Freddy Finkelstein's Blog: Dedicated to True Christianity and Confessional Unity in the Visible Church; to Conservative Morality, Free-Market Capitalism, and political Liberty in Society; and indebted to the collected wisdom of Western Civilization as it has, by the Hand of Providence, been empowered to derive, preserve and/or otherwise carry these ideas and teachings through the past two millennia, into the present, and, Lord willing, to project them into the future.
Foundational to the perspectives I maintain is my Christian Faith: though I am a wretched sinner, destitute of merit before a perfectly Righteous God, this same perfectly Loving God has given me the gift of Faith, by which I lay hold of and appropriate to myself the objective promises of His Word -- that through the perfect life, suffering and innocent death of His Son, Jesus Christ, I have been reconciled with God by His work, my sins are forgiven, and I bear the Name and perfect Righteousness of Jesus Christ before my Heavenly Father. I am Justifed, by God's Grace, alone, through the Faith He has given me, alone, as a result of the work of Jesus Christ, alone; and God's Word, alone, assures me of this. Thus, I am a Christian, of the Lutheran Confession.
I am also a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative. Partly personality, mostly the result of study and life experience, I know a little about many things, a lot about a few things, and strive to be a conscientious student in all things. I am not a crowd follower, having been weaned off the opinions of others at a young age. Thus I hold what opinions I do because I am convinced they are correct, and therefore worth having.
1. At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, Every tongue confess Him King of glory now; ’Tis the Father’s pleasure we should call Him Lord, Who from the beginning was the mighty Word.
2. Humbled for a season, to receive a name From the lips of sinners unto whom He came, Faithfully He bore it, spotless to the last, Brought it back victorious when from death He passed.
3. Bore it up triumphant with its human light, Through all ranks of creatures, to the central height, To the throne of Godhead, to the Father’s breast; Filled it with the glory of that perfect rest.
4. In your hearts enthrone Him; there let Him subdue All that is not holy, all that is not true; Crown Him as your Captain in temptation’s hour; Let His will enfold you in its light and power.
1. I know that my Redeemer lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my ever-living Head.
2. He lives triumphant from the grave, He lives eternally to save, He lives all-glorious in the sky, He lives exalted there on high.
3. He lives to bless me with His love, He lives to plead for me above. He lives my hungry soul to feed, He lives to help in time of need.
4. He lives to grant me rich supply, He lives to guide me with His eye, He lives to comfort me when faint, He lives to hear my soul's complaint.
5. He lives to silence all my fears, He lives to wipe away my tears He lives to calm my troubled heart, He lives all blessings to impart.
6. He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend, He lives and loves me to the end; He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing; He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
7. He lives and grants me daily breath; He lives, and I shall conquer death: He lives my mansion to prepare; He Iives to bring me safely there.
8. He lives, all glory to His name! He lives, my Jesus, still the same. Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives, "I know that my Redeemer lives!"
The Lutheran Hymnal Hymn #200 Text: Job 19:25-27 Author: Samuel Medley, 1775, ab. Composer: John Hatton, 1793 Tune: "Duke Street"
"Father, We Praise Thee" by Gregory I, 540-604 Translated by Percy Dearmer, 1867-1936 from The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 165.
1. Father, we praise Thee, now the night is over; Active and watchful, stand we all before Thee; Singing, we offer, prayer and meditation; Thus we adore Thee.
2. Monarch of all things, fit us for Thy mansions; Banish our weakness, health and wholeness sending; Bring us to Heaven, where Thy saints united Joy without ending.
3. All holy Father, Son and equal Spirit, Trinity blessèd, send us Thy salvation; Thine is the glory, gleaming and resounding Through all creation.
Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary Hymn #76 Author: Gregory I, 540-604 Translated by: Percy Dearmer, 1906 Titled: "Nocte surgenes vigilemus omnes" Composer: French church melody (Paris: 1681) Tune: "Christe Sanctorum"
As many of you may be aware, my family enjoys and seeks out the uplifting influence of the Fine Arts for their highly cultivated ability to carry and effectively communicate weighty themes. Musically, this means that we favor what is referred to as “Classical Music.”
Four weeks ago, I featured a collection from our favorite choir: Dresdner Keuzchor: Legendary recordings. Most of the recordings in that collection are Sacred choral works from the Late Renaissance and Early Baroque periods, by Lutheran composers like Heinrich Schütz, Johann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, Johann Sebastian Bach and even Martin Luther. More importantly, seven of the ten disks in this collection were filled with recordings of music that was composed for use in the context of Lutheran Worship, and were recorded by a choir that regularly sings them in the context of worship. I also posted definitions of the various periods in Classical Music. If you are unfamiliar with these periods, a review may be helpful. Last week, I featured a collection from one of those composers, the Psalmen Davids, by Heinrich Schütz.
This week, I am again returning to one of the composers featured in that initial collection: Johann Hermann Schein.
The second of "the three great S'es" of the German Baroque that I have introduced in past weeks, Schein, like his contemporary, Heinrich Schütz, was a prolific and influential composer of liturgical music for the Lutheran Church. Schein is considered to be the more polished composer of the three. His published sacred works number on the order of 400, including an entire hymnal in 1627, titled Cantional. This hymnal was unique in that it arranged its approximately 200 hymns in four-part harmony, with the soprano part carrying the melody -- following what had apparently become standard Lutheran worship practice. This is the way most hymnbooks are arranged today, even though congregations don't sing in parts anymore.
Like Johann Sebastion Bach who followed him almost a century later, Schein was Cantor at St. Thomas in Leipzig. Also like Bach -- yet, unlike Schütz -- Schein did not write exclusively for the Church in Germany. He also wrote secular music for social gatherings. Unlike modern composers, who seem to prefer minimizing or eliminating any distinction between secular and sacred composition, the distinction between Schein's sacred and secular compositions has been described as stark. Composed to carry the meaning of Biblical texts and the Church's theology, his sacred compositions were nuanced and refined. In contrast, the comparatively banal nature of secularity required compositions reflective only of tedious simplicity. It was only entertainment, after all, not Divine Worship -- and like most entertainment, it generally only functioned as background for other activities which were the true object of the gathering (like dancing). Though Schein's secular compositions varied in their degrees of "simplicity" (from simple drinking songs to revolutionary orchestral pieces for high-society), the contrast generally found between his secular and sacred compositions are reflective of a very potent fact: as such compositions are written to carry meaning of an entirely and profoundly different nature, one should expect them to sound much different.
In my opinion, today's composers of Church music would do well to observe the distinctions generally found in Schein's body of work, as well. Church music that merely duplicates the pervasive background noise that accompanies us everywhere we go (like the car, the airplane, the subway station, the home, the workplace, the department store, the grocery store, the restaurant, the elevator ...everywhere), is simply not distinguished enough to meaningfully carry the weight of Scripture teaching and the distinctiveness of our Lutheran Confession (although, for aconfessional churches of weak theology, it may be just fine...).
The collection pictured above, entitled Psalmen Davids, is a short collection of some of Johann Schein's settings of the Psalms (Pss. 150, 39, 128, 103, 33, 13, 98, 20, 116, and 23), various motets, and a setting of the Te Deum, all composed for occasions, such as weddings, funerals, and the like. It is conducted by Roland Wilson, an expert in early Baroque music, and is performed by La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata Köln, which specialize in the techniques and instrumentation of the early Baroque repertoire. This is very clear recording of some of Schein's highly polished Lutheran compositions.
"Now Thank We All Our God" by Martin Rinckart, 1586-1649 Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878
1. Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices; Who from our mother's arms Hath blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.
2. Oh, may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us, With ever joyful hearts And blessed peace to cheer us; And keep us in His grace And guide us when perplexed And free us from all ills In this world and the next.
3. All praise and thanks to God The Father now be given, The Son, and Him who reigns With them in highest heaven: The one eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore! For thus it was, is now, And shall be evermore.
The Lutheran Hymnal Hymn #36 Text: Ecclus.50:22-24 Author: Martin Rinckart, 1636 Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1858 Titled: "Nun danket alle Gott" Composer: Johann Crueger, 1648 Tune: "Nun danket alle Gott"
As many of you may be aware, my family enjoys and seeks out the uplifting influence of the Fine Arts for their highly cultivated ability to carry and effectively communicate weighty themes. Musically, this means that we favor what is referred to as “Classical Music.”
Three weeks ago, I featured a collection from our favorite choir: Dresdner Keuzchor: Legendary recordings. Most of the recordings in that collection are Sacred choral works from the Late Renaissance and Early Baroque periods, by Lutheran composers like Heinrich Schütz, Johann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, Johann Sebastian Bach and even Martin Luther. More importantly, seven of the ten disks in this collection were filled with recordings of music that was composed for use in the context of Lutheran Worship, and were recorded by a choir that regularly sings them in the context of worship. I also posted definitions of the various periods in Classical Music. If you are unfamiliar with these periods, a review may be helpful.
Anyway, this week, I am returning to one of the composers featured in that collection: Heinrich Schütz.
Heinrich Schütz was a very important early-Baroque composer, and is considered to be the greatest German composer second to Johann Sebastian Bach. But I'll bet you have never heard of him. How can it be that a composer of such stature – second in line to Bach, and one whom Bach himself looked to for inspiration – is generally unknown? Why is it that the average American is denied popular access to his works, not to mention his name, either on the radio or in the schools – or at the local music store! –and is instead left to stumble upon this compositional goldmine on his own?
As he quickly became (and has remained) our favorite composer, Mrs. Finkelstein and I wondered about this when we stumbled upon him shortly after our wedding;having also just become bona fide Lutherans, we were searching for wholesome Lutheran music with which to fill our minds and our home. The answer: Heinrich Schütz composed almost exclusively for the Lutheran Church in Germany (and Denmark) during the Lutheran Age of Orthodoxy. Except for a single collection of Renaissance madrigals,nothing of his can be played or discussed without also confronting the listener with overt Christianity. So paranoid and suspicious of Christianity has society become, that even the influential high-art of Christians from the pinnacle of Western Civilization is censured. If it were not for the "super-novas" of the Fine Arts, who simply cannot be ignored – i.e., Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Raphael, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Cranach, Dürer, and even Rembrandt – Christian art would be shunted aside and forgotten. And how many pop-art-dependent Christians today would be all the happier for it!
Heinrich Schütz studied at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice under none other than Giovanni Gabrieli, who, along with his father Andreas, was of prime influence in the development of western music following the Renaissance, particularly in the development of antiphonal and polychoral music. This was the influence that Schütz brought back to Germany and upper Europe, and which he masterfully wedded with the German language, the purest manifestation of which, for him, was Martin Luther's translation of the the Bible.
Heinrich Schütz's Psalmen Davids, the collection featured above, was published collectively in 1619, six years after completing his studies with Gabrieli. It is the finest example of Italian influenced polychoral composition produced by him, and was instrumental in the development and refinement of German compositions moving into the Baroque period. Dresdner Keuzchor: Legendary recordings, the collection I featured three weeks ago, included one full disk devoted to the Psalmen Davids, but this single disk does not contain the full cycle of Psalms from Schütz's published collection. Rather, the recording pictured above, conducted by Frieder Bernius, and performed by the Kammerchor Stuttgart and Musica Fiata Köln, is the only complete collection of all 26 Psalms available. Performed by experts in early music, the execution is full, precise and envigorating. If one has not heard Schütz's Psalmen Davids, they may well wonder if they know what catholicity sounds like! This is music for the Church – BIG and Deep.
1. We all believe in one true God, Who created earth and heaven, The Father, who to us in love Hath the right of children given. He both soul and body feedeth, All we need He doth provide us; He through snares and perils leadeth, Watching that no harm betide us. He careth for us day and night, All things are governed by His might.
2. We all believe in Jesus Christ, His own Son, our Lord, possessing An equal Godhead, throne, and might, Source of every grace and blessing. Born of Mary, virgin mother, By the power of the Spirit, Made true man, our elder Brother, That the lost might life inherit; Was crucified for sinful men And raised by God to life again.
3. We all confess the Holy Ghost, Who sweet grace and comfort giveth And with the Father and the Son In eternal glory liveth; Who the Church, His own creation, Keeps in unity of spirit. Here forgiveness and salvation Daily come through Jesus' merit. All flesh shall rise, and we shall be In bliss with God eternally. Amen.
The Lutheran Hymnal Hymn #251 Text: The Nicene Creed Author: Martin Luther, 1525 Titled: "Wir glauben all' einen Gott" Tune: "Wir glauben all' an einen Gott"
As many of you may be aware, my family enjoys and seeks out the uplifting influence of the Fine Arts for their highly cultivated ability to carry and effectively communicate weighty themes. Musically, this means that we favor what is referred to as “Classical Music.”
Last week, I featured an Oratorio composed by Franz Josef Haydn: The Creation. The text of this work is a directly Scriptural account of the Creation story, taken from the words of Genesis and Psalms, and following Milton's Paradise Lost in the manner in which the story is told. Interestingly, and typical of works from the Classical period, Haydn incorporates musical devices to reinforce the Creation account with observations of Natural Law. Not only on the basis of it's texts, or the superb artistic quality of its composition and performance, this work ought to be appreciated by true Christians specifically on the basis of the fact that it reverently affirms for those who hear it what the Scriptures say: that the God of Creation is real, that His Creation testifies of Him, and that the Creation account found in Special Revelation is the true account given to us by this Creator.
This week, I offer something similar, but different. Over fifty years prior to Haydn's The Creation, as the Baroque period was drawing to a close and burgeoning Enlightenment ideas were beginning to move artistic expression into the Classical period, an elderly French composer named Jean-Féry Rebel wrote a remarkable Suite for Orchestra entitled, Les Elémens – or, The Elements. Unlike Haydn's oratorio, this is not a choral work, but an orchestral work of distinctly Baroque composition and instrumentation, which makes use of these elements to tell the story of Creation. In addition, being primarily influenced by French Enlightment ideas, Rebel, unlike Haydn, did not even acknowledge which "god" was responsible for the Creation, but drew purely upon Natural Law as the inspiration for his work. The result is a late-Baroque orchestral work which expresses underlying Enlightenment ideas – which acknowledge a Creator, or an Intelligent Designer, on the basis of what Creation itself testifies. And testify it does, as the Scriptures clearly state (and I repeat from last week):
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things... (Rom. 1:18-23).
A particularly unique aspect of this work is the opening movement, entitled Le Cahos. This musical picture of chaos precedes the creative work of God, which in terms of Natural Law, is that event which, by the hand of a Divine architect and engineer, brought all things into being and set them in motion according the the Laws of Nature. That is, creation brought order to non-order, something which cannot happen spontaneously, nor evolve over time (all things tending to a state of greater disorder over time). Pre-creation, being the absence of order, could only be conceived of as chaos. And so the opening movement is titled "Chaos" (just as it is in Haydn's The Creation). The way that Rebel pictures chaos is two centuries ahead of his time:
After all the songs of house-trained birds, cats and frogs, all the battles fought according to the Queensberry rules, all the storms in teacups and manageably proportioned stage-earthquakes, with which late-Baroque composers threw their audiences into – it should be noted – commensurate states of astonishment, Jean-Féry Rebel's "cahos" from Les Elémens takes one's breath away, even today.
Goebel, R. (1995). Rebel: Les Elémens, Gluck: Alessandro & Telemann: Septet. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon. (Liner notes, pg. 3).
Indeed, Rebel's Les Cahos, is taken straight from the pages of 20th Century Barbarism, and stands as an example of what dissonance truly represents: chaos, disorder, and uncertainty. And this is true not only of art, but in life from which art draws its inspiration and of which it is merely a shadowy image. God be praised for the miracle of Creation, for the power of His Word which, by its very speaking, brought order to chaos, brought out of nothing the existence of a fully functioning and mature Universe; which alone is able to give life to spiritually dead souls, to reconcile and restore harmony to man's relationship with God, to fill him with a certainty and conviction that chases away the dissonance of doubt, and to endow him confidence in his purpose -- to glorify God.
Like Johann Sebastion Bach who followed him almost a century later, Schein was Cantor at St. Thomas in Leipzig. Also like Bach -- yet, unlike Schütz -- Schein did not write exclusively for the Church in Germany. He also wrote secular music for social gatherings. Unlike modern composers, who seem to prefer minimizing or eliminating any distinction between secular and sacred composition, the distinction between Schein's sacred and secular compositions has been described as stark. Composed to carry the meaning of Biblical texts and the Church's theology, his sacred compositions were nuanced and refined. In contrast, the comparatively banal nature of secularity required compositions reflective only of tedious simplicity. It was only entertainment, after all, not Divine Worship -- and like most entertainment, it generally only functioned as background for other activities which were the true object of the gathering (like dancing). Though Schein's secular compositions varied in their degrees of "simplicity" (from simple drinking songs to revolutionary orchestral pieces for high-society), the contrast generally found between his secular and sacred compositions are reflective of a very potent fact: as such compositions are written to carry meaning of an entirely and profoundly different nature, one should 
As he quickly became (and has remained) our 
A particularly unique aspect of this work is the opening movement, entitled 
