 |
| Back in the saddle with Kaiser Max |
Many things have happened since we last met: our semi-permanent move to Germany is nearly complete (Stretch will be joining me in a couple of days!), and I had an amazing trip to Italy with about 30 fabulous KMFA listeners. I promise a few stories and pictures from Italy in the near future.
Now to the matter at hand. You know you're in Germany when you're eating breakfast on Oct. 31, 2014, listening to the news on North German Radio, and the fact that today is the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a chapel in Wittenberg in 1517 is a news item.
 |
| Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder |
This interests me as someone who was raised in the Lutheran church, and who loves the early music of that faith enormously. More on that in a moment.
It interests me especially these days. The act of protest which launched the Reformation happened on Emperor Maximilian's watch, and was perpetrated by one of his subjects.
 |
| Maximilian I by Ambrogio de Predis |
How did this very Catholic emperor react to this provocation? By doing a whole lot of nothing. He didn't seem to take much notice, and didn't even bother to make a window in his schedule at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg in 1518 to follow Luther's examination by the Papal Legate, Cardinal Cajetan. Maximilian left the Diet two days before Luther arrived.
The emperor who did take notice was Maximilian's successor, his grandson, Charles V. Luther appeared before Charles at the Diet at Worms in 1521, where he famously refused to retract his writings.
 |
| Charles V in 1520 by van Orley |
So where does this leave me? In Lübeck, where I will pay tribute to my Lutheran roots by attending a Reformation Day service at Buxtehude's former church, St. Mary's.
I will imagine Buxtehude confusing the heck out of the parishioners one long-ago Reformation Day with his fabulous and heavily ornamented setting of Luther's chorale 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott'. It was the organist's job to let the congregation know which hymn was coming up by improvising a chorale prelude. At a certain point, the church council of St. Mary's just gave up and had hymn boards installed, since no one could recognize the hymns in Buxtehude's preludes.
Dieterich Buxtehude: musical rebel since 1637. ;-)
