I obeyed this injunction during those formative years of my parish ministry. I certainly didn't want pagan music in my churches. Nevertheless, the young women who requested it never seemed to comprehend what I was getting at. Who was this guy Wagner anyway? And what or who was Lohengrin? What did opera have to do with a wedding in the first place? In other words, it was simply a well-known piece of music they had heard at all the weddings they ever attended. But, being obedient and willing to put up with the pastor's idiosyncrasies, they usually went along with it and chose one of the other Christian marches I suggested.
This whole idea of anti-Wagnerian views is related to the fact that my church body is rooted in the Lutheran emigration from Germany in the middle to late 19th century. During those years Wagner's music and his operas at Bayreuth were gaining in popularity. Bayreuth is a city in northern Bavaria,Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Frankish Alb and the Fichtelgebirge. In the third quarter of the 19th century it became the home of Wagner's operas.
Bayreuth Opera House
All pious Lutherans knew of Wagner's love for the Nordic gods and German-Aryanism, as well as his radical anti-semitism. How then could any true Lutheran allow any such vulgar, pagan, evil music to be played in a Lutheran church? We must choose Lutheran music like that composed by J.S. Bach.
There are many sites that share details of Wagner's life. I won't comment on it other than to say that Adolph Hitler, born a few years after Wagner died, considered Wagner the "one legitimate predecessor to National Socialism." He loved Wagner's music and the Nazis played it over and over again at their rallies.
It is interesting to learn that the Lohengrin of Wagner's opera by that name was actually a Christian knight of the 10th century. The offensive music is from Act III where Elsa enters the cathedral. This music is called the Bridal Chorus. So what's so terrible about that? Obviously it has to do with Wagner himself.
Another interesting side note is that Wagner never heard the first performance of his opera in Weimar, Germany on August 28, 1850. He had been involved in one of those many revolutions of the time in the patchwork of German states and fled to Switzerland.
The first performance of the opera was conducted by the great pianist Franz Liszt, who often played Wagner's music and supported and encouraged Wagner while he was in exile in Switzerland.
Another day I'll share more about Wagner's anti-semitism and one of his most vulgar tracts, The Jew in Music,
What are your thought on the
ReplyDeletehistory of the Lutheran Hymn tunes?
History of hymn tunes is an interesting subject. when in Africa,. I asked seminary students to bring some of their 'folk tunes" so that we could use them and put biblical and Christian words to them. Some did not think this was a good idea, for after all, "some of them are of the devil", they said, and are related to pagan beliefs. I responded what one east African music teacher said, "If we take them all, then the devil won't have any!"
ReplyDeleteLuther took folk tunes and other tunes unrelated to Christian and church music. There is a tune that is used for the great hymn, "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded". The words are by Paul Gerhardt, a paraphrase of Bernard of Clairvaux's Latin hymn.
However, the TUNe is by Hans Leo Hassler, who wrote it for a secular song, "Mein G'mitt its mir verwirret". "My heart is all broken up, the work of a tender maid". (I think this is the correct translation).
The Johann S. Bach used the tune and hymn in his famous "St. Matthew Passion". WHO NOW thinks of the tune as a kind of romantic love song. Just hearing the music reminds us of the great message in the sacred Christian hymn, not a human love song!
I know there is a 'worship war" going on in churches tdoay , especially related to music! Western music is not native to African culture; nor is it related to the modes of music in the middle east of the early centuries.
Harold A. Hein