1060). Walter believed that music should be "subservient to the objectivity and clarity of the text," Sharp explains (1061). And on October 5, 1544, two years before Luther's death and the day that the first church built by the Lutherans was dedicated, Luther's "eloquence in the pulpit was matched by the enthusiastic performance" of a seven-voice motet (Beati immaculati), written by Walter (p. 1061). Stephen Rose writes that while sacred music was certainly performed at church in 17th Century Protestant Germany, chorales were also an important part of devotion in homes, as they were sung "when the household gathered together in worship" and also they were sung to mark the various stages of the daily routine (Rose, 2005, p. 39). In fact many hymns were written to be performed in the home because churches were frequently too conservative "in their choice of chorales" and preferred to stick with the hymnody that was "sanctioned by Luther in the previous century" (p. 39).

Indeed, during the 17th Century is was normal for the "pious" to own their own hymnals, Rose writes; they...

The hymnals in the 17th Century differed from the hymnals of the 16th Century; the earlier hymnals presented the songs for "four-part harmonization for vocal ensembles" (p. 41). In the later versions in the 17th Century, the harmonizations were supplemented with a "figured bass," detouring the need for "organists, harpsichordists and lutenists" to make an "intabulation" prior to playing the chorale (Rose, p. 41).
Works Cited

Dickinson, Edward. Music in the History of the Western Church. New York: Charles

Scribner's Sons, 1902.

Ephraem, Saint (Syrus), and McVey, Kathleen. Ephraem the Syrian: Hymns. Mahwah, NJ:

Paulist Press, 1989.

Rose, Stephen. "Daniel Vetter and the Domestic Keyboard Chorale in Bach's

Leipzig." Early Music, 33.1 (2005): 39-59

Schoenbohm, Richard. "Music in the Lutheran Church before and at the Time of J.S. Bach."

Church History, 12.3 (1943): 195-209.

Sharp, G.B. "The Fathers…