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Are Bach's Cantatas the Praise and Worship Music
of the Eighteenth Century?

From WORSHIP WARS IN EARLY LUTHERANISM by Joseph Herl, copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Joseph Herl (Concordia University, Nebraska)

The late twentieth century saw a new style of music make its appearance in churches. ¹ Derived from the popular music of the day, it features small ensembles of singers and instruments-predominately guitars, an electronic keyboard and drums-whose music is performed from a platform or similar area at the front of the church and amplified by an electronic sound system. Commonly called "praise and worship music," its practitioners intend for it to move worshipers into God's presence and to allow them to praise God with their voices. ² In many churches this music has partially or completely displaced traditional hymns, liturgical song and choral music. In some places the innovations have been wholeheartedly accepted; in others they have been roundly rejected.

This situation is not entirely without precedent. Something similar occurred in German Lutheran churches in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By the middle of the seventeenth century traditional Lutheran hymns and choral music were being displaced by a style of music that had first appeared in Italy around 1600. This style had its roots in a new genre of secular entertainment; namely, the opera. The vocal style was different from anything heard previously: it was heavily ornamented, with scoops, turns and trills designed to arouse emotion in a captive audience. Various stringed and wind instruments that had previously been heard only in secular contexts began to make their way into churches. The way the instruments were used was also new. Previously, it was rare for any instrument other than an organ to be heard in a church, and the organ was used only to alternate with the choir on selected parts of the liturgy. But now instruments were used to accompany singing, not just to alternate with it.

At first, such music could be performed only in places with well-funded music programs, which for practical purposes meant large city churches and court chapels. After the Thirty Years War ended in 1648, funds to support music became more widely available, and the performance of figural music with instruments gained in popularity. In Hamburg in 1685 Cantor Gerstenbüttel complained to the Ministerium that two, three, four and even more pieces of music with choir and instruments were performed during the communion so that frequently there was not enough time for the congregation to sing even one hymn. ³ During Bach's tenure in Leipzig, cantatas were divided into halves, with the first half performed before the main sermon and the second half after it (or sometimes during the communion). By the middle of the eighteenth century Johann Adam Hiller was able to report that cantatas had been introduced in large, medium and small cities and even in villages, although in the latter they were poorly done. ⁴

Learned reaction against performances of Kirchenmusik, as it was then called, arose in the second half of the seventeenth century. At issue was the question of whether music in the Italian style with soloists and chorus accompanied by orchestra was capable of directing the listener's attention to God rather than to the impressive music itself. A secondary issue was whether the performing musicians themselves were devout Christians.

Theophilus Grossgebauer

In 1661 an enormously influential and controversial book appeared: Theophilus Grossgebauer's Warning cries from ravaged Zion; that is, a frank and necessary disclosure of why evangelical congregations bear little fruit of conversion and blessedness, and why evangelical congregations at today's sermons from the holy Word of God become more unspiritual and godless. ⁵ The book treated all sorts of abuses in the church; Chapter 11 concerned the divine service. In it the 33-year-old theologian from Rostock advanced the idea that the introduction of organs, instrumental music and choral polyphony into the church had been a deliberate plot by the papacy to silence the Word of God by distracting the people from it with music that sounded impressive but which had no spiritual effect. Then, showing this to have been a rhetorical exaggeration, he said that no matter who had really introduced these things, their effect had in fact been exactly as described. In a passage that was to be widely quoted, he depicted the result of importing the new style from Italy:

Hence organists, cantors, trained brass players and other musicians, for the most part unspiritual people, unfortunately rule the city churches. They play, sing, fiddle and make sounds according to their own wishes. You hear the whistling, ringing and roaring but do not know what it is, whether you should prepare yourself for battle or retreat; one is chasing the other with concerto-style playing and several of them are fighting each other over who plays most artistically and who can most subtly resemble the nightingale.

And just as the world is not now serious, but rather shallow, having lost the old, quiet devotion, so songs have been sent out of the south and west to us in Germany in which the biblical texts are torn apart and chopped up into little pieces through quick runs in the throat: these are "the improvisations" referred to in Amos 6:5 which, as with birds, can pull and break the voice. Then an ambitious collective howling commences to determine who can sing best and most like the birds. Now it's Latin, now it's German; very few can understand the words, and if they do understand it, it still doesn't stick. There sits the organist, playing and displaying his artistry-so that the artistry of one man might be displayed, the entire congregation of Jesus Christ is supposed to sit there and hear the sound of the pipes, on account of which the congregation becomes sleepy and lethargic. Many sleep, some chatter, others look about where they should not, many would like to read but cannot because they have not learned how, although they could be well instructed through the spiritual songs of the congregation, as Paul demands. Many would like to pray, but are so occupied with and bewildered by the howling and din that they cannot. Occasionally it goes right to the edge, so if an unbeliever were to come into our assembly would he not say we were putting on a spectacle and were to some extent crazy? ⁶

In 1665, four years after Grossgebauer's book was published, a refutation appeared in the form of a collection of sermons edited by Hector Mithobius, pastor in Otterndorf, a village in Hadeln north of Bremen, and first cousin once removed of composer Heinrich Scheidemann's wife, as he proudly asserted. In the preface Mithobius told how his father, Dr. Hector Mithobius, pastor in Böblingen, would take special care to ensure that any figural music sung there was appropriate for the service. The elder Mithobius used to instruct the schoolboys himself in figural and instrumental music each day to prepare them to play in the church. And when he was at Ratzeburg, he would require a list from the cantors of all the music they desired to perform so that he might review it and request any changes that might better accommodate it to the ecclesiastical time and the sermon. Before the sermon, hymns were sung in four parts, but simply, so that the people could sing along with the discant. After the sermon a motet or concerto of five to eight or more voices was performed. In this way both old and new musical styles were heard. ⁷ Mithobius admitted that there were occasions when the divine gift of music was abused, but denied that the solution was to abolish the music. Rather, he said, figural and instrumental music were able to proclaim the death of Christ just as well as unison singing, and with even greater joy and distinction. ⁸

In the decades after Grossgebauer and Mithobius the question of the "abuse of music," as it was called, was hotly debated. Johannes Muscovius, in a 1687 polemic against the use of Latin in the service, cited Grossgebauer frequently and added a few well-chosen and colorful words of his own concerning the music. ⁹ Johann Schiecke's dissertation at Leipzig weighed in supporting the use of organ and instruments. ¹⁰ Andreas Werckmeister provided a balanced view, favoring performed music in church but issuing warnings and practical advice to musicians concerning its use and abuse. ¹¹ Gottfried Vockerodt, school rector in Gotha, touched off a controversy after three of his students read papers on August 10, 1696 on the Roman emperors Caligula, Claudius and Nero (whom the students had recently studied) and how their early experiences with musical and theatrical entertainment had led them down the path of ruin. The following year Johann Beer, court Kapellmeister at Weissenfels, reprinted Vockerodt's public invitation to the presentation together with a point-by-point refutation, and in the next four years at least a dozen attacks and counterattacks by various authors appeared in print.

Gerber and Motz

The next player in the debate over the Kirchenmusik was Christian Gerber, pastor in Lockwitz, near Dresden. Toward the end of his life (he died in 1731) he wrote a reserved and sensible, if still opinionated, history of ecclesiastical ceremonies in Saxony;¹² but earlier in his career his writings possessed much more fire. The controversy began innocently enough: in 1690 the Saxon pastor published a little book entitled The unrecognized sins of the world, which detailed seventeen sins that are widely ignored as such: sleeping in church, hypocrisy, parents complaining when they have more children than they would like, dealing unfairly with the poor in making purchases, complaining about unfavorable weather, slandering foreign or heathen governments, dwelling on sadness, disregarding God's love out of coldness of heart, remaining silent in the face of evil, speaking jokingly of shameful things, calling one another names, being superstitious, dressing up as Christ at Christmas for the sake of the children, being too curious about the mysteries of God and nature, youth reading romance novels and seeking to emulate them, a superior offending an inferior and refusing to apologize, and not taking sins of youth seriously. ¹³ The book was so popular that Gerber produced a sequel in 1699 listing eighty more unrecognized sins (two more volumes later appeared, bringing the total number of sins to 257). In the 1699 book he graphically described the current state of music in the larger churches, of which the following is a summary:

1. Music is the gift of God, but it is commonly abused in church.
2. Italians often serve as musicians in Lutheran churches; and many musicians, whether Italian or German, are unspiritual people.
3. The music currently performed in churches entertains the ear but does not benefit the soul.
4. Current church music is just so much noise, and often the text cannot be understood clearly.
5. The music of the Old Testament and the early church was truly spiritual.
6. Theophilus Grossgebauer has also written about this (he is quoted at length).
7. Congregational hymns are to be preferred to performed music.
8. Some performed music is appropriate in the service, but large sums should not be spent on it. ¹⁴

Gerber's opinions on church music were answered point by point in 1703 by Georg Motz, cantor in the Prussian city of Tilsit (the following is a greatly abbreviated summary):

1. Purely vocal music is also subject to abuse, but God desires to be praised with music. Well-composed music reflecting the text does not constitute abuse.
2. Italians do not serve as soloists in Lutheran churches, for they are not satisfied with the low pay. It is not sinful to allow Italians to complete a choir lacking voices. And even if singers are evil and godless, their singing may still be good. Just as the office of a priest remains holy even if the man himself is unholy, so also is the singing and playing of an evil musician holy.
3. Artistic compositions are from the Holy Spirit, not from the spirit of this world, and so cannot fail to benefit the soul.
4. Church music is a God-pleasing noise. Just because the text may be difficult to understand does not mean that the music serves no purpose; even the sermon is often difficult to understand given the acoustics in many churches. It is not always necessary to understand what is being played or sung; it is sufficient to recognize that it is spiritual music.
5. It cannot be proven that our music is any different from that of the Old Testament. The early church used both vocal and instrumental music.
6. Grossgebauer claims that the music disturbs the people, but how can it be disturbing if it is well done? He also claims that the sound of the organ tends to lull people to sleep, but this is even more the case with the sermon! Neither the preacher nor the musician is to blame: almost more people are asleep than awake.
7. Praising God with instruments is commanded in Scripture and pleasing to the human soul. Both hymns and performed music are useful.
8. Music honors God and preserves order in the church. Concerning the cost of a music program: Solomon, the wisest of all men, spent a fortune on the temple. Cities can certainly afford to build both organs and orphanages. ¹⁵

It is interesting that Motz did not deny that musicians were unspiritual people, but stated only that their music may nonetheless be acceptable. He may have had in mind situations such as that in Hamburg, where the choir order of 1644 directed that choir members may no longer visit wine and beer houses during the sermon, as the practice had been causing great anger among the people. ¹⁶ In response to Motz's counterarguments, Gerber penned a 32-page open letter to Motz dated October 30, 1703 and published in 1704 that reiterated his previous arguments. He summarized his latest missive by saying that church music does not serve the praise of God when (1) godless people or those of another religion are used as musicians; or (2) more attention is paid to art than to devotion. ¹⁷ Motz published one further reply to Gerber in 1708, but it added nothing of substance to the discussion.

The eighteenth century

The debate over musical style in the church intensified in the eighteenth century. Opponents of the new music were quick to point out its resemblance to operatic music; and theologian and poet Erdmann Neumeister, one of its most vocal supporters, did not help matters when he boldly proclaimed "In a word, a cantata appears to be a piece from an opera." ¹⁸ The debate was at its fiercest from about 1700 to about 1740. After that polemical writings still appeared occasionally, but they lacked the immediacy of the earlier works. This is not the place to cover these publications in detail, so we must be content with a few observations.

First, the principal players in the eighteenth-century debates were musicians, not pastors and theology professors, as in earlier times. Partly this was due to the fragmentation of Lutheran orthodoxy during the eighteenth century, but even more important were the increase in the status and influence of church musicians due to the increased demands placed on them by the new musical style and the growing prosperity of German society that allowed church musicians, who were now better paid, to publish their opinions in print.

Second, the attitude of the defenders of the new style became more militant. In the seventeenth century supporters of the new style defended it on the grounds that it was permissible in the church and a useful aid to devotion alongside hymns. Now some eighteenth-century writers argued that instrumental performances in church were not only permissible, but were in fact commanded by God in Scripture. Christoph Raupach took this view, saying that God had commanded music, and that this is the most important reason for having it in church, but that it was also important because it was edifying. The Kirchenmusik in particular was joyful music, and Christians were commanded to make joyful music in the church. ¹⁹ Gottfried Ephraim Scheibel, in an attempt to prove the necessity of Kirchenmusik, traced the history of music from the creation of the world, through the Old and New Testaments and the history of the church. ²⁰ Johann Sebastian Bach wrote in his personal Bible next to 1 Chronicles 25, which relates the extensive use of music in temple worship, that "This chapter is the true foundation of all God-pleasing Kirchenmusik." Bach further cited 1 Chronicles 28:19-21, in which King David ascribes the plan of temple worship to God, as proof that God had instituted music. ²¹

Third, the debate reflected a change toward a more anthropocentric view of church music. In the sixteenth century the effect of music on its hearers was a peripheral concern at best. Sixteenth-century Lutherans had no need for a theology of church music; they never addressed the question of the purpose of music in the church, as its purpose was obvious: it either conveyed a liturgical text or substituted for one. A more philosophical observer might have said that its purpose was to glorify God. But by the eighteenth century writers saw the purpose of music as being the arousing of emotion; and the more emotion the music produced in the listener, the better it was considered to be. Of course, the emotions produced had to be the right ones, ones that would direct the minds of the people to God.

Writer after writer espoused this view of church music. Scheibel argued in 1721 that performed music was superior even to hymns because it could better move the emotions; in fact, he believed that church music would be better if it were more theatrical. ²² Heinrich Bokemeyer, cantor at Wolfenbüttel, wrote around 1725 that the purpose of the performed music in church was to "instruct the audience in a genteel and agreeable manner." ²³ Johann Mattheson, who by day was assistant to the English ambassador and by night was the most influential German writer on music of the century, took issue with Bokemeyer's opinion, saying that church music's purpose was not merely to instruct the listeners, but to move them emotionally. ²⁴ In 1728 Mattheson published Der musicalische Patriot, a defense of the theatrical style of church music. In it he stated outright that the purpose of church music was the same as that of theatrical music: to move the emotions of the listeners. ²⁵ Johann Adolf Scheibe, Kappellmeister to the King of Denmark, wrote in 1745 that "the chief purpose of church music is mainly to edify the audience, to arouse them to devotion, in order to awaken in them a quiet and holy fear toward the Divine Essence." ²⁶

It is noteworthy that all the foregoing writers spoke of the "audience" or "listeners" (Zuhörer) rather than of the "congregation" (Gemein[d]e). They saw the assembly more as passive spectators to be moved than as active participants in the liturgy, at least insofar as the Kirchenmusik was concerned. Indeed, the criticism of Grossgebauer, Gerber and others that the Kirchenmusik served only to entertain struck perilously close to the truth. For Scheibe, the difference from operatic music was only one of degree, with the joy and delight (Freude und Lust) of the Kirchenmusik somewhat moderated from what one heard in the theater. ²⁷

Comparison with today's music

How does the situation described above compare with that of today? May we, in fact, consider the cantatas of Bach and other composers to be an eighteenth-century version of praise and worship music? The parallels are striking. Both were introduced into the church from the entertainment industry, and both have a style readily identifiable as such. Both employ instruments previously used primarily in secular music. Both have as a principal goal the directing of the minds and hearts of worshipers to God and bringing them into his presence. Both displaced traditional hymns and choral music, at least in some places, and both met with opposition.

Both treat the assembly to a greater or lesser extent as an audience. This was especially true in performances of Kirchenmusik, although even in Bach's cantatas the people had the opportunity to sing along on the final chorale stanza. It is also true with praise and worship music, for even though the congregation is encouraged to sing much of the time, the amplification of the ensemble often tends to cover up the singing of the people; and the placement of the ensemble in the front of the church, often on a raised platform, suggests that their purpose is at least as much to perform as it is to accompany.

The similarities notwithstanding, there are also differences. The moral quality of the musicians is hardly an issue today, as it was in the eighteenth century. The comparative quality of the music might spring immediately to mind as a difference, although appearances can be deceiving. While it is undoubtedly true that much praise and worship music is ephemeral, and while few would doubt that Bach's church music is of lasting value, it is also the case that many other eighteenth-century composers wrote Kirchenmusik that is deservedly forgotten today. The lack of a Bach for praise and worship music should not be interpreted to mean that this music, as a genre, is inferior in quality to music with more complex counterpoint, even though individual examples of it might be.

A more notable difference is the function of the music. Where praise and worship music has been employed in liturgical churches, it has tended to substitute for portions of the traditional liturgy or even to replace it entirely. Eighteenth-century Kirchenmusik, on the other hand, and Bach's in particular, was sung in addition to the traditional liturgy, which was retained in its entirety. This was not a difficult thing to do at a time when the typical Lutheran mass lasted three hours or more. Another difference is in the nature of the texts. Praise and worship songs originated in churches that do not use lectionaries, and most of their texts are suited for general use at any time of the year. Cantata texts, on the other hand, were intimately connected with the church year and in fact served to comment on and drive home the content of the assigned readings for the day. As such they tended to be weightier and more theological than praise and worship texts.

One fascinating difference lies in the sources of the opposition to the new music. The main opposition to praise and worship music in Lutheran churches today comes from traditional church musicians and from clergy and others who consider themselves to be in the "orthodox" Lutheran camp. This was exactly the same group who supported the Kirchenmusik over and against its detractors, many (though hardly all) of whom had Pietist leanings. The reason for the difference is easy to see: the Kirchenmusik was viewed by its supporters as enhancing the liturgy, while praise and worship music is widely held to be destructive to it.

On balance, the functional differences between eighteenth-century Kirchenmusik and praise and worship music appear more significant than their similarities, and these differences are magnified when one takes the musical quality of the repertoire normally performed into account. The music of the eighteenth century has already been sifted, so to speak, with the best rising to the top; whereas such sifting has barely begun with praise and worship music, which as a genre is only about a quarter-century old. Will praise and worship music ever achieve the acceptance finally gained by cantatas in the eighteenth century? Probably not, although it is worth speculating whether the musical style of praise and worship songs might gain greater acceptance if their texts were based on lectionary readings and if they were used as an addition to, rather than as a replacement for, the traditional liturgy.

¹Parts of this essay are included in Joseph Herl, Worship wars in early Lutheranism: choir, congregation and three centuries of conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/ChurchMusic/?view=usa&ci=0195154398

²Robb Redman, The great worship awakening: singing a new song in the postmodern church (San Francisco, 2002), 34-36. The author describes two metaphors commonly used to describe how the music is structured during a service to move worshipers into the presence of God: the "intimacy with God" model of the Vineyard Association of Churches and the neo-Pentecostal "holy of holies" model..

³Karl Röhlk, Geschichte des Hauptgottesdienstes in der evang.-luth. Kirche Hamburgs (Göttingen, 1899), 39-40.

⁴Johann Adam Hiller, Wöchentliche Nachrichten und Anmerkungen die Musik betreffend (Leipzig, 1766-70), 395. The report is from vol. 1, no. 51, dated 15 June 1767.

⁵Theophilus Grossgebauer, Wächterstimme auß dem verwüsteten Zion (Frankfurt/Main, 1661).

⁶Grossgebauer 1661:227-28.

⁷Hector Mithobius, Psalmodia Christiana . . . das ist Gründliche Gewissens-Belehrung, was von der Christen Musica, so wol Vocali als Instrumentali zu halten? (Jena, 1665), 46-47, 63.

⁸Mithobius 1665:311-12.

⁹Johannes Muscovius, . . .Gebrauch, und Mißbrauch, des lateinischen Singens, und Betens, beym offentlichen Gottes-Dienst (Wittenberg, [1687]), 5-9, 128-47.

¹⁰Johann Schiecke, Incluto philosophorum ordine in illustri Tilieto benevolè concedente organum musicum, historice extructum (Leipzig, 1693).

¹¹Andreas Werckmeister, Der edlen Music-Kunst Würde, Gebrauch und Mißbrauch (Frankfurt, 1691).

¹²Christian Gerber, Historie der Kirchen-Ceremonien in Sachsen (Dresden and Leipzig, 1732).

¹³Christian Gerber, Die unerkannten Sünden der Welt (Dresden, 1690).

¹⁴M. Christian Gerbers, Pastoris in Lockwitz bey Dreßden Unerkante Sünden der Welt, samt einem Bericht, von dem Sünden der Menschen nach ihrem Tode (Dresden and Leipzig, 1719; preface dated 1699), chapter 81.

¹⁵Georg Motz, Die vertheidigte Kirchen-Music, oder klar und deutlicher Beweis, welcher gestalten Hr. M. Christian Gerber, Pastor in Lockwitz bey Dreßden, in seinem Buch, welches er Unerkandte Sünden der Welt nennet, in dem LXXXI. Cap. da er von dem Mißbrauch der Kirchen-Music geschrieben, zu Verwersung der musicalischen Harmonie und Bestraffung der Kirchen-Music zu weit gegangen. ([N.p.], 1703), passim.

¹⁶Röhlk 1899:31.

¹⁷Christian Gerber, Die unerkannten Wolthaten Gottes (Dresden, 1709; originally published in 1704), 29.

¹⁸Menantes [i.e., Erdmann Neumeister], Die allerneueste Art, zur reinen und galanted Poesie zu gelangen (Hamburg, 1722), 284-85.

¹⁹Veritophilus [i.e., Christoph Raupach], Veritophili Deutliche Beweis-Gründe, worauf der rechte Gebrauch der Music, beydes in den Kirchen, als ausser denselben, beruhet (Hamburg, 1717), 11, 44.

²⁰Gottfried Ephraim Scheibel, Die Geschichte der Kirchen-Music alter und neuer Zeiten (Breslau, 1738).

²¹See Robin A. Leaver, ed., J. S. Bach and scripture: glosses from the Calov Bible commentary (St. Louis, 1985), 93-96.

²²Gottfried Ephraim Scheibel, Zufällige Gedancken von der Kirchen-Music, wie sie heutiges Tages beschaffen ist (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1721), 23, 39.

²³Heinrich Bokemeyer, "Melodischer Vorhof," in Critica musica, ed. Johann Mattheson 2 (1725):297.

²⁴Bokemeyer 1725:298.

²⁵Johann Mattheson, Der musicalische Patriot (Hamburg, 1728), 105.

²⁶Johann Adolph Scheibe, . . . Critischer musikus. Neue, vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage (Leipzig, 1745), 161.

²⁷Scheibe 1745:161-62.

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