THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
it is to be admitted as a welcome addition to divine service just so far as it does not displace the preaching of the Gospel from the central place in the divine service, and does not divert 3. The the attention from the worship but
Organ in rather stimulates attention to it.
Protestant Hence the opposition of the Reformers,
Churches, even of Luther himself in the beginning, because the danger of abuse outweighed the advantages (cf. G. Rietschel, ut sup., pp. 17, 18). The organ first came into close connection with the worship of the Evangelical Church as the leader of congregational singing, musically styled as the choral devotions. However, this connection also is an actual not an essential or necessary one, being due to practical needs and resulting from expediency. In fact, the Evangelical service was long carried on without the organ, not only in the Reformed Church but for more than a century in the Lutheran Church. Congregational singing was under the direction of the choirmaster and his pupils without the accompaniment of the organ. The custom of organ accompaniment did not become general until the eighteenth century (for instances, cf. G. Rietschel, ut sup., pp. 46 sqq.).
This use of the organ became a necessity only when the number of melodies increased to such an extent that the congregation could not know them all familiarly, and when the first enthusiasm of the earliest Evangelical singing had abated, so that it required more aid than was afforded by the choir. The first organ choir-book for choir accompaniment to congregational singing, or organ alone, is the Tabulaturbuch of Samuel Scheidt (Halle, 1650), which does not indeed presuppose congregational singing with an organ accompaniment, but prepares the way. At first the organ only accompanied the singing of the congregation for a few lines and then stopped when the song was under way. Later, on account of confusion, the organ was allowed to accompany the whole hymn, and finally, the instrument completely overshadowed the congregational song. The latter was robbed of its original rhythm; the continuity of the melody was broken by interludes between the verses, and congregational singing was, so to speak, absorbed in the organ music. These abuses rather than the employment of art and musical instruments in public worship must be regarded asr the occasion for the opposition from influential sources. Its misuse, however, is not a necessary corollary of organ accompaniment. The organ is not only an auxiliary to congregational singing, but also the normally evolved means for shaping and reinforcing the devotions. It gathers the voices of the multitudes into unison, harmonizes the music with environment and season, and by modulation of pause and cadence, it sways the waves of devotion so as to be deeply impressive. It must prepare the congregation for the hymn that is to be sung and incline it to devotion by the overture or prelude; it must integrate the choral prayer of the congregation with the rest of the service by the interlude, and bring the awakened spirit of worship to a fitting cadence by the postlude. A multiplicity of artistic forms are at the disposal of the
instrument; such as prelude, motet, figuration fantasia, and fugue.
The adaptation of the organ to sacred music which may be regarded as at once the supreme spiritualization and idealization of organ-music is the work and also the characteristic 4. Organ- distinction of the classical German ists and organ-masters, whose great teacher Composers, was Jan Pieterszon Sweelinck (1562- 1621), while the greatest classic composer is Johann Sebastian Bach (q.v.). Mention may be made of Sweelinck's pupils, Jacob Pratorius of Hamburg (d. 1651), Heinrich Scheidemann in Hamburg (d. 1663), Samuel Scheidt in Halle (1587- 1654), the author of the Tabulaturbuch of 1650 (ut sup.), who was the pioneer in the adaptation of choral music to the organ. He was followed in this direction by Strunck, Theile, Alberti, Jan Reinken (1623-1722), Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), and, lastly, Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), who combined the inclination to grace and smoothness inherited from the South Germans with the stricter forms of the North Germans. Bach made the choral with all its liturgical bearings the subject of a pure, artistic transfiguration; he looked upon the song of the congregation as a fair gift of nature for his art. This itself was art for the organ in the highest sense of the word; he thought and composed, moved by the very soul of the organ which lent speech to his creative fancy. He possessed an easy command of all its forms and filled them with his individuality. His style, though firmly founded on tradition, bears everywhere the stamp of his personality; it is his own style throughout, truly and genuinely Protestant.
The succeeding age has softened and modernized this style in connection with the technical development of organ-building, which has made the instrument more flexible and so has with- 5. The drawn it from its narrow isolation. In Modernizing the eighteenth century the organ of learned to speak the language of Mo-
Organ zart, in the nineteenth that of Mendels- Style. sohn, and in the twentieth, it even begins to assimilate the elaborate coloring of the music of Wagner and Liszt. The modernization of organ-style is involved with the question of music in general and esthetics, and no objection can be raised so long as the demands made on religious music by the Church are duly regarded. Congregational adaptability, as it increases in appreciation, will appropriate every advance that makes for edification. However, organ style must continue consistent with the essential quality of the instrument itself. Organ music must observe the limits set by the nature of the instrument; it should not, for example, invade the domain of the voice, the piano, or orchestra. In such case it would always be inferior to the instrument which it imitates; and, at the same time, sacrifice its own peculiar power and artistic value. It would be artistically false, and what is false in art is not permissible in liturgy. On the other hand, not everything artistically true is at the same time suitable for public worship, so that organ music may be correct in style and adapted to the instrument, yet not be