Reference:
Luther, Biography of a Reformer, by Frederick Nohl, Concordia Publishing
House, 2003.
ISBN 0-7586-0651-6
Luther thought it was critical that lay people (non-clergy and the
unlearned) be able to understand the service, be able to sing the hymns
during service, and be able to read the Holy Bible for themselves.
At the end of the book, there is a wonderful timeline for Luther,
starting on page 215.
In 1521, Luther translates the New Testament from Greek into German in 3
months.
It took Luther and the scholars he gathered with him in Wittenberg
around 12 years to translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into German.
In 1534, printer Hans Lufft gives Luther a copy of the first truly
German Bible, containing both Old and New Testaments in German, and was
illustrated with colorful initials and woodcuts. (This is what I meant
by Luther taking the Holy Bible out of the sacred precincts and bringing
it to the secular. Now anyone who could read German could read the Holy
Bible. As far as I know, this was the first local language Holy Bible
produced in the world. Gutenberg's printed Holy Bible was the Latin
Vulgate translation.)
In 1525 Luther prepared his German Mass. The entire service was in
German (another first as far as I know). Prior Masses had the choir do
almost all of the singing. Luther's German Mass called for the pastor
to chant and the choir to sing, but it also permitted the congregation
to sing hymns of prayer and praise. The immediate problem here was that
there weren't that many congregational hymns, so Luther redoubled his
efforts to write and distribute new hymns. In 1524 he had already
published a hymnal that contained 23 of his hymns. [Luther had a
prolific pen that would write instructional guides (his Small and Large
Catechisms), dozen of Sermon Books to help pastors, music, hymns, the 95
thesis, and on and on. It's really staggering to see the body of work
Luther produced. Basically, everything needed for community worship and
private worship in the home, Luther either wrote or translated into
German so the lay people had sound Christian doctrine that they could
understand in their own language.]
On a personal note, I was stunned to learn in the 1960's (before Vatican
II ???) that my friends who were Roman Catholics were still hearing the
Mass in Latin and were not allowed to have Holy Bibles in their own
homes. I grew up in the Lutheran tradition in rural Missouri, USA.
I'm sorry, I can't find my reference to Luther's recorder playing.
Maybe it was a story I was told in Lutheran Sunday School.
Sacred Music for Lute, edited by Catherine Liddell, Volume 1:
Renaissance tuning, published by Lyre Music Publications, Fort Worth,
TX, copyright 2000: has a cover art of: A relief of Martin Luther from
the Lutherdenkmal, Eisleben photo: Die Zeit; graphics: John Anglim.
This is all I'll say on the list. Please contact me off-list with any
further discussions. Thank you.
"The Other" Stephen Stubbs
Champaign, IL USA
On 3/16/2012 12:06 PM, Mathias Rösel wrote:
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Martin Luther, circa 1500, say
"Why
should the Devil have all the best music?", and took his lute and recorder
to the
German taverns to play his hymns.
May I say at least that this is news to me: Luther playing the recorder, and
Luther playing and singing in taverns.
His 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God' wasn't only
sung in churches.
Right, it was also sung on stakes and before battles, i.e. when facing
eternity.
It wasn't only the Holy Bible that he took out of the sacred precincts and
brought to the secular.
This is the third news to me, Luther brought the Bible to the secular.
Keep plucking!
Mathias
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