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Luther
Josquin Desprez - Ludwig Senfl - Michael Praetorius - Heinrich Isaac - Johann Walter - Claudin de Sermisy

Luther's wedding day

Capella de la Torre

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917259827
barcode
Catalog number: CC 72598
Releasedate: 16-11-13
The ensemble Capella de la Torre presents a musical programme for the celebration of Luther’s wedding according to the practice during Luther’s life and to his own empathy for music.
 
  • instrumental and vocal music from the time of Martin Luther
  • historically informed and transformed into our century
  • gives a spectacular view on the celebration of Luther’s wedding as it could have happened
As little as we know about the actual musical programme for the celebration of Luther’s wedding, we are on the other hand excellently informed about the reformer’s fundamental relationship to music.

It is therefore no surprise that Luther not only possessed these significant theoretical and practical skills, but also had an intensive empathy for music.

However, he also wrote his own texts and melodies; the best known example is surely “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress is Our God) as paraphrase of the text of Psalm 46. He greatly admired contemporary composers, bove all Josquin de Prez; the quote “Josquin / he says / is the master of notes /everyone must do / what he wants / the other songmasters must do as the notes want” has in the meantime become practically a household word. Further more, he was personally acquainted with several composers. He collaborated very closely with Johann Walter was a close friend and correspondent of Ludwig Senfl.

A historically “exact” reconstruction for the music to Luther’s wedding would need a time machine not only to take us back to the year 1525, but also to make us into people of that time. For that the programme presented here keeps far more to “the probable and necessary” in the sense of a historically informed Aristotelian manner, which ensures a characteristic element that has been freed of fortuities.