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Luther, Bach, the lute and the simulaneity

Professor Andrea Bedetti

www.musicvoice.it

It was rightly stated that Johann Sebastian Bach's music is an immense sonic-theological construction, and this applies not only to the spiritual, but also the secular part of his oeuvre. A complete work, conceived from the first to the last note under the aegis of a higher power, a god, to which Eisenach's highest genius [Bach] always looked up and showed him infinite gratitude for having the capacity, expressing with its art of sound, what it felt in his heart and in his mind. Not in vain did the cantor at the end of each score add the Latin expression Soli Deo Gloria, or "by the glory of God alone," as if to say that all he created, Bach, was nothing, but a simple instrument with which he wrote the song, sang about the omnipotence of the Lord. With extreme humility, he [points out], that his compositions are actually not more than esercizi, the "exercises" (not to consider them exclusively in a didactic way), and not the material that would be necessary to recreate the idea and essence of the Supreme.

If one wants to understand the extent and depth of Bach's "Sound-Theology", the encounter with the figure of Martin Luther, to which the cantor has always referred, is necessary. Martin Luther, the Reformer of the community of the Christians, was the one who initiated the so-called "Protestant Christianity". According to the history launched by the Roman Church, the Reformation officially began on October 31, 1517, with the publication of the world-famous ninety-five theses against the power of indulgence at the door of the Wittenberg-Castle-Church. Historically, it is far more likely that this document was sent to many bishops the same day and was later published to respond to the silence of the church authorities. As a good Augustinian, Luther had learned from Augustine of Hippo the qui canta, bis orat. This means "who sings, prays twice" and refers to the power of music and song in the spiritual community life. A creed, to which Bach dedicated himself with all his might, continuing what Martin Luther had begun more than a century ago.

Therefore, while listening to the masterpieces of the mighty Bach-Building, it should not be forgotten, that the cantor's music is perceived as an ideal instrument for spreading the greatness of God, and that the music itself is a tremendous putty to condense an individual in the community which it belongs to - also thanks to the singing. It is this singing, inspired by the doctrine of Augustine that admirably transforms into a spiritual act, immortalized by Luther in his writings and in his Reformation.

2017 was therefore the year in which the beginning of the Protestant Reformation was celebrated - five centuries after the birth of this movement, which has no exclusively spiritual and religious, but above all, existential and anthropological value. And on the basis of these assumptions, the German composer and guitarist Hans-Jürgen Gerung has recorded a CD for his own record label, the Gerung-Arts & Music, with the evocative title Bach & Luther - Music and Lyrics - Reformation 2017.

Beside [secular] Bach works, among them the Prelude BWV 999 and the Loure, (after the old Norman bagpipe) BWV 1006a-2, the Coral, Christ lay in the bonds of death, BWV 4/8, written by Luther himself, as well as works by other authors. To name is, among others, the Easter hymn Victimae pascali laudes of the Wipo of Burgundy, who lived in the eleventh century, and the Pentecost hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (also by Martin Luther). The German musician [Gerung] iinterprets the works on a novel lute - the so-called liuto forte (a string instrument, developed at the end of the last millennium by the lutenist André Burguete, the luthier Prof. Günter Mark and by the acoustician Benno Streu). [In addition, Gerung works with a nine course Renaissance lute by Dieter Hense and a 10-string guitar by Andreas Dill.]

The choice of Hans-Jürgen Gerung to perform not only lute pieces but also large chorales in the reduction with these stringed instruments (the German term 'Einrichtung’ (arrangement) better describes this procedure) is [not] arbitrary, but historically refers to Kantor's will.  Bach has also prepared and written passages with the help of a [Lautenclavicembalo] of a lute or a spinet. And this is also the idea and the will [and it is also eminent the Lutheran tradition], to alternate some paragraphs from one of the most important theological writings of Martin Luther, namely the letter of the Freedom of a Christian man, ("La libertà del cristiano") with tthe [mentioned] music. Luther's text was written in 1520 in response to the bull Exsurge Domine (exalted, lord) written by Leo X. The pope threatened to excommunicate [Luther], the former Augustinian.

It is precisely this change of dual language, sound / voice, that allows a better understanding of what was said at the beginning, namely, how the declamation of the song (and in this case of music) has the same value as prayer; here represented by the words with which Martin Luther speaks [to God] as a "Man of Christ" that fully and freely manifests his faith. And it is as if Gerung would make us understand that the word became a musical sound (Luther's use of German is synonymous with Goethe's poetic and Nietzsche's philosophical) - as if the timbre of lute and guitar merge into a kind of verb ], which is understood in the sense given by John the Evangelist, ie to a [new] "strong language," which is the actual emanation of the divine.

Speaking of "[sonic]-language", Hans-Jürgen Gerung has used his instrument par excellence, the lute, on another CD (also produced for his record company) to create a kind of musical language that is spread from tonal modalities to contemporary forms (the CD not in vain carries the title Music for liuto forte - contemporary music for modern lute). In this recording, the German composer presents two different "possibilities" for gaining as many stylistic approaches as possible. In the first part titled "Suite in the Old Style", Gerung provides a composition in the melodic and harmonic tradition of the 18th century. Divided into canonical sections and baroque dance movements (Preludio-Allemanda-Corrente-Sarabanda-Minuetto I & II-Giga), the 10-string liuto forte (described above) finds a playing field, in which he applies a completely different musical language, as in the following, second part of the composition. In the Six Modes, or "Six Ways," Gerung takes up the modal language that precedes the emergence of [his] musical language (and goes back to the Renaissance) and connects it [with materials and techniques] exclusively taken from the post–Webernian-language. This combination creates a creative dimension that leads to experiencing the sounds in each component. The overtones of the instrument-corpus in connection with the percussion of the fingerboard are partly reminiscent of the sound / noise explorations so beloved by Helmut Lachenmann. [musique concrète instrumental]

The result is an admirable and fascinating journey through time, through which Hans-Jürgen Gerung succeeds, as a common denominator between before and after, in emphasizing a kind of "sound verb" that makes us ‘understand’, how the power of music is. Gerung presents the music itself - and not in its language - as an inescapable element, with which the human being, whether old or new, must necessarily reckon, in order to know himself better. Music is an immanence that becomes transcendent, as the German composer and interpreter seem to say, just as Luther and then Bach had first taught through their own teaching and their own creative art. For this reason, these two CDs can and must be heard as the search for an expression, for a vision. Gerung firmly believes - and is rightly convinced, that our modernity and our times are not determined solely by what concerns us directly, [but also by what once was] as a kind of ideal pursuit. The sphere of sound art must draw from the ancient world, from its rules, from its "ways", from its concepts.

The two sound recordings by Hans-Jürgen Gerung and Udo Keinert show a very good and natural dynamics and microdynamics, which allow to reconstruct the sound of the various instruments in a real sound space. Also, the tonal balance and the detail are no less good.

Andrea Bedetti

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AA.VV.

Bach & Luther – Music and Lyrics – Reformation 2017

Hans-Jürgen Gerung (chitarra & liuto)

CD Gerung-Arts&Music EDG017aL

Giudizio artistico 4/5

Giudizio tecnico 4/5

Hans-Jürgen Gerung –

Music for liuto forte – contemporary music for modern lute

Hans-Jürgen Gerung (liuto forte)

CD Gerung-Arts&Music EDG003L

Giudizio artistico 4/5

Giudizio tecnico 4/5