The Syntagma musicum in Lutheran Organ Sermons of the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

Based on a corpus of organ sermons, this paper analyses the theological reception of the Syntagma musicum. As early as 1621 Michael Praetorius’s treatise was explored for the first time by a Lutheran pastor. In 1624, it stimulated Conrad Dieterich to include a description of the Ulm organ into his sermon. After the Thirty Years’ War Michael Praetorius’s work became a regular part of the scholarly apparatus of the sermons. Model sermons and homiletic handbooks helped to shape a distinctive musical-theological discourse. As an example of intercultural exchange the transmission of several excerpts from Girolamo Dirutas Il Transilvano translated by Michael Praetorius merits special attention.