Calvinism a life-system - pagina 231

CALVINISM AND ART.

Even

as

in

22/

ecclesiastical-aristocratic period

the

was

it

only the high and the holy that interested the masters

music the plain chant of Gregory

pencil, so in

of the

was dominant, which abandoned rhythm, despised harmony, and which according to a professional critic, by its

way

provisionally conservative character barred the

to the further artistic

development of music.

Far below

the level of this stately chant flowed the freer song of the

by the worship

people, too often, alas, inspired

which

Venus,

much

festivals",

the

at

of

times of the so called "donkey-

to the chagrin of ecclesiastical officials,

penetrated even the walls of the churches, and there

occasioned those repulsive scenes which the Council of

Trent

succeeded

first

The

putting under the ban.

in

church alone was privileged to make music, while that people produced was scorned, as being be-

which the

neath the dignity of the

Even

art.

in the

oratory

itself,

while the people were allowed to listen to the holy music,

they were forbidden to join art,

it

Only

in so far as

permitted to flourish

undertook on

its

own

than the popular use. life.

the song.

Thus, as an

music was almost entirely deprived of its independent

standing.

was

in

it

could serve the church

artistically.

responsibility,

And

as in

Whatever

had no higher

every department of

Protestantism in general, but Calvinism more con-

sistently, bridled the tutelage of the church, so also

music emancipated by splendid

arranged singing "that

it

call

modern the

were

bound

music the

it,

and the way opened to

development. of the

brave

The men who

Psalm

heroes

was

its

so

first

for the Calvinistic

who

cut

the strands

us to the Cantus firmus, and selected their

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