Two Minds, One Voice, One Prayer: Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach
“Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure of the world.”1
“The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and refreshment of the Spirit.”2
Although born nearly two centuries apart, the theologian Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) and the composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) nevertheless had much in common. Luther spent three of his teenage years in Eisenach where Bach was born nearly 200 years later. Both boys attended the same Latin school, St. George, earning their living as choirboys. Both were considered musically gifted, and Bach was admired as much for his “treble” voice as he was for his facility with the violin and harpsichord. Imbued with music and the love of God, the two Lutherans would meet many times across the centuries in spirit and in truth to compose, sing and pray. In 1521, the year of Luther’s excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church, the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, snatched Luther from the jaws of Pope Leo X and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and smuggled him into Warburg Castle which overlooks the town of Eisenach. Changing his appearance and disguising himself as “Squire George,” Luther settled in and translated the New Testament from Latin into German, creating the German Language (High German) in the process. Two centuries later, Bach would be reading Luther’s translation in Eisenach, which often found its way into Bach’s music.3 4
An auspicious meeting between the two souls took place in 1739 in Leipzig, when Bach published the Clavier-Übung, (keyboard exercises) a work comprised of four separate pieces written over a period of fourteen years.5 The third piece, simply called Clavier-Übung III, debuted just in time to join other works dedicated to bicentennial celebrations of the Reformation.
In May of 1539, Luther had been invited to preach for the first time in Leipzig and, in August of that same year, the Augsburg Confession was accepted by the City. Two Centuries later, in 1739, Leipzig was given over to honor Luther. The Clavier-Übung III, only later given the title, the German Organ Mass, celebrated Luther’s witness in that city. Bach’s liturgy of the Mass included a musical interpretation of elements from Luther’s Large and Short Catechisms. One element was The Lord’s Prayer, taken from Luther’s Large Catechism published in 1529, about eight years after Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and sat in Warburg Castle as “Squire George”, translating the New Testament.
Luther had written The Large Catechism’s commentary on The Lord’s Prayer to aid pastors in preaching and teaching their new Protestant flock. How does one communicate to the saints the Five “Solae,” Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria (only scriptures, only faith, only Grace, only Christ, to God alone be the glory),6 to people whose terror of damnation could only be assuaged by Roman Catholic liturgy and the doctrine of Confession? Luther understood the Lord’s Prayer to have been established by Christ to teach the faithful how to pray, and that the whole of Christian faith was couched within its lines.
Luther outlined The Lord’s Prayer as seven petitions, with each line of the petition exegeted and developed more broadly, with a summation of its meaning at the end. For instance, the first petition, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” serves as an illustration of the Second Commandment, “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain.” As a translator of the Bible from Latin to German, Luther discusses problems with translating as he begins his commentary: “Hallowed be Thy name. This is, indeed, somewhat obscure, and not expressed in good German, for in our mother-tongue we would say: Heavenly Father, help that by all means Thy name may be holy….”7 Upon informing readers that exact translations are difficult if not impossible to construct, Luther develops his commentary into a rhapsody against lying, hypocrisy and false teachings, “so that His name must serve to adorn and find a market for falsehood. That is, indeed, the greatest profanation and dishonor of the divine name.”8 By the time Luther finishes with us in this first petition, we understand the art of selling one’s idolatrous fancies of truth and salvation to others stamped with the Good Housekeeping’s God-Seal-of-Approval on the label. “If now you pray for this with all your heart, you can be sure it pleases God; for He will not hear anything more dear to Him than that His honor and praise is exalted above everything else, and His Word is taught in its purity and is esteemed precious and dear.”
Six petitions later, we are being advised that the whole of Christian faith is contained within these seven petitions. From the Sixth Petition, “And lead us not into temptation:” To feel temptation is [therefore] a far different thing from consenting or yielding to it. We must all feel it…for if we did not feel it, it could not be called a temptation….” And from the seventh and last, “But deliver us from evil. Amen: In the Greek text this petition reads thus: Deliver or preserve us from the Evil One, or the Malicious One; and it looks as if He were speaking of the devil….” After elaborating upon this statement, Luther then sums up in this final petition the other six, giving “Amen,” some attention all by itself: “But all depends upon this, that learn also to say Amen, that is, that we do not doubt that our prayer is surely heard and [what we pray] shall be done.
Luther’s pedagogy for pastors seems to suggest a simple formula: 1) the verse to be interpreted and its exegesis, 2) the development — or isogesis, and 3) the meaning of the verse for us. Simple? Perhaps, yet staying true to the text, one’s faith, and a congregation requires much mental and emotional toil. Sermon preparation is a weekly journey from exegeting the text to arriving at its meaning on Sunday morning, and then letting it go, sending it forth from you to the congregation and to God as you preach.
The core of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III is a nesting of six Catechism Chorales: The Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Office of the Keys and Confession, and the Sacrament of the Altar. The entire work is framed by what Anglo Saxons know as “St. Anne,” perhaps familiar to us as “O God Our Help in Ages Past.”9
Musically, “The Lord’s Prayer,” (BVW 682–683) is regarded as one of most complex chorales Bach ever wrote. BVW 682 is grounded in a series of chromatic musical ascents and descents, reminiscent of the Psalms of Ascent that climb up and down starry steps from earth to heaven and back again. Weaving into one another over the pedal are complex melodic lines from a variety of musical idioms of Bach’s day. The second chorale of the prayer (BVW 683) is much simpler, freed from the constraints of the pedal and more accessible to simple feeling and wonder. “The Lord’s Prayer” relates to the other chorale preludes in this section as the section relates to the entire work in part through a Trinitarian musical structure that unifies the entire piece. Throughout the Mass, Martin and Johann create meaning without a single word. All meaning and motion towards God is expressed through the organ alone.
Not only do words and music flow together, but a holistic sense expresses a living relationship of words to music and vice versa meant to provoke a desire to worship God. It is as if the music, the words neither sung nor spoken, the congregation, even the physical setting were all in one accord.
The German Mass runs between one and a half to two hours. A single instrument, the organ, sings with its own multiple voices Luther’s lessons of faith. In part because the music is so complex, no two interpretations by the organist are ever the same. A similar phenomenon occurs in preaching where no two readings of scripture produce identical sermons and interpretations by the preacher and congregation.
Every Sunday morning, preacher and liturgist need to work together to generate an organic worship experience for the congregation. Words and music express the same message, while the sermon weaves all the elements of that Sunday’s service together. The relationship between words and music are not restricted by time and place, but like Luther and Bach, may collaborate over the centuries to worship God.
Notes
1. “Luther on Music,” www.eldrbarry.net
2. “Bach on the Purpose of Work,” www.claritybyclara.com
3. Brendleer Gerhard, Martin Luther: Theology and Revolution, translated by Claude R. Roster, Jrs., (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 22–26.
4. Baroque Composers and Musicians, Johann Sebastian Bach, Eisenach: 1685–1695. www.baroquemusic.org
5. ibid., Liepzig 2: 1729–1740
6. “The Five Solae” were used by the 16th century reformers but seem to have been packaged only in the 20th century.
7. “The Large Catechism by Martin Luther,” translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dau, published in The Symbolic Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), XII The Lord’s Prayer, First Petition sections 35–47; www.icinet.org
8. ibid.,Sixth petition, sections 112–124
9. The Clavier-Übung III, www.music.qub.ac.uk
Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Ed. Timothy Lull (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989),
pp. 449–470, An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg; The Lord’s Prayer, 481–484.
Peter Williams, Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016). pp. 377–383.
Robert L. Marshall, “Luther, Bach, and the Early Reformation Chorale,” (1995) at www.emory.edu
