01.5b. Calvinism & Art, pt. 2
If this is the general merit of Calvinism, or rather the change which it effected in the domain of music, by forcing the idea of the laity to give room to that of the general priesthood of believers, historic accuracy requires a still more concrete elucidation. If Bourgeois was the great master whose works still assure him a front rank among the most notable composers of Protestant Europe, it is also worthy of note that this Bourgeois lived and labored in Geneva, under the very eyes of Calvin and even partly under his direction. It was this same Bourgeois who had the courage to adopt rhythm and to exchange the eight Gregorian modes for the two of major and minor from the popular music; to sanctify its art in consecrated hymn, and so to put the impress of honor upon that musical arrangement of tunes, from which all modern music had its rise. In the same way Bourgeois adopted the harmony or the song of several parts. He was the man who wedded melody to verse by what is called expression. The solfeggio, i.e., the singing by note, the reduction of the number of chords, the clearer distinction of the several gamuts, etc., by which the knowledge of music was so much simplified, is all owing to the perseverance of this Calvinistic Composer. And when Goudimel, (6) his Calvinistic colleague, once at Rome the teacher of the great Palestrina, listening to the singing of the people in the church, discovered that the higher voices of the children outstripped the tenor, which had thus far held the lead, he for the first time gave the leading part to the soprano; a change of far reaching influence which has ever since been maintained.
Pardon me if for a moment I detained you with these particulars, hut the merits of Protestantism, and more particularly of Calvinism, in music are of too high an order to suffer longer depreciation without protest. I fully acknowledge that Calvinism exercised over some arts only an indirect influence, by the declaration of their maturity, and by affording them liberty to flourish in their own independence, but on music, the influence of Calvinism was a very positive one, due to its spiritual worship of God, which provided no room for the more material arts, but assigned a new role to song and to music by the creation of melodies and songs for the people. Whatever the old school did to join itself to the newer development of music, the modern music remained unnatural to the cantus firmus, because it sprang from a quite different root. Calvinism on the other hand not only joined itself to it, but under the leadership of Bourgeois and Goudimel gave it its first impulse, so that even Roman Catholic writers are constrained to acknowledge that our beautiful development of music in the last and present centuries for the most part owed its rise to the heretical church-hymns.
That in a later period Calvinism lost almost all influence in this domain, cannot be denied. For a long time Anabaptism overwhelmed us with its dualistic prejudices, and an unhealthy spiritualism prevailed. But when on that account, with entire disregard of our great musical past, Calvinism is accused by Rome of aesthetic dullness, it is well to call to mind that the great Goudimel was murdered by Romish fanaticism in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. This fact is suggestive; for we naturally ask with Douen: Has that man any right to complain about the stillness of the forest, who with his own hand has caught and killed the nightingale?
Footnotes for Lecture 5
1. (Ed.) Art has been defined as the embodiment of beautiful thought in sensuous form, as for example, marble or speech. In Calvinsime en Kunst Dr. Kuyper states: “as image-bearer of God, man possesses the possibility to create something beautiful, and to delight in it. This ’kunstervermogen’ is in man no separate function of the soul but an unbroken (continuous) utterance of the image of God. ”
2. (Ed.) Aesthetics may be defined as the science of beauty and taste; the branch of knowledge that pertains to the fine arts and art criticism There is no generally accepted Aesthetics. There are three schools: the sensualistic (Hogarth): the empirical, (Helmholtz) and the idealistic owing its origin to Kant.
3. (Ed.) Garibaldi, Italian patriot and liberator, 1807-1882.
4. (Ed.) Chiaroscuro from the Latin “clarus”: and oscuro: obscure. It indicates a blending of light and shade in pictures.
5. (Ed.) Loys Bourgeois born about 1510 at Paris, in 1541 followed Calvin to Geneva where he became “chartre ”of the church. He was one of the first psalmbewerkers. ” But since he desired to introduce still more “meerstemmige ”Psalms, he got into conflict with Calvin and his consistory and in 1557 returned to Paris. He published his ’vierstemmige’ Psalter in Lyons (1547) and Paris (1554). Also wrote “Le droict chemin de musique,” 1550.
6. (Ed.) Claude Goudimel, born in Besancon, France, 1505 or 1510. About 1540 he opened a school of Music. That Palestrina at one time was one of his pupils has been denied. He embraced the Reformed religion and settled at Lyons where he was murdered during the night of St. Bartholomew, 1572. He furnished music for the Psalms (1562) and published tunes still in use.