‘if Luther Hadn’t Been A Musician, The Course Of Music History Might Have Been Very Different’

The German cleric who sparked the Reformation - and profoundly changed Europe – saw music as a divine gift. He almost certainly didn’t say ‘Why should the devil have all the best tunes?’, but he should have.

It is All Hallows’ Eve – Hallowe’en to you and me – in 1517. Martin Luther, a 33-year-old German priest and scholar, marches up to the church in Wittenberg and nails a document to the door. On the document, in Latin, are 95 statements, or theses, protesting against corruption in the church. Luther is particularly exercised by the practice of indulgences: whereby the rich can buy their way to heaven by lining the pockets of priests and the papacy here on earth. Much more fundamentally, he’s suggesting that everybody can have a direct and personal relationship with God without the mediation of the rituals and hierarchy of the church. The rebel priest is excommunicated for his trouble, and then summoned to a Diet (a church assembly) in the city of Worms. He’s declared a heretic and faces death by burning at the stake. There’s a dramatic escape involving disguise and a fake abduction – and the Reformation begins.

What has all this got to do with music? In Radio 3’s new series Key Changes, we’re looking at pivotal events over a thousand years of history which have changed the course of music. Luther’s Reformation was, for sure, one of these events. Luther was a musician himself. He knew music theory, he played the lute and the flute and he saw music as a divine gift “next to theology”. But some of his more fundamentalist adherents would like to have seen music off altogether: away with elaborate polyphony, mass settings and anthems – the unadorned word of scripture is enough!