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As a parallel activity to the exhibition Images to Believe (MUHBA, El Tinell, Plaça del Rei), the Museu de la Música is offering a tour of its collection to give visitors an insight into important instruments from the times of chorales and oratorios (pieces from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries), and a closer look, through music, at the different aspects of Catholic and Protestant worship. Music used to spread the faith.

LUTHERAN CHORALES

Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, which started in 1517, was based on three fundamental principles: justification by faith (the focus of the doctrine), universal priesthood and the authority of the Bible. Luther immediately considered the great importance of music, so ‘the word of God may be kept alive in their [the people’s] hearts by song’. He also understood that the revolution of the printing press would allow musical works to reach many people and many countries at a low cost.

The Reformation’s most important musical contribution is the chorale. In the 16^th century, the old term ‘chorale’, used for monodic chants, began to be used for a Lutheran musical genre where songs were memorised and sung in chorus by the congregation during the religious service, in German. ‘Chorale’ also became the name of the organ compositions based on a chorale melody or on a theme with similar characteristics. The chorale influenced all genres of German music, beyond vocal polyphony and the organ. Thomas Mann defined the chorale as ‘the voiced word of the Lutheran spirit’.

Luther published two texts in which he explained his ideas about Reformed liturgical music: the Formula missae (1523) and the Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdiensts (1526). Being a practical man, he did not consider it possible to teach the people a large number of religious songs for each occasion, so he chose well-known melodies, both pre-Reformation religious songs as well as secular songs. For the secular songs it was necessary to change the text and polish the melody, in an ‘enhancement’ process known as ‘contrafactum’.

In reality, few original chorales were composed. One unique case is Ein Feste burg ist unser Gott, with a melody by Luther himself. This chorale is still the musical symbol of the Protestant world to this day, and we find the melody in hundreds of compositions, ranging from the Cantata BWV 80 by Johann Sebastian Bach, to the Reformation Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn or as a simple religious quote in a score. Luther put particular emphasis on the creation of Kantorei (chorale societies) in all Reformed churches.

The Protestant hymn repertoire—with psalms and chorales in vernacular language—bears witness to a convergence between the different countries and communities that embraced the ‘reforms’. Beyond doctrinary divergences, the functional notion of music as a vehicle for liturgical participation gives the Reformation a musical identity.

CATHOLIC ORATORIOS

To counteract the ideas of the Protestant Reformation and to promote a Catholic Reformation, Pope Paul III called the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which regulated art in the Catholic world, as well as music, which had to be grandiose and had to convey the Latin text clearly.

The so-called Counter-Reformation encouraged priests and laypeople to come together in church oratories to make special prayers, outside the compulsory liturgy. The term ‘oratorio’ comes from the musical recreations that St Philip Neri (1515-1595) offered the lay disciples of his Roman Oratory, with the collaboration of Giovanni Palestrina, among other composers. The style was homophonic choir, in the tradition of the old medieval lauds, with instrumental accompaniment from string instruments and organ, all led by specialised musical choirs. The oratorio was not dramatised: a narrator, through recitations, explained the Biblical text as the common thread of the various musical episodes. Oratorios were performed in vernacular languages as well as in Latin.

Podeu consultar aquí aquest itinerari a través dels instruments del Museu.