Have you ever wondered why organists play so much Bach? It is because he, being a devout Christian and master composer, fused theology and music into unsurpassed greatness. Bach wrote to the glory of God. As we play to the glory of God, we are carrying out principles of the Reformation.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685. Over 150 years earlier in that same city, Martin Luther had translated the Bible into German and written some of the hymns that so influenced Bach later. When Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg in 1517, he had no intention of breaking from the Catholic Church and starting a new one. Even after that separation occurred, he retained some elements in the new worship service – notably music.

Martin Luther was a great musician himself. “He was a lover of music, a singer, a composer of some skill… and believed strongly in the educational and ethical power of music and wanted all the congregation to take some part in the music of the services.”¹

The most important musical contribution of the Lutheran Church was the chorale – basically a text and a tune for singing in unison or a text with four-part harmonization. Luther himself wrote many of these chorale texts, his most famous being the beloved “Bin' feste Burg” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”), based on Psalm 46, the battle song which helped spread the fire of the Reformation.

Luther called the Psalter a 'Bible in miniature' and it was his constant companion. It is said that whenever he heard distressing news he would say to his family or friends, 'Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.'²

His views were so strong about music that he said, “I would allow no man to preach or teach God's people without a proper knowledge of the use and power of sacred song.”³

And “music is a gift of God, not a gift of men… After theology I accord music the highest and greatest honour.”⁴ The first Protestant hymnal appeared in 1524, containing eight hymns, half by Luther. Twenty years later, Luther and his associates published a hymnal of 117 hymns, making Germany a “sea of song.”⁵

It has been said that if there had been no Luther there would have been no Bach. Luther's three tenets of the Reformation – Scripture alone, justification by faith, and the priesthood of all believers – were each beautifully worked out in Bach's life as a Christian and in his music.

The German chorales were the basis for much of Bach's work, whether choral or instrumental.

The great Reformation chorales were meant not to create a mood, but to convey a message. They were a confession of faith in the Scriptures, not simply personal feelings.⁶

Bach wrote over one thousand pieces of music for instruments and/or voice, with three-fourths of them to be used for worship services. Included in this number were organ pieces written for the church calendar year, based on chorales proclaiming man's fall, the birth of Christ, his atoning work, and his death and resurrection.

Bach is considered the greatest composer of the cantata. Cantatas are based on chorales, which lend themselves to being expanded into larger forms through harmonization, featuring choir, soloists, and instrumental accompaniment. His well-known Christmas Oratorio weaves six cantatas together with a recitation of the nativity stories in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.

His work as a church musician culminated in the dramatic settings of the Easter texts from Matthew and John.

The St. Matthew Passion, for double chorus, soloists, double orchestra, and two organs is a drama of epic grandeur, the most noble and inspired treatment of its subject in the whole range of music.⁷

The “Passion Chorale” (to which we sing “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”) appears five times, in different keys and in four different four-part harmonizations. Not only did Bach understand Scripture and the importance of communicating it through music, he also understood that he was using the tools God gave him to the best of his ability.

D. J. Grout says,

It is not surprising that Bach should dedicate a book of chorale preludes – church music to 'the Most High God,' or that he should inscribe at the beginning of the scores of his cantatas and Passions the letters J.J. (jesu, juva – Jesus, aid) and at the end S.D.G. (soli Deo gloria – to God alone be glory); but it may startle a modern reader to find the exercise-book of clavier pieces written for Wilhelm Friedemann beginning with the formula LN.J. (in nomine jesu – in the name of Jesus), or to learn that Bach defined the aim of thorough-bass as 'to produce a well-sounding harmony to the glory of God and the permissible delight of the spirit.' In short, he admitted no difference in principle between sacred and secular art, both alike being 'to the glory of God'; he would sometimes use the same music for either sacred or secular words or for a purely instrumental work.⁸

It may startle the modern reader, but it should not startle those who try to live by the principles of the Reformation. There is no sacred and secular – all of life is to be lived to the glory of God. So the next time you hear Bach, thank God for his faith, his genius, his testimony to the world for three hundred years, and for his unsurpassed music.