The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Regulative principle

janean and others,

This idea that Luther and others borrowed "bar tunes" for their sacred music belongs on the "Snopes" website as an urban myth. There isn't a shred of truth to this charge, which is used by those who would try and justify nearly any form of music for worship. One of the most informative articles on musicology for the church can be found here: Congregational Singing and the Ministry of the Word.

Here is a short section taken from that article which addresses this matter of "bar tunes", etc.

As soon as I say this, someone will retort, "But Luther used songs from the bar." This is a regrettable misconception widely popularized in our time. Similarly, some will triumphantly respond with that famous Luther quotation: "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?" Anyone who has read Luther extensively knows that when Luther spoke of the Devil, he usually meant the papacy. In truth, when Luther asked, "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?" he did not mean, "Why should the good tunes remain out there in the bar when we could use them in church?" Rather, he meant the Reformation church should not leave all the fine old hymns to the Roman Catholic Church. He was making a passionate plea for the use of traditional music!

As for Luther borrowing tunes from the bar, this is a misunderstanding of both music theory and music history. The "bar form" is a label for a musical/architectural form, not a description of musical activity occurring in a public place of alcoholic consumption. In Luther's time, there were academic societies called Meistersingers.²² They existed for the purpose of composing songs based usually on biblical texts, and the musical form they used was called a "bar form."²³ The bar form is like a fixed recipe. It has as much to do with consuming alcoholic beverages in a public place as does "bar oil" for a chain saw, attorneys "passing the bar," or Jewish boys and their "Bar Mitzvahs."

Immediately after the section where the above quote is taken, Dr. Payton discusses the matter of "style". It would definitely be worth everyone's time to read that entire article and then take some time to re-evaluate their relative positions on this matter of music.

In His Grace,