Luther's Ideas about Music

Martin Luther was exposed to church music at an early age, giving him reasonable skill and a deep love for music. He referred to music, as quoted by Carl F. Schalk in Luther on Music, as a "wonderful creation and gift of God." Unlike previous Catholic thought, Luther felt that devotion to the beauty of music positively influenced moral or ethical development. He said, as quoted in A Compend of Luther's Theology (edited by Hugh Thomson Kerr, Jr., Ph.D.), originally taken from his "Spiritual Hymn Booklet" (Works of Martin Luther), "I am not of the opinion that all arts are to be cast down and destroyed on account of the Gospel, as some fanatics protest; on the other hand I would gladly see all arts, especially music, in the service of Him who has given and created them." Luther believed that music had strong educational and ethical power, so he wanted the entire congregation to participate in the music of the services. In addition, according to Luther, music was one of the primary methods of counteracting the Devil's work. Perhaps, as suggested by Joyce L. Irwin in Neither Voice nor Heart Alone, Luther connected music so strongly to theology because of the Gospel's need to be communicated orally--a function that could be accomplished successfully through sung text.

Luther's views on education were greatly influenced by his devotion to music. For example, he believed that teachers who were unable to sing were not worthy of teaching. Luther also felt that schoolboys should be instructed in singing each day after lunch. In this way, he felt, as stated by John Butt in Music Education and the Art of Performance in the German Baroque, that the students' "moral, devotional, temperamental, and intellectual disposition" would be improved.

Another major belief that Luther held about music was the importance of balance between strict adherence to rules and freedom in composition. He felt that standard compositional practices should not inhibit creativeness or musical expression. He did not, however, support the idea of random composition or, in essence, complete musical freedom. He strongly encouraged a balance between the two.

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This page was created in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance class at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music.