Interesting stuff for those of you involved in Church music wars-
http://www.themennonite.org/public_press_releases/Historian_says_organ_not_always_welcome_among_Mennonites_
The Anabaptist movement was born in Zurich Switzerland in 1525 during a time of iconoclastic fury (literally, demolishing icons). Conrad Grebel and Felix Mantz’s spiritual mentor, Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli led Zurich in its rejection of all things Catholic—ceremonies, rituals, liturgy, images, and instrumental music. Though he was a musician of extraordinary talent, Zwingli said the New Testament taught none of those popish mockeries; thus they were rejected and forbidden. Sharp said a prime example of what was rejected and forbidden was the organ.
The organ was characterized as the “Devil’s Bagpipe,” the “Pope’s Bagpipe,” the “Devil’s Trumpet,” and a “Seducer to the Worship of the Roman Anti-Christ.” Organs in the city’s five churches were silenced, then destroyed. The organ in Zwingli’s Grossmunster, the Cathedral Church, was relatively new. Sharp surmised that this organ was like the grand organ in Lucerne, another Swiss city that remained Catholic—therefore escaping Protestant axes and sledge hammers.
Historian Sharp said eyewitness Gerold Edlibach described the instrument—it was massive, gorgeous, superb, and very expensive with an imposing cluster of registers. Edlibach also described its destruction—it was “ripped down and smashed” while the cathedral’s organist, Pelagius Karlschmid, “stood by, helpless, and weeping.”
Sharp reported that in various cantons of Switzerland, pipes were melted and recast. In Schauffhausen, pipes became wine cans; in Winterthur, a new roof for the prison tower; and in Geneva dinnerware for the city hospital by order of reformer John Calvin.
Addendum
This is a fun little link (thanks Louis).
Against Musical Instruments in Public Worship by R. L. Dabney
"The music of an organ may be appropriate to Popish worship, and may be in good taste in a Popish cathedral; and yet may be in wretchedly ill taste, when applied to Protestant worship."
Here is another classic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/dabney/organs.htm
Great link, thanks.
ReplyDelete"Though he was a musician of extraordinary talent, Zwingli said the New Testament taught none of those popish mockeries; thus they were rejected and forbidden. Sharp said a prime example of what was rejected and forbidden was the organ...it was 'ripped down and smashed' while the cathedral’s organist, Pelagius Karlschmid, “stood by, helpless, and weeping.”
ReplyDeleteOne of the ways I understand a historical incident is to imagine myself as one of the actors, to put myself in his place. I cannot do it in this case. How did a "musician of extraordinary talent" get to the place, psychologically, where he would want to do such a thing? I don't get it.
That's an interesting story.
I agree with Ammerbach.
ReplyDeleteFWIW Girardeau's book and Dabney's review of it can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://covenanter.org/Worship/instruments/instrumentalmusic.htm
After all, it was the position of the reformed, never mind the anabaptists.
FTM had an interesting run over at CTC regarding whether Reformed Worship is Biblical: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2012/03/is-reformed-worship-biblical/
Bob