Lutheran Musical Poetics between the 16th and 18th Centuries

Abstract

The Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther in the 16th century created the conditions for the creative processes of music to be systematized and disseminated under the epithet musical poetics. The knowledge of these creative processes made it possible, on the one hand, to consolidate the musical practices of the new religious orientation, and, on the other hand, to interpret the disseminated music, understand its text and, with that, exercise faith. In order to meet the demand for this knowledge, many Lutheran musicians, between the 16th and 18th centuries, dedicated themselves to writing musical poetics, which were used as teaching material in Latin schools. Among these musicians, I highlight four from different historical moments to illustrate how they unite in this tradition and become particularized, namely, Joachim Burmeister, Christoph Bernhard, Johann Mattheson and Heinrich Christoph Koch. From the definition that each one formulates for musical poetics, we can glimpse values, techniques and principles that guided the production and interpretation of the most diverse repertoires produced in this period. Despite the historical value of these poetics, only recently have they been studied and used again for the study and interpretation of the repertoire to which they refer. In this article, from a hermeneutic perspective, we propose to discuss the relevance of these musical poetics and how they can help in understanding this repertoire in its original context and its possibilities in our present time.