The period arguably dating from around 1430 until the seventeenth century, named ‘Renaissance’ by Michelet, heralded one of the largest cultural transformations in the recent history of Europe. Conflicting social and religious factors caused an upheaval of the medieval attitudes toward music’s role in people’s lives. The reformation caused great change for music, but what were they, and how did they represent the ideals of the two faiths and their leaders.

The challenges made to the Roman Catholic Church throughout Europe form one of the important chains of events in C16th history. This affected the way services were carried out and in turn the music which is part of the service. The new Protestant churches, were eager to strip their worship of the extravagant ritual and ceremony, which played an integral role in the Catholic service. Music, at the forefront of this ceremony, was dramatically restricted in the role it cold now play, almost being banned by some puritans, a remnant of Catholic ways, which just distracted from worship.

John Calvin, a severe protestant reformer, was of this view. He condemned all Catholic liturgy and ceremony. All non bi

One of the most famous Lutheran Chorales ‘Ein feste Burg’ influenced future composers such as Bach with the numerous Chorales he wrote. However I feel we can push it even further than this. Hymns and anthems are used throughout history to represent brotherhood, not least in the aftermath of the French revolution and the subsequent colonisation of parts of Europe, including Germany. Beethoven, uses many rousing hymn and anthem choruses in Fidelio, which has political connotations of freedom and regime change, tying in with the political climate of the time. These can be closely compared to Lutheran hymns and anthems, which were brought into existence to emphasise the brotherhood and musical togetherness under the new regime of the Protestant church.

Still, it was decreed that polyphony was to be far more restricted to create a clearer syllabic setting for the sacred texts. In 1565 the cardinals tested all masses for audibility and warned composers against lengthy melismatic writing, however, how much of an affect did these decisions really have on composers such as Palestrina and Lasso?

ble texts were eliminated from usage in his church, and he even banned his congregation from partaking in musical activities in the home. Like all reformers, Calvin deeply disapproved of the use of Polyphony so central to traditional church music, which ‘blurred’ the understanding of the text. Simple monophony was the only musical texture allowed. However, not all reformers took the displacement of Catholic musical ideals this far.

Some topics in this essay:
Martin Luther, Germany Beethoven, John Calvin, Catholic Church, Psalmus Poentialentialis, John Day, Lasso Munich, Palestrina Lasso’s, Lutheran Chorales, Luther’s Germany, church music, service music, catholic service, throughout europe, catholic service music, sacred music, anglican church, melodic lines, simple homophonic, hymns anthems, anglican church music, music form,