PROLOGUE
Song is prayer redoubled
Martin Luther
The man whom music historians would come to consider as the most
important composer that Germany was to give to the Protestant rite was
born in Eisenach on 21 March, the first day of spring, 1685. Louis XIV
signed the Edict of Fontainebleau a few months later on 18 October;
this abolished the Edict of Nantes that Henri IV had promulgated in
1598 and curtailed the freedoms that the Huguenots had earlier been
granted. This, although a coincidence, is highly significant in that
the resulting exodus of French Protestants to Germany was to play a
considerable role in Johann Sebastian Bach's musical development.
Our choice of such an observation as the starting point for this essay
is not, however, coincidental. After having steadfastly proclaimed his
convictions before the Diet of Worms in April 1521, Martin Luther knew
that he would be prosecuted and that anyone who might agree to protect
him would also be condemned. The safe-conduct that Emperor Charles V
had granted him in order for him to come to Worms was only valid for a
short time and was in any case invalidated by the publication of the
Edict that transformed the Diet's deliberations into law. Frederick the
Wise, the Elector of Saxony, then gave Luther sanctuary in his castle
in Wartburg under cover of Luther's supposed kidnapping; the castle
happens to stand on a hill that directly overlooks the town of
Eisenach! Luther made good use of his time there by writing several
important works and also began his German translation of the New
Testament.
Thuringia and a large part of central and northern Germany had become
for the most part Protestant by the time that Johann Sebastian Bach was
born a little more than one hundred and fifty years later. The horrors
of the Thirty Years' War were, however, still very much in people's
minds. A primary cause of the war had been religious tension and,
although the Treaty of Westphalia had effectively ended it, the war had
involved almost every country in Europe and its chief battleground had
been central Germany itself. The memory of its horrors was not to be
erased in a few short years: even though religious faith was clearly
one of the main remedies for the suffering the war had caused, the
music that accompanied it presents us with a tender and moving image of
this faith even today. Luther may not have realised the strength of
that music at that time, but he did well to make sure that song would
play a leading part in the organisation of the various religious
services and in Protestant spiritual life in general.
This is neither the time nor the place to retrace all the steps that
led the reformers to their various fates; neither, on the other hand,
need we outline the reactions of those who forged the basic ideas of
the Counter-Reformation by defending the principles of the Roman
Catholic Church. Such a description of the historical background simply
aids us to a better understanding of the role that music played in
these situations, how it was able to adapt itself to the precepts that
the two faiths proclaimed and how it continued its development during a
highly complex period in history: it was during this time that
polyphony had reached its apogee and was beginning to give way to the
accompanied single lines and the rich expression that would
characterise the baroque.
LUTHER AND THE
REFORMATION
Born in Eisleben in Thuringia in 1483, Martin Luther could have easily
enjoyed a peaceful life, one divided between monastic life (he had
entered an Augustinian monastery in 1505) and a university career.
This, however, was not to be. A period of time spent in Rome in 1510
perhaps provided the foundation for all his doubts about the Catholic
church and its conception of faith and its behaviour, given that the
church presented itself in the world as if it were a political and
economical power. The Reformation had its origins in the university of
Wittenberg, founded by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, at the
beginning of the 16th century and where Luther was a professor. Luther
was not alone there, for he had been joined by various colleagues who
would also come to play important roles in the spreading of the
Reformation; these included Philipp Melanchthon and Georg Burckardt,
alias Spalatin, an advisor to Frederick the Wise.
Luther attacked the Church on several points: he first discussed the
very basics of the Christian faith, stating that the Church should
return to the Bible, its fundamental source, and cleanse it of all the
interpretations that had accrued to it over the centuries. It was,
however, Luther's struggle against the power of the Church that
provoked the greatest enmity of the ecclesiastical authorities. This
began with Luther's virulent attack on the system of indulgences, for
one of the most questionable instances of this system was the
indulgence promulgated by Pope Julian II in 1506 and renewed by Pope
Leo X in 1515: it was granted to all those who contributed financially
to the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Luther, having
witnessed these practices and many other similar procedures in Germany,
reacted violently; the publication of his Ninety-five Theses (Disputatio
pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum) in 1517 marked the first
of a long series of polemical writings. He did not have to wait long
for a reaction from Rome, for he was threatened with excommunication in
1520. He soon realised that his ideas would be linked with certain
political ideas then current and addressed his following tract 'To
the Christian nobility of the German nation concerning the improvement
of the Christian state'; he was then excommunicated. Luther
remained obdurate at the Diet of Worms that was convened by Charles V
in 1521; true to his convictions, he married in 1525 and continued his
work without respite until his death in 1546.
When the Diet of Augsburg was convened in 1555, one part of Luther's
struggles had been won: the Peace of Augsburg ratified the religious
and political separation of Germany from the Empire. In a nutshell, the
Rhineland and Bavaria remained Catholic, whilst the remainder of
Germany became Protestant. This division was nevertheless not as
arbitrary as it sounded; one of the more astonishing situations thus
created occurred in the city of Dresden, where the ruling court
remained Catholic but the city's churches became Lutheran.
Luther's ideas and doctrines continued to spread throughout Europe
during this time, although Luther was not solely responsible for the
various ideological and religious movements that arose. Zwingli in
Zürich, Calvin in France and Geneva, Bucer in Strasbourg, to name
only the most important, all developed their own ideas for the
reformation of the Christian faith. Like Luther, they fought
energetically to defend their position, creating impassioned debate,
blind hostility and unfair condemnation both around them and within
their own circles. The history of the Reformation links the basic
tenets behind such ideas with many reactions that were often created
and directed by national and political imperatives.
[Richard Stauffer's book La Réforme (1970, Que saia-je?)
provides an extremely well-researched explanation
of these important moments of the European Renaissance].
The Lutheran liturgy
Our principal concerns here are the impact of these spiritual movements
on musical creation and the role that this music played in Lutheran
worship.
The Lutheran liturgy is based on the books of the Old and the New
Testament, bearing in mind that certain of these — the
Apocryphal books such as Wisdom of Sirach, Tobit and Wisdom
of Solomon — are generally regarded as non-canonical by
Protestants. Amongst the texts of the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms
occupies an extremely important place; it was also provided with an
extensive commentary by Luther himself. We should also remember that
the Protestant liturgy rejects all worship of the Saints as
individuals. The cult of Mary is also excluded from the Protestant
rite; the Virgin is nonetheless recognised as the mother of Jesus,
although not as an intercessor for mankind before God. A direct
consequence of this for musicians was that many moving texts that had
been set with so much tenderness and emotion by Catholic composers were
now excluded. One particular example of this is provided by J.S. Bach's
discovery of Pergolesi's Stabat mater towards the end of his
life; not wanting to be deprived of this music, Bach replaced the
original text with the words of Psalm 51, Tilge Höchster meine
Sünden (Miserere mei Deus). Franz Tunder had done the
same one century earlier, replacing the text of Giovanni Rovetta's
motet Salve Regina for solo voice with the words Salve mi
Jesu (CD 7/10), This being said, the Protestant liturgical
year nevertheless observed several feast days relating to the Virgin:
the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, marked by Bach's cantata Ich
habe genug BWV 82, the Angelic Visitation and the Annunciation, and
of course Christmas itself with its frequent mentions of the Virgin
Mary.
Even though German became the principal language of the liturgy, Latin
was not about to disappear. Luther did not intend it to fade away, for
he considered it as the language of learning and of knowledge. He drew
up a lengthy Latin catechism for priests and those with learning as
well as a shorter German catechism for the common people. Luther
envisaged a widespread use of Latin in the cities, even for readings
that could be given in Latin and/or in German. The same was true for
the parts of the Ordinary of the Mass that were incorporated into the
Lutheran rite such as the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus
Dei.
Composers therefore continued to compose settings of texts from the
Ordinary for certain occasions, whether in German or in Latin. One
example of this was Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the teacher of Handel,
who composed a Missa brevis (CD 8/1) on the theme of the Easter
chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden. J.S. Bach himself also was to
compose four masses as well as the impressive Mass in B minor,
part of which he presented to the Elector of Saxony in the hope of
obtaining the title of court composer; the Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass
in B minor formed part of an earlier Lutheran Mass that Bach had
composed for Dresden.
The only sacraments that were incorporated into the Lutheran rite were
those of baptism, confession and the communion in two kinds. Extreme
Unction disappeared, leaving only an Office for the Dead; this,
however, did not include the texts that characterised the Catholic
Requiem Mass.
When J.S. Bach published the third part of the Clavierübung,
he presented the fundamental tenets of Lutheranism between the
monumental Prelude and the grandiose Fugue: the Law, Faith and Prayer
allied with the three sacraments of Baptism, Confession and Communion.
The central part of the Lutheran rite is the sermon, which at that time
was framed by two pieces of music that were generically known as a
cantata. This positioning of the cantata in the liturgical rite
provides an explanation why certain cantatas are divided into two clear
parts.
Luther and music
Although Luther's role in musical matters is significant, it is also
highly interesting, if not essential, to take stock of German musical
life at that time, returning to the final years of the 15th century.
What exactly do we know about German music of that time? The centre of
musical life then was of course the court of Maximilian I, situated
between Vienna and Innsbruck Maximilian's musical establishment
consisted of some of the most important composers of the time when he
died in 1519; these included Heinrich Isaac, famed for his Flemish
technical skill and his knowledge of Italian music, Ludwig Senfl from
Zürich and the organist Paul Hofhaimer. The Flemish polyphonic
style predominated, as can be seen in the motet Imperii proceres,
composed by Isaac to celebrate the glory of the Emperor. Another highly
specific genre, the Tenor Lied, was in use in secular music: this was a
piece for three or four voices in which the principal melody was given
not to the soprano but to the tenor line; the remaining lines were
often performed instrumentally. Beyond the walls of Maximilian's court,
there was an entire series of manuscripts in which compositions of many
different origins were assembled. Most of them were German and
unfortunately anonymous, although alongside these are several pieces by
the most famous Franco-Flemish composers of the 15th century. One of
the most important of these collections is the Glogauer Liederbuch,
so called because of its origin in the town of the same name. The
majority of these pieces are secular, whether vocal works or
instrumental compositions; this was somewhat unusual at that time and
seems to reflect a certain individuality in German music. Nonetheless,
there are also several sacred works in Latin and, surprisingly enough,
also in German — a real anticipation of Luther's ideas about the
use of the vernacular in sacred music in the final years of the 15th
century. Christ ist erstanden (CD 1/3) is taken from the
Glogauer Liederbuch and Sey willekommen (CD 1/2) from a
manuscript kept in Erfurt in Thuringia.
It should, however, be realised that these few manuscripts all exist
concentrated within an area that was limited to the cultural capitals
of the Empire and to southern Germany. What is more, the printing of
music that was already flourishing in Venice and in France in the first
years of the 16th century had not yet arrived in Germany. It is more
than likely that the sole examples of polyphonic music that could have
reached Luther had been published in Italy; it is also highly probable
that they were sacred works by Josquin Desprez, the supreme master of
the Ars perfecta, for he was the composer who had incontestably
benefited the most from these early Italian editions and Luther valued
his works highly. Music printing finally reached Germany during the
1510s and was initially employed for the publishing of song-books.
Luther's first task in musical matters was, with the collaboration of
his musician advisors and friends, to create a basic repertoire of
chorales that would soon be the foundation of all music intended for
use in Lutheran services. One result of this was Johann Walter's
publication of the first edition of the Geistlich
Gesangbüchlein in Wittenberg in 1524. Other volumes of
chorales would follow as the century progressed: Georg Rhaw's Newe
deudsche Geistliche Gesenge... (1544) contains one hundred and
twenty-three chorales organised according to the liturgical year. The
number of composers listed there shows how important their work was in
the development of the reformed church: alongside many little-known
names we also find Martin Agricola, Arnold von Burck, Lupus Hellinck,
Ludwig Senfl, Thomas Stoltzer, Lucas Osiander and several others.
The basic principles of the chorale melody were that it should be
syllabic, that it should use a simple and regular metre with minims and
crotchets, and that it should be capable of being memorised easily by
the congregation; the faithful were invited to sing the chorales during
services and at other times as well, such as during family prayers. The
greater part of these chorale melodies seem to be original work,
although some of them were certainly borrowed from many different types
of repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to popular secular songs.
The melody of the Easter chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden was
inspired by the plainsong melody Victimae pascali laudes (CD
8/2), whilst the melody of the famous Italian popular song Madre
non mi far monaca (CD 5/2), translated into French as La
Jeune Fillette or Une Jeune Pucelle and whose French texts
would evoke the virginity of Mary, was adapted into a chorale melody
and applied to the text Helf mir Gottes Güte preisen. Bach
was to use this chorale to conclude his Cantata BWV 73 for the third
Sunday after Epiphany with the line Das ist des Vaters Wille (CD
8/22). The chorales melodies are primarily in binary rhythm,
although this does not exclude the use of ternary rhythm for chorales
associated with the great festivals of Christmas and the Resurrection
such as the famous In dulci jubilo, nonetheless still with its
Latin text.
Martin Luther was also a musician, as were many ecclesiastics at that
time; it is said that he was able to hold a part in polyphonic music
and certain iconographical sources even depict him playing a lute.
Various chorales are considered to have been composed by him, the most
important of these being the chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
(A mighty fortress is our God) with its statement of the
foundations of his belief (CD 1/4).
Although the chorales were monodic in origin, they were soon given
polyphonic treatment; the need to respect their rhythmic simplicity
resulted in a homophonic style of composition that would be employed
even by Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Volumes of monodic chorales were
published that were rapidly followed by further collections of
polyphonic settings (CD 1/5). The composers of the Reformation
were also required to master the perfection of imitative polyphony; the
first great examples of their works in the field of sacred music began
to appear during the second half of the 16th century (CD 1/6).
It is now time to describe the personality and the work of several of
Luther's collaborators. Johann Walter (1496-1570) was born in Kahla in
Thuringia and entered the service of the court of Frederick the Wise as
a cantor. After Frederick's death he joined Luther in Wittenberg before
gaining permanent employment in Torgau, where he remained until his
death. His personal involvement was crucial to the development of the
chorale repertoire; he was supported in this by Luther, who wrote a
preface to Walter's first collection of chorales (1524). Johann Walter
was also a composer of extremely complex polyphonic music who did not
hesitate to attempt pieces in six or even seven parts, whether in Latin
(several versions of the Magnificat) or in German. The motet Wir
glauben all an einen Gott (CD 1/7) for six voices is
composed in a style that is very close to that of Josquin Desprez, with
a cantus firmus based on the chorale melody being place in the second
part. The version recorded here uses the first verse only. The same
music is used for the two other verses of the chorale, Wir glauben
auch an Jesum Christ and Wir glauben all an den Heiligen Geist.
Caspar Othmayr (1515-1553) was not really a member of the inner sanctum
of those close to Luther. We know that he met Johann Walter in Torgau
and that he aligned himself with the Reformation from 1545 onwards. He
could not in all fairness be omitted from this anthology, as his name
appears as the harmoniser of many chorales and he was also the composer
of a musical homage to Luther himself. The motet for five voices Mein
himmlischer Vater bears the annotation Verba Lutheri ultima,
or Luther's last words; the first tenor sings the words that Luther is
supposed to have spoken on his deathbed as a cantus firmus: "In
manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum. Redemisti me, Deus
veritatis" (CD 1/1).
The works of Thomas Stoltzer (ca. 1480-1526) place him at the very
beginning of the Reformation. Born in Silesia, his career led him first
to Cracow and then to Buda in Hungary, where he was in the service of
the court. He applied for the post of Kapellmeister to the Margrave of
Brandenburg in 1526, attaching a monumental setting of Psalm 37,
set in German as Erzürne dich nicht, for 6 and 7 voices.
There is no evidence that Stoltzer actually belonged to the new
movement of reform, although this psalm and several other compositions
indeed leave this impression. Unusually for the time, Stoltzer also
notes that the motet can also be played on crumhorns; we may suppose
that these instruments, popular all over Germany, were particularly
appreciated at the Brandenburg court. One of the verses of this motet
is recorded here with these instruments (CD 1/8).
The Lutheran Passions
Alongside the invention of the chorale and the composition of motets in
the Ars perfecta style, the Lutheran composers very quickly
came up with the idea of setting various excerpts of the Gospels to
music, making use of the narrations of Christ's Passion in particular.
Johann Walter had already composed two Passions, one according to St.
Matthew and the other according to St. John; these were monodic
compositions, using the modal technique used for the singing of
Gregorian chant. Polyphony was employed only in the sections for the
crowds, the turbae, and respected the same melodic principles:
the polyphony was constructed quite simply according to the faux-bourdon
technique. Joachim Von Burck's setting of the Passion was published as Die
deutsche Passion nach Johannes (CD 1/10 & 11) in
Wittenberg in 1568 and is the oldest Lutheran setting of the Passion
that is completely polyphonic. All the characters of the Gospel
narration benefit from the polyphonic writing, including the Evangelist
himself, Christ, Judas, Caiaphas and Peter.
Die deutsche Passion nach Johannes is divided into three parts:
the Arrest, the Judgement of Pilate and the Crucifixion. It is
introduced by a polyphonic setting of the title, to the words "Hear the
Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is narrated in the Gospel
according to John" and concludes with the words "Sweet Lord, we
believe, strengthen our faith. Amen''. In order to draw clearer
distinctions between the various protagonists, the recording of this
work made by Vox Luminis for this anthology divides the various
sections between two groups of singers, the first representing the
Evangelist and the second the colloquentes, with the two groups
joining forces for the opening and closing choruses as well as for the turbae.
Many composers continued this tradition, including Leonard Lechner and
Johannes Herold at the end of the Renaissance as well as Christoph
Demantius and Antonio Scandello (1517- 1580). Scandello was born in
Bergamo and had been engaged as an instrumentalist at the Dresden court
in 1547; he converted to Lutheranism in 1562.
Leonard Lechner (ca 1553-1606) is interesting for more than one reason:
he had been a pupil of Lassus in Munich and so had considerable
influence on the development of the polyphonic style. His career became
somewhat complicated after his conversion to Protestantism, given that
he was generally employed in the service of the Catholic courts of
southern Germany. He nevertheless composed various Pieces for the rites
of the Lutheran church, including harmonisations of chorales (CD 1/9)
as well as a St. John Passion.
THE REFORMATION IN
SCANDINAVIA
The Lutheran doctrines found a perfect breeding-ground in the Nordic
countries, given that they were so close to Germany both geographically
and politically. The theologian Hans Tausend was a disciple of Luther
and encouraged the first stirrings of the movement in Denmark; his
actions were closely followed by the Danish monarchy and by Christian
IV in particular. Christian IV was born in Frederiksborg in 1577 and
died in Copenhagen in 1648. He was beyond any doubt the monarch who
gave the Danish court its greatest glory, thanks to his investment in a
strong military policy with a very clear position towards Germany and
to his participation in the Thirty Years War, in which he formed a
coalition with Gustav II of Sweden, his historical enemy. Was he a
musician? There is no proof of this, although he was clearly passionate
about music. His musical establishment was large and included not only
Danes but also many musicians from many different European countries.
There were eighty musicians divided amongst the various institutions,
these being instrumentalists, singers and trumpeters. The court
professed Protestantism, a choice that had important consequences for
the sacred music performed there. Frederick II, the father of Christian
IV, had urged the court composers during his reign to collect all the
chorale melodies that should be sung in Danish; Christian IV then
requested that these chorales be given polyphonic settings, a task that
he entrusted to his Kapellmeister Mogens Pedersøn (CD 1/14).
Pedersøn was born around 1580 and was Denmark's leading composer
during the above period. He was most probably trained in the royal
musical establishment and was then sent to Venice by the king in 1599
to finish his training with Giovanni Gabrieli. He remained in Venice
only a short time, returning to Copenhagen the following year; he
returned to Venice in 1605 and this time remained there for four years.
Mogens Pedersøn left one important collection of sacred music,
the Pratum Spirituale; it was dedicated to Christian IV and
published in 1620. The collection consists of harmonisations of thirty
chorales in Danish as well as a Mass for five voices and several Latin
motets (CD 1/12 & 13).
The Swedish court was to follow the same path: links were thus forged
between northern Germany and the Scandinavian lands. A certain
Dieterich Buxtehude was to come from Denmark and would be the last of a
great generation of northern German organists. The organ tradition was
already highly important in Denmark, as can be seen from the instrument
built by Compenius that was installed in the chapel of Frederiksborg
castle in 1617; we also know that it was played by Johann Lorentz, a
predecessor of Buxtehude and also organist of the Nikolaj Kirke in
Copenhagen, whose compositions included pieces based on chorale
melodies (CD 1/15).
CALVIN AND THE
REFORMATION IN FRANCE
We mentioned the other instances of the Reformation and its effects in
other countries at the end of the chapter dealing with Luther and the
Reformation. Apart from the movement that Bucer had initiated in
Strasbourg, the spirit of the Reformation rapidly conquered several
other French cities. Such was the case in Meaux, which followed the
movement that was now well-established in Strasbourg. Guillaume
Briçonet, the Bishop of Meaux, having taken stock of the
lamentable organisation of the spiritual life of the city's many
priests as well as their deplorable private lives, instituted a
large-scale debate on how the Christian faith should be best observed.
He was joined in this by several theologians and preachers. Marguerite
de Navarre, the sister of François I, kept up a correspondence
with him that shows that she adhered to the new ideas that
Briçonet had developed. Briçonet launched himself into
the publication not only of theological essays but also of translations
of various books of the Bible, including the New Testament, the
Psalms and the Acts of the Apostles. These publications
enabled the movement to gain ground in several regions of France.
Marguerite de Navarre also played an important role: not only did she
indeed spread these new currents of thought at court, but her daughter,
Jeanne de Navarre, would give birth on 13 December 1553 to Henri de
Bourbon, the future Henri IV, who would be raised in the Protestant
faith.
It was nonetheless Jean Calvin who was at the centre of the Reformation
in French-speaking lands, as Luther was in Germany. Born in Noyon in
1509, he followed Luther's example in linking his university training
in philosophy and law with a career as a theologian. His Institutio
Christianae Religionis (1536) sets out the basic concepts of his
deliberations. After a short time in Geneva, Calvin then spent three
years in Strasbourg as a member of Bucer's circle, although little by
little he distanced himself from it, publishing several works in which
he developed and extended his theories. Charles V then organised
symposia in an effort to reconcile the different liturgical ideologies,
and it was at one of these that Calvin met Philipp Melanchthon, with
whom he became friendly. Calvin lived in Geneva from 1541 until his
death in 1564 and made the city the focal point of his reforms. His
work was later continued by Théodore de Bèze. Calvin had,
however, kept up his contacts with people who favoured the idea of a
Reformation in France. Even though the reformed churches were able to
establish themselves in the Kingdom of France around the middle of the
16th century, this did not mean that the Protestant rite was officially
recognised. This particularly murky chapter of French history was made
even more so by the problem of religion, as can be seen from such
significant events as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris on 24
August 1572. Much blood was shed that day and continued to be spilt for
several more days afterwards in other towns and cities of France,
causing the deaths of thousands of Protestant men and women. Marguerite
de Valois, the daughter of Catherine de Medici, had married Henri de
Navarre a few days beforehand, on 18 August. This, although much
against the wishes of the Pope at that time, was an opportunity to
attempt a reconciliation by bringing a Protestant into the royal
family. Henri de Navarre was crowned king of France on 27 February 1594
in Chartres Cathedral, although he had been obliged to convert to
Catholicism to gain the throne. The new king, however, did not give up
the fight and promulgated the Edict of Nantes in April 1598, thereby
granting Protestants the right to free and open worship. Protestants
also began to be known as Huguenots from then onwards.
Music and the Calvinist liturgy
Calvin's views on the place of music in the liturgy were much narrower
than were Luther's. Latin disappeared, and with it went the entire body
of music that had been composed in it since the first centuries of
Christian belief. The only singing permitted in Calvinist services was
the singing of the Psalms: "To all Christians and lovers of the word of
God, for the sake of which, after having searched high and low and
travelled to many places, we have found no better song and none more
fit for the purpose than the Psalms of David, those the Holy Spirit
created and dictated to him". Calvin then added: "Care must always be
taken that the singing be neither light-hearted nor flighty for it
should have weight and majesty as Saint Augustine said; let there be
therefore a great difference between the music that is made to make men
glad at table and in their homes and the music of the Psalms that is
sung in church in the presence of God and his Angels". The Psalm texts
were translated and rendered into verse by various French poets of the
Renaissance, although Clément Marot was responsible for the
majority of them from 1533 onwards. Apart from the Psalms, the only
other sacred texts that would enjoy the same attention were to be the Song
of Simeon (Nunc dimittis), the Creed and the Ten
Commandments.
All song within the church was strictly monodic, polyphony was banned
and instruments were forbidden. This last measure was to have dramatic
consequences for the church organs, which were dismantled if they were
not simply burnt! For the Calvinists, as for the Lutherans, everything
was grist to their mill when they came to find melodies for their
music. Original tunes jostled with popular melodies and with various
melodies that had been taken from Gregorian chant. One of the leading
Calvinist composers was a certain Loys Bourgeois (CD 1/17),
cantor at St. Peter's in Geneva. In Calvinist services the Psalms were
intoned by a cantor and then taken up by the congregation; they were
also sung at family prayers and little by little developed into simple
melodies that were soon transformed into popular songs.
Polyphonic settings of the Psalms nonetheless began to multiply during
the second half of the century, with some composers composing them only
occasionally and others such as Pascal de L'Estocart, Claude Le Jeune
and Claude Goudimel writing them more regularly. Goudimel justified
this practice in a preface to one of his works: 'In this little volume
we have added three parts to the singing of the psalms, not to induce
people into singing them in church, but rather to give praise to God,
in homes in particular. This should not be found to be bad, given that
the song that is used in church remains one sole and undivided whole'.
We should note that the Calvinist rite also had followers in Germany,
as J.S. Bach was to experience at the court in Keithen; he was obliged
to cease all activity as a composer of religious music from 1717 to
1723, the time of his engagement there.
The Huguenot composers
In contrast to the Lutherans, the French composers who devoted their
talents to the Psalters also frequently composed secular works at the
same time as they also composed sacred works for the Catholic church.
Even though Clément Janequin, the uncontested master of the
early French chanson, also composed polyphonic settings of French
translations of the psalms, in this anthology he stands for the
extension of the polyphonic techniques perfected by Josquin Desprez.
Astonishingly enough for the period, Janequin was never employed by a
court or by a church for any particular length of time; at the very
most he was awarded the honorary title of Chantre du roi towards the
end of his life. His religious compositions were limited to two Masses,
although it is not fully established that he was the composer of the Messe
la Bataille (CD 1/16), included in a collection of Masses by
famous composers that was assembled by Jacques Moderne in Lyon in 1532;
nonetheless, the work is so original that it is impossible not to
include it. From the beginning of the 15th century onwards, Dufay and
the Franco-Flemish composers had provided themselves with extra
inspiration for their Masses by basing them on melodies of both sacred
and secular origin; the names of these melodies were added to the
titles of the Masses. The secular song that was most frequently used
was one that was linked to the Hundred Years' War: L'homme
armé. One of the fundamental principles of the later
Counter-Reformation would be the complete rejection of this very
practice. In 1532, with the Reformation only beginning to gain ground
in France, Catholic musical styles were still very much anchored in
tradition. A particular variant of the above technique called the
Parody Mass was employed: the polyphonic material was used more or less
complete and only the sung text was changed. Those who knew Janequin's
song about the victory of François I at Marignan (1515) well
would have quickly reversed the process and have replaced mentally the
words of the Ordinary of the Mass with the words of the original
song.`Kyrie / Ecoutez'.
Claude Goudimel (1505-1572) seems to have been the composer most
involved with settings of the Psalms and also with the expression of
the Protestant faith in general, for he was one of the victims of the
St. Bartholomew's Night massacre in Lyon in 1572. Many of his works
composed after 1551 were devoted to polyphonic settings of the Psalms,
whether in 'note for note' counterpoint somewhat in the style of the
Lutheran harmonisations, or in a more elaborate contrapuntal style that
resembled that of the motet. The interpretations of Psalm 37, Estans
assis aux rives aquatiques (CD 1/19), offered here by the
Clément Janequin Ensemble allow the listener to make a
comparison between the simple version and the version in motet style;
the second version of Psalm 37 recorded here was first published in
1564 but is only known thanks to the reprinting of the complete one
hundred and fifty Psalms that was carried out in 1580, several years
after Goudimers death.
Aside from his more daring polyphonic settings of the Psalms for five
and up to eight voices, Pascal de L'Estocart, born in Noyon like
Calvin, is principally known for his settings of the Octonaries on the
vanity and inconstancy of the world (CD 1/18). This was a volume
of poems that all used the same eight-line form to present moralising
texts with a religious background. L'Estocart published a collection of
fifty settings of these poems in 1581 and maintained close links with
the centres of the Reformation in Switzerland, in Geneva and in Basel.
He dedicated his collection of the Psalms of David to Henri IV
in 1583.
Claude Le Jeune set these same texts from the Octonaries on the
vanity of the world to music. His career was closely linked to his
adherence to the Protestant faith; his sacred works, although for the
most part consisting of Protestant works, nonetheless contain a few
significant works for the Catholic rite, including a Mass, a Magnificat
and several motets. He was one of those close to the new peacemaker
king Henri IV, who appointed him Compositeur de la chambre du Roi
shortly after his accession to the throne. The motet Muze honorons
de ta chanson (CD 1/23) was published in the year of
Henri's coronation and was clearly intended to honour the new
sovereign. We here present two of Claude Le Jeunes sacred compositions,
one for each of the two faiths. The motet Tristitia obsedit me (CD
1/24) is interesting not only for its music but also because of its
choice of texts; written in an archaic style employing a cantus
firmus (here a quotation from Lupus Hellinck's motet In te
Domine speravi), the text of this motet was by the monk Savonarola,
an inventor of ideas that were considered blasphemous at the time
— in actual fact they predicted the Reformation that was to
arrive a century later. This, however, cost Savonarola his life: he was
burnt at the stake in Florence in 1498, literally one century before
the Edict of Nantes.
The vers mesuré à l'antique technique used in several
compositions was one of the many compositional techniques that defined
Claude Le Jeune's style. Jean Antoine de Baïf described this new
manner of creating a musical rhythm that was implicit in the text in
his deliberations for the Académie de Poésie et de
Musique in 1570. Just as in Greek prosody, the basic idea was that the
rhythm does not originate in the music but within the text. In songs
such as the renowned Qu'est devenu ce bel oeil, Le Jeune goes
so far in his desire to recreate Antiquity that he even includes
chromatic descending tetrachords. His setting of Psalm 88, O
Seigneur, j'espars (CD 1/25), was composed according to this
principle; the melody is underpinned by several homophonic polyphonic
passages for two, four and five voices.
Counterfact chansons
The repertoire of sacred music of the Huguenots was enriched still
further with the appearance of yet another surprising medium, the
counterfact chanson, meaning simply that the original secular text of
the song had simply been replaced by a more 'virtuous' text. This is
precisely the case in Roland de Lassus' Bonjour mon coeur; two
counterfact versions of which can be heard here — one in French
and the other in German (CD 1/20 & 21).
translation: Peter Lockwood