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Martin Luther's
attitude toward music is expressed in his Forward to
Georg Rhau's Symphoniae, a collection of chorale motets
published in 1538, as follows:
"I,
Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of
music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ!
I truly desire
that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely
gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure
given to mankind by God.
The riches of
music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me
whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them.... In summa,
next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest
treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts,
and spirits...
Our dear
fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be
always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and
psalms.
This precious
gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind
himself that God has created man for the express purpose of
praising and extolling God.
However, when
man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the
extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great
surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is,
after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear
music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three,
four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the
voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody
wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of
a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness,
caress and embrace.
A person who
gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a
marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does
not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted
to hear nothing but the braying of [donkeys] and the grunting of
hogs."
- Martin Luther |
