On 3/16/2012 7:22 AM, Christopher Wilke 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. His 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God' wasn't only sung in churches.Monica, Smaller Catholic churches may or may not have had the performing resources to present much in the way of elaborate polyphony, but they would have certainly had plainchant either sung by hired singers or the priests and deacons themselves. By and large, the congregation did not participate in singing. Church music practice up until relatively recent times would be a far cry from the "happy-clappy" stuff, which was introduced in an attempt to get people more involved. Remember, too, that aside from the ordinary and proper items, large portions of the Mass were recited by the priests to formulaic psalm tones. In some cases, the entire service was sung throughout. As Mass attendance in olden times was mandatory, even the lowliest, illiterate peasant would have been very familiar with what we tend to think of as fairly high brow repertoire. It is hard to believe that this music wouldn't have functioned as a (possibly subconscious) cultural lingua franca in non-church items. Chris
It wasn't only the Holy Bible that he took out of the sacred precincts and brought to the secular.
'The Other' Stephen Stubbs Champaign, IL USA To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
