A Lutheran Link

     For today's blog, I share just a quote about the pipe organ. These are no rubrics used in choosing this. I have just chosen it off the top of my head as I prepare for my exam tomorrow.

    The quote is from Martin Luther. Some believe that he hated the organ and considered it as sign of Baal. However, after some reading online that directed me to this thread (https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/25499/what-is-the-source-for-martin-luthers-quote against-the-use-of-pipe-organ-music), I am convinced that he made no such claim. In fact, quite the opposite. The following lines and quote are lifted from a journal article on Martin Luther and the Pipe Organ (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336798899_Martin_Luther_and_the_pipe_organ_-_His_true_sentiments_affirmed) - In the 1530s, Luther also had regular interaction and contact with the organist and court official from Freiberg (Saxony), Matthias Weller (1507-1563). In writing to Weller, who at some point was very downhearted and dejected, Luther encourages him:

 When you are sad, therefore, and when melancholy threatens, to get the upper hand, say: ‘Arise! I must play a song on my regal’ [a portable organ] … Then begin striking the keys and singing in accompaniment, as David and Elisha did, until your sad thoughts vanish. If the devil returns and plants worries and sad thought in your mind, resist him manfully and say, ‘Begone, Devil! I must now play and sing unto my Lord Christ.’

I beseech my viewers to read up on Luther and his influence on music. This is even more relevant if you are a Bach enthusiast like me. I close this post with a video of one of Luther's most famous hymns, "Ein Fest Burg". A true battle hymn of the Reformation. This recording is on a Reed Organ, the closest I could get to the all-reed sound of the Regal that Luther refers to in the quote shared before. This is a wonderfully expressive recording. 

"Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever!" Psalter Hymnal, (Gray), 1987.