Worship, Revised and Expanded Edition: Reformed according to Scripture

by Hughes Oliphant Old

The hymnody of the late Middle Ages became increasingly subjective, and yet that hymnody became an ever more important part of sacred worship. Medieval hymnody was essentially meditative, leading the worshiper to meditate on the mysteries that the liturgy celebrated and supporting the highly contemplative piety of the age. It was beautifully otherworldly and mysterious. Set apart from the sounds and rhythms of this world, it aimed at discovering the melodies of heaven. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that the very fact that the great bulk of this hymnody was in Latin kept much of its glory within the confines of religious communities. The common people could neither sing it nor understand it. It was by and large, although not completely, the treasure of the cathedral and the monastery rather than the town church or the village chapel. With the Reformation the praises of the church took a very different direction. The Reformers wanted the whole congregation to sing the praises of the church. They wanted the people to sing in their own language and in music simple enough for the people to learn. This meant, quite practically speaking, the production of a wholly new church music. One could not really expect the whole congregation to sing what the trained monastic choirs had been singing, nor could one simply translate the Latin texts into German or French and sing the new text to the old music. Besides thar, taste in music was changing rapidly. The average Renaissance mus...