Page 80 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
P. 80
78
THE OBJECT OF
CHURCHES IS NOT THE
BAWLING OF CHORISTERS
CHORALE PRELUDE, EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER
GOTT (1690), DIETERICH BUXTEHUDE
hen, in 1517, Martin organ piece to introduce the melody
IN CONTEXT Luther penned the of the chorale so that people would
W 95 theses that would know what tune to sing.
FOCUS trigger the Reformation, his main
Lutheran hymn tunes
objections had little to do with Signature trait
BEFORE music: they rather concerned The chief pioneer of the chorale
1529 Martin Luther composes the selling of indulgences and the prelude was Dieterich Buxtehude.
the hymn Ein feste Burg. question of papal authority. As His practice was to present the
the Reformation got underway, chorale melody in an ornamented
1624 Samuel Scheidt however, church music was to be version in one single upper voice,
publishes his Tablatura nova, profoundly affected. For centuries, projected by the right hand on a
a collection of keyboard singing in church had been the separate manual (organ keyboard),
music containing eight sets preserve of monks and trained while the left hand and pedals
of chorale variations. singers and, being in Latin, it was provided an accompaniment,
incomprehensible to the average normally on softer-sounding stops.
AFTER person in the congregation. Buxtehude drew some influence
1705–1706 J.S. Bach walks Luther placed particular from the works of earlier composers,
from Arnstadt to Lübeck—a emphasis on congregational such as the keyboard variations of
distance of 235 miles (378 km) participation and on the use of the the Dutch organist Jan Pieterszoon
to meet and hear Buxtehude. vernacular, so that everyone could
1726 J.S. Bach completes understand what they were hearing
the final chorales in his and singing. The chorale—a
Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ congregational hymn—was key
to this. Luther himself composed
Book”), his largest collection many of the earliest chorales, of
of chorale preludes.
which perhaps the most famous is [I wanted] to comprehend
1830 Felix Mendelssohn his Ein feste Burg, based on Psalm one thing and another
bases the finale of his 46—“A mighty fortress is our God, about his art.
“Reformation” Symphony a tower of strength never failing.” J.S. Bach
(No. 5) on Luther’s Ein By the Baroque period, chorale
feste Burg. melodies formed the basis for
many different genres of music in
the Lutheran church. One of these
was the chorale prelude, a short
US_078-079_Buxtehude.indd 78 27/03/18 4:49 PM
