The Decline of Lutheran Church Music During the Period of Rationalism

At the head of two centuries of glorious development in the field of Protestant church music stands the figure of Martin Luther. The ultimate fate of German Protestant music depended on this man who, as a student in Eisenach singing all sorts of merry student songs, and as a celebrant priest familiar with the gradual and the polyphonic Masses and motets, lived with music ringing in his ears. This great influence may be thought of as twofold. Luther gave church music back to the people, thus directly opposing the old tradition of the Roman Church that church music belonged in the hands of the priests and the clerical choir alone. This was the natural outcome or his emphasis on the Biblical doctrine of the universal priesthood of all believers, of salvation through personal faith in the Redeemer without the necessity of an intermediary clergy or sacramental system