of from plain-song as in the Roman system; and (3) a few Gregorian melodies and priestly chants for certain parts of the service. Until the church-cantata developed as a distinguishing feature under Bach’s guiding hands, the motet, with Latin or German words and identical in form and style with the motet of the old Church, was the chief representative of contrapuntal vocal music in the Reformed Church. The important place which contrapuntal organ music occupied in the service will be treated in the chapter in which the early organ masters are discussed.
The first result of Luther’s efforts to bring about a reform in the liturgy was the _Formula Missæ_ of 1523. In reality this was simply an abridged form of the Roman Mass and was intended only as a temporary expedient; everything repugnant to the fundamental principles of the new faith was omitted, but Latin was retained as the language of worship. In the _Deutsche Messe_ of 1526 he completed his long contemplated and carefully thought out revision of the liturgy, in which the process of simplification was carried still further and the mother-tongue substituted for Latin in nearly all the offices.
Two years before this (1524) he had published the first Protestant hymn-book (_Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn_, for four voices), with the assistance of his friend and musical adviser, Johann Walther. In 1525 Walther published another and larger one, with a preface by Luther. Chorale-books now multiplied with such astonishing rapidity that at the time of Luther’s death in 1546 there were no less than sixty collections in use, including the various editions. The very first hymn-melodies sung by the congregation were not harmonized at all. Soon simple contrapuntal settings were given to these melodies, and in all the early chorale-books the melody, following the contemporary usage in contrapuntal writing, was placed in the tenor, the congregation singing it in unison while the choir supplied the contrapuntal parts. But by the end of the sixteenth century harmonic feeling had progressed far enough to permit the melody to pass to the treble,[45] where it naturally belonged in the people’s song. Henceforth it is generally found there, supported by solid chord-movement, and its early contrapuntal character becomes transformed into a simpler harmonic style. The development of the organ in Germany during the closing decades of the sixteenth century made it possible for this instrument to take the place of the choir as an accompaniment to the unison congregational song, the choir after 1600 finding ample scope for its powers in the elaborate motet.
The brutal devastation of the Thirty Years’ War was followed by a weakening of religious faith and vigor, and after the middle of the seventeenth century interest in the chorale waned and the steady stream of chorales slackened and soon came to a full stop. The sturdy militant enthusiasm of the early years of the Reformation was superseded by religious apathy which had a corresponding influence on church music. The rhythmical freedom and variety of the early chorales gradually disappeared and their vigorous character became tamed down to the type as now sung, in which the tones of the melody assumed a uniform length. While this style is undoubtedly dignified and imposing, it represents a distinct loss of energy and vigor, as compared with the original free form. But the chorale had already passed into the larger arteries of German secular art-music, and here its tremendous powers of stimulation were no longer dependent on the spiritual pulse of the church.
The historical importance of the chorale can scarcely be overestimated. Musically speaking, it forms the basis of a large and significant portion of the literature of German music, both vocal and instrumental; religiously speaking, it was the effective instrument through which the intensely devout faith of the German people found its readiest and most expressive voice for their emotions of joy and thanksgiving in the newly-found office of direct communion with God; politically speaking, it was recognized by friend and foe alike as the most powerful agency for the spread of the new doctrines. Whole towns were said to have been won over to Protestantism by Luther’s hymns. An irate priest exclaimed: ‘Luther’s songs have damned more souls than all his books and speeches.’ Furthermore, the Protestant hymn exercised an immediate and wholesome influence on the Roman Catholic hymn. Realizing the popularity and devotional value of the Lutheran hymn-singing, the Catholic authorities reversed their traditional attitude toward the congregational hymn and strove to stem the inroads made by this alluring propaganda on their congregations by providing hymn-books of their own in the language of the people. The first German Catholic collection (_Ein New Gesangbüchlin Geystlicher Lieder_) appeared in 1537 in Leipzig, the work of the Dominican monk, Michael Vehe, of Halle. It contained fifty-two hymns and forty-seven melodies, many of which, in altered form, were borrowed from the Protestant hymn-books, as Luther had borrowed from the best Catholic hymns. Thus these religious opponents sought to square musical accounts by freely appropriating each other’s treasures of sacred song. The second Catholic hymn-book (_Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen_) did not appear until 1567. It was edited by Johann Leisentrit of Bautzen and comprised 147 melodies and 250 texts, among which were no less than sixty-six hymns by Protestant poets, four, indeed, by Luther himself! Thereafter similar hymn-books multiplied rapidly, and the history of the development and subsequent decline of the Catholic German hymn coincides quite largely with that of the Lutheran hymn and with nearly the same contributing causes, political and religious. It is of interest to note that about 1600 the hymn found its way for a time even into the office of the Holy Mass. In the eighteenth century the Catholic hymn sank back into its pre-Reformation status of unimportance in public worship, but retained its position in the parochial schools, where it was permanently placed early in the seventeenth century.
II
Just as a veritable swarm of religious poets had responded to Luther’s Macedonian call for hymn-writers, so there soon appeared among his followers a numerous array of musicians, eager and competent to furnish the music for the new service. Johann Walther (1496-1570) was one of the first composers in the Reformed Church--first in importance as well as chronologically. Luther had summoned him to Wittenberg in 1524 to assist him in arranging the musical part of the German Mass, and, as already mentioned, he played a most important part in arranging and editing the first chorale-books. He was the first[46] to harmonize the hymn-melodies after the manner of secular part-songs, that is, in simple four-part harmony, note against note, which form has characterized the congregational hymn since his time. He was the composer of many well-known chorales and motets, and there are a few historians who even attribute to him the authorship of the melody of the famous _Ein’ feste Burg_. Johann Eccard (1553-1611), a prominent pupil of Orlandus Lassus, appeared soon enough after Luther’s passing to be under the direct influence of the great reformer. He enjoyed great popularity on account of his simple and graceful part-songs, chorales, and motets. His chief work was _Geistliche Lieder_ (‘A Collection of Fifty-five Sacred Melodies for Feast-days and Holy-days’). Another important work was _Preussische Fest-lieder_ (‘Prussian Festival Songs for the Whole Year’) for five to eight voices. These were somewhat in the nature of a new form, occupying a place midway in simplicity between the chorale and the motet--akin to the chorale in having the melody in the highest part and possessing a certain folk-song flavor, and approaching the motet in having the melody contrapuntally dependent on the other parts and therefore not to be sung alone. Michael Prætorius (1571-1621) was a prolific writer of motets, psalms, chorales, and choir-pieces, some of the last-named being compositions for several choirs in the Venetian style for as many as thirty voices. From 1605 to 1610 he issued his _Musæ Sioniæ_, a huge collection of sacred part-songs, including many of his own, in sixteen volumes, five with Latin words, the remainder with German. The name of Johann Crüger (1598-1662) is inseparably connected with Lutheran church-song. He was one of the last great composers of chorales--and one of the most prolific--and is remembered now chiefly for the large number of these chorales that have remained favorites during all the intervening years. Among the best-known are _Nun danket alle Gott_; _Jesu meine Zuversicht_; _Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele_; and _Jesu meine Freude_. Most of his chorales were written in the rhythmically regular and subdued form which later was accepted as the modern idea of the chorale. Other Protestant composers who gained distinction as writers of Lutheran church-music before Bach were Joachim von Burck or Moller (1541-1610), celebrated for his _Odæ sacræ_ or part-songs; Bartholomäus Gesius (about 1555-1613); Melchior Franck (about 1573-1639); Hermann Schein (1586-1630), known chiefly by his _Cantional_, published in 1627, consisting of over 200 chorale-melodies, inclusive of about 80 original ones, which he harmonized, mostly note against note, retaining the old irregular rhythm of the earliest chorale melodies; and Andreas Hammerschmidt (1612-1675), who, in his _Musikalische Andachten_ (‘Musical Devotions’) in five volumes and ‘Dialogues between God and a Faithful Soul’ in two volumes, pointed to a new and freer style in sacred composition and made a deep impression on contemporary music of the Lutheran service. With Heinrich Schütz, who will be discussed in a succeeding chapter, Hammerschmidt constitutes the important connecting link between the sixteenth-century ecclesiastical style and the perfected forms of Sebastian Bach.
In retaining the trained choir for the performance of the more elaborate choral music of the service, Luther was forced to make special provision for the education of the choristers, for with the Reformation came the suppression of the abbeys and monasteries that formerly had been the chief supporters of the choir-schools, and the complete transformation of the choristers from their former semi-clerical to a laic status. As early as 1524 he had aroused Protestant Germany to the imperative need of public education as the only means of securing the success and permanence of Protestant ideals, by addressing a stirring appeal to the councilors of German cities. In all Protestant centres schools were founded and actively maintained by municipal, private, and parochial endowment. Music was an integral part of Luther’s scheme of public education, and in connection with the larger institutions he urged the appointment of precentors or cantors[47] who should have charge of the training of the choristers and the selection and singing of the church music. These precentorships became a powerful element in the development of Protestant sacred music and in the diffusion of choral culture. The most famous one was that of the _Thomasschule_ or School of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where a long line of illustrious musicians from Schein, Kuhnau, and Sebastian Bach down to Moritz Hauptmann, E. F. Richter, and Wilhelm Rust (died 1892) enjoyed brilliant careers as cantors. Here a choir of about sixty boys served four churches--St. Thomas, St. Nicholas, St. Peter, and the New-Church. The lay character of the choirs and the close relation between the religious life of the church and the home aided greatly in the general movement of popular musical education.
Another influential factor in the spread of choral culture was the wandering choirs, or _currendi_. The ancient custom of pupils from the monastic schools going about town on certain festival days and singing for alms was utilized in the Reformation period for the twofold purpose of spreading the new doctrines and strengthening the popular love of sacred song. The members of these _currendi_ belonged to the lower grades of the parochial and cathedral schools, and to them was assigned the duty of singing choral responses and chorales in the service. On week-days they passed from house to house singing canticles, and soon became so much of a public institution that their services were in demand, at a small fee, for all sorts of home and semi-religious occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, and baptisms. The older members of the choirs were recruited in the higher or Latin schools from the _alumni_ or boys who were given a home in the school buildings and who in return obligated themselves to serve in the church choir and church orchestra. They received the best vocal and instrumental instruction and were therefore well equipped to perform the florid and difficult music of the polyphonic masters. The interest of these choristers in choral music continued after their connection with the choirs as _alumni_ and _currendani_ (members of the _currendi_) had ceased, and, as students in seminaries and universities or as plain citizens, they exerted a wide influence on choral music either by individually supplementing the local choirs or by establishing choruses which were independent of the churches but which were used to augment the choirs on important church festivals.
III
While the remarkable fermentation caused by Luther’s doctrines was working such significant readjustments in the religious, intellectual, and artistic life of Germany, with echoing responses in adjacent continental countries, a similar movement of revolt and reconstruction gathered headway in England, generated by the same fundamental causes but starting some years later, and resulting in a complete separation from Rome and in the establishment of the Church of England. But the Anglican Church, like the Lutheran Church, did not stand upon a wholly independent basis of its own. Both proclaimed themselves purifiers and reformers, not destroyers, of the ancient church, hence both retained a large portion of the liturgy of the parent church from which they revolted. The Reformation in England, however, developed along quite different lines from Luther’s energetic movement in Germany. On the continent the revolt from Rome was from first to last a religious movement; in England its first outward manifestation was political. The incentive which led Henry VIII to break with Pope Clement VII was not an unalterable religious conviction such as buttressed Luther at the Diet of Worms, but was personal pique at the refusal of the Pope to recognize the validity of his marriage with Anne Boleyn. In the Act of Supremacy of 1534 the King and his successors were declared to be ‘protector and supreme head on earth of the church and clergy of England,’ but no doctrinal changes were involved and the immediate result was merely a change in the name of the church. Yet Henry’s secession soon had the result of forming a distinct line of cleavage for those who had been secretly sympathizing with the religious ideals of Luther and Zwingli on the continent and in whose Anglo-Saxon hearts the right to independent thought and a liberated reason was deeply cherished.
The real reconstruction of the liturgy for the new national Church in conformity to fundamental Protestant doctrine began under Edward VI, who authorized two forms of the Book of Common Prayer in succession (1549 and 1552). In 1559 Elizabeth authorized a third form, which remained in use for over a century. The revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1662 under Charles II practically completed the restatement of doctrine begun by Edward VI.
The entire ritual of the Church of England is contained in this Book of Common Prayer, and, as far as the ordinary congregational worship is concerned, is divided into Matins and Evensong (or Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer) and the office of Holy Communion. The ritual-music in all three consists of chants, hymns, anthems, and certain free musical settings of the canticles and other constant portions of the liturgy technically called ‘services.’ In all matters of style and construction the ‘service’ has closely followed the development of the anthem, the early stages of which we shall now trace.
The anthem was recognized as a regular part of divine service early in Elizabeth’s reign, but the word was not actually used in the Prayer Book until the revision of 1662, which simply states after the third collect, ‘In quires and places where they sing here followeth the anthem.’ A few years after Elizabeth issued the ‘Injunctions’ granting permission to use ‘a hymn or such like song in churches,’ the word anthem appears in the second edition of Day’s choral collection, entitled ‘Certain Notes set forth in four and five Parts to be sung at the Morning and Evening Prayer and Communion.’ The high place that church music has occupied in the thought of English musicians is amply evidenced by the fact that practically every composer that England has produced has given his most serious efforts to this form. The actual output of anthems has been enormous; and, while it may be said with much truth that the qualities of pedantry and dryness are too much in evidence to permit the use of the terms ‘inspiring’ or ‘inspired’ for the bulk of them, it may be maintained with equal truth that in no other class of church music, except the mighty individual contributions of Palestrina and Bach, has the element of secularity been so rigorously excluded as in the English anthem and its allied forms. While the religious music of Protestant Germany and Catholic Italy and France suffered a lamentable relapse in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries under the insinuating influence of the operatic style, the music of the English cathedral service maintained on the whole a serenity and certain austerity of style entirely consistent with ecclesiastical ideals and dignity. The best examples of this style--and they are numerous--give to the music of the Anglican Church an honorable place in the literature of the worship music of the four great historic branches of the church universal, notwithstanding its average mediocrity and the absence of really great names among English church composers.
The anthem is the culminating point of the ritual-music of the Anglican Church, as the cantata was of the early Lutheran Church. In its more extended form it has much the same general musical structure as the cantata, comprising choruses, solos, duets, etc., but it has never attained the large dimensions of its German analogue. Like the church cantata, it made use of the vernacular from the beginning, and, thus established on the basis of a direct verbal appeal to the congregation, it in time evolved a musical type of its own, clearly differentiated from other distinctive types of church-music and embodying the essential qualities of the church from whose innermost being it blossomed.
The word ‘anthem’ (from the Greek _Antiphona_, through the changing forms, _antefne_, _antem_, _anthem_) naturally suggests the idea of antiphonal or responsive music, and it originally had this application, but not since the restriction of its use to a specific and distinctive form of church music. Its text is usually taken from the Psalms or other portions of the Bible, or from the liturgy. The anthem has never been a real part of the liturgy in the same sense as musical portions of the ‘service,’ for its words have never been authoritatively prescribed for the various days of the church calendar, a wide latitude being allowed in this respect.
Four kinds of anthems are recognized and named according to the vocal forces employed in performance. They are called ‘full’ when written for chorus throughout; ‘verse’ when written for chorus and various groupings of solo voices, the chorus being of secondary importance; ‘solo’ when written for chorus and one solo voice; and ‘double’ when written for a double choir singing antiphonally. The ‘full’ anthem is the natural successor to the earlier Latin motet; the ‘verse’ and ‘solo’ anthems clearly show the influence of Italian solo-forms applied to the problems of church-music. The utmost freedom of form is now permitted in the anthem and its dimensions vary from those of a simple hymn-tune to extended compositions in several movements constructed with elaborate contrapuntal skill and employing independent organ, and sometimes orchestral, accompaniment. In this larger form it approaches closely the character of the cantata, although not so individualized in its parts.
The earliest anthems date from the beginning of Elizabeth’s long reign (1558-1603) and the cultivation of this form has gone on from this period in unbroken continuity, save for the brief ascendency of Puritan ideals during the Commonwealth. The literature of Anglican Church music divides itself into four periods of quite distinctive characteristics:
I. (1550-1660) in the contrapuntal style of the unaccompanied motet;
II. (1660-1720) the beginning of the modern free style;
III. (1720-1850) middle modern; and
IV. 1850 to the present.
The peculiar character of the English Reformation in its early stages was reflected in the ritual-music of the newly-founded national church. The leaders of the Protestant movement on the continent were mostly men who sprang from the ranks of the common people. It was in large measure a democratic and popular movement. It was only natural that the music of the people should find an echoing response in the music of the church which sprang from such a foundation, and thus the chorale, adapted from or closely related to folk-music, forced its way into the Lutheran ritual-music and exercised a profound influence on all aspects of the worship-music of German Protestantism. The English Reformation had no such popular basis. The various stages of its progress were in the main determined by royal edicts or by acts of parliaments subservient to the royal will. No channel was open through which the music of the people could exert any appreciable influence on the figured music of the Anglican Church. The fragrance of the English folk-song may be detected in many an example of English hymnology, but no such aroma ever penetrated into the atmosphere of the anthem or the ‘service.’
When the break with Rome came and the reorganized Church became an established fact, an astonishingly small number of changes were made, considering the momentous nature of the revolt, either in the general body of ecclesiastical officers of the Church or among the church musicians. For the first century of its existence the figured music of the Anglican service was almost identical in character with the corresponding portions of the Roman Catholic service. The style and structure of the anthem with English words differed in no respect from the Latin motet. The traditions of English church-music, traditions whose effects are still to be felt in the choral portions, were firmly laid by men deeply skilled in polyphonic writing, men whose learning and musicianship made them worthy compeers of the great continental contrapuntists, Lassus and Palestrina.
Among the greatest of the church composers of this early period were such men as Thomas Tallis (1529?-1585), whose anthems ‘I Call and Cry’ and ‘All People that on Earth do Dwell’ are fine examples of the old contrapuntal style; William Byrd (1538?-1623), with his masterful ‘Bow Thine Ear’ and ‘Sing Joyfully’; and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), the ‘English Palestrina,’ whose ‘Hosanna,’ ‘Lift up your Heads,’ ‘O Clap your Hands together,’ and ‘Almighty and Everlasting God’ have not yet ceased to excite admiration and reverence for their solemnity and dignity. Most of the anthems of this period are ‘full,’ though occasional ‘verse’ anthems are also to be found. All were essentially _a cappella_ and relied wholly upon purely vocal effects. Small portable organs were in common use in many churches, but when they were employed as accompaniment they, as well as occasional orchestral instruments, merely reinforced the voice-parts or filled out the vocal ‘rests.’
IV
Since the Reformation in all countries was fundamentally democratic, though in varying degrees of expression, it was inevitable that the people’s song should be given substantial recognition in all forms of the Protestant service. In Germany the chorale was at once the utterance of profoundest religious conviction in the sanctuary, in the home, and on the battlefield; and the incitement to creative energy in more elaborate musical forms. But in respect to its alliance with higher forms of art-music, the chorale has no analogue in the ritual-music of other Protestant services. In France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, the only form of religious song tolerated by the Reformed Church was Calvin’s austere psalmody, which was the beginning and end of worship-music in all churches under his leadership. His intolerant antipathy to everything that even suggested the elaborate and beautiful forms of the Roman ritual rigidly excluded all polyphonic or figured music as well as all forms of instrumental accompaniment. The Genevan Psalter, published in various editions from 1542 to 1562 when it appeared in its complete form, consisted of the metrical translations of the Psalms by Clement Marot and Theodore Beza set, for the most part, to adaptations of popular secular French songs, though many of the finest tunes have been variously attributed, but without conclusive proof, to Louis Bourgeois, Guillaume Franc, and Claude Goudimel. Many of the fine melodies of the Genevan Psalter, such as ‘Old Hundredth’ or the long-metre doxology and ‘Toulon,’ have persisted in popularity during the centuries and have been permanently enshrined in Protestant hymnology. Although many editions of the most popular of the psalm-tunes appeared for four voices (the melody at first in the tenor), finely harmonized by Bourgeois, Goudimel and others, no other than plain unisonal singing of the tunes was permitted in the church service for over two centuries.
The movement in favor of congregational song quickly passed to England, where, however, complex conditions prevented the development of any such uniform type as the chorale. The establishment of the Church of England, with its revised liturgy and musical service, had scarcely been effected when it came into collision with opposition within the Protestant fold far more intense and bitter than any encountered from its Roman Catholic foes. The Puritan party, in its excessive repugnance to all forms of ritualism or ceremonial and in its invincible conviction that everything artistic in worship was sinful, fiercely attacked the Anglican Church as an insincere compromise with popery. Following Calvin’s leadership, Puritanism threw overboard the whole structure of formal worship in the historic church and permitted in the service no music at all except the congregational singing of the metrical psalms. In this wholly democratic conception of worship-music there was obviously no incentive to any higher form of musical expression. The only contribution of the Dissenters, therefore, to the literature of church-music was their hymnody, or rather psalmody, for the words, even though many times rewritten and reparaphrased, were rigidly limited to the Psalms. The first complete English metrical Psalter[48] was the famous one by Sternhold and Hopkins in 1562, which held sway among Puritan congregations for nearly two centuries and a half and was likewise supreme in the Anglican Church for at least a century and a half. The new version of the Psalter by Tate and Brady, published in 1696, remained in favor till a still later date or till about the middle of the nineteenth century, but the popularity of both was seriously challenged by the splendid version of Isaac Watts in 1719. The origin of the sixty-five different psalm-tunes in the Sternhold and Hopkins collection has been open to much controversy. It seems highly probable that most of them were of English composition, though many were doubtless written in imitation of hymn-tunes that were favorites among the French, Swiss, and German Protestants.
The congregational song of the Anglican Church in the first century and a half of its existence likewise kept close to the Psalter. Hymns, in the German sense of spontaneous expression of individual religious sentiment, were practically unknown in English religious song until just before the period of Watts and the Wesleys. The idea that nothing should be used in public worship that was not strictly Scriptural dominated the services of Conformists and Non-conformists alike. To be sure, a few ancient hymns, such as the _Te Deum_ and _Veni Creator_, together with some canticles and ‘spiritual songs,’ were admitted into the Appendix to the Psalter, to be sung in private devotions, but it was not until the closing years of the seventeenth century that the hymn emerged from the protecting care of the Psalms and asserted itself as an independent form in the service. The first successful collection in which it assumed a place of its own was ‘Select Psalms and Hymns’ for St. James’s, Westminster, 1697. A new and glorious era for English hymnody was at hand, in which the hard, prosaic lines of the old psalmody were to be laid aside for more spontaneous, inspired religious utterance. But if the verses of the old poets of an austere, unloving religion were to be discarded and gradually forgotten, many of the melodies to which they were sung have lived to be joined to words of sweeter comfort and more joyous hope than the English religionists of those olden days permitted themselves. Most of the early tunes were written in the then prevalent church modes, many were undoubtedly adapted from English folk-songs and continental melodies, but the names of many of the greatest English composers of this period--Tye, Tallis, Gibbons, Byrd--lived on in their inspired church tunes and are still to be found in nearly every modern hymnal in use, whether prepared for liturgical or non-liturgical services.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] In the ‘Thuringian Mystery, or the Parable of the Ten Virgins,’ written evidently by monks and performed for the first time at Eisenach, Thuringia, on April 24, 1322, the futility of intercessory prayers to saints or even to the Virgin is asserted.
[42] This substitution was not entirely accomplished during Luther’s lifetime, however, as a few Latin motets were retained for a long time.
[43] Philip Wackernagel in his collection of old German hymns (_Das deutsche Kirchenlied_) gives 1,448 examples of these, dating from 868 to 1518.
[44] Only two can with certainty be ascribed to him--_Jesaia dem Propheten das geschah_ and _Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott_--while five more are probably by him.
[45] The first chorale-book to adopt this as a fixed principle was the one published in 1586 at Nuremberg by Lucas Osiander, ‘Fifty Sacred Songs and Psalms, arranged contrapuntally for four voices, so that a whole Christian congregation may unite in the singing of them.’
[46] _Cf._ Naumann, ‘The History of Music’ (Eng. trans.), Vol. I, p. 473.
[47] Cantors, however, had existed from early times in the ecclesiastical establishments and singing schools (_scholæ cantorum_).
[48] Sternhold’s first incomplete collection of nineteen psalms was published in 1549, the year of his death.
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