And his discourse concerning music was most noble.
"Some forty years ago, when he would set up the German
Mass at Wittenberg, he wrote to the Elector of Saxony and Duke
Johannsen, of illustrious memory, begging to invite to
Wittenberg the old musician Conrad Rupff and myself, to
consult with him as to the character and the proper notation
of the Eight Tones; and he finally himself decided to
appropriate the Eighth Tone to the Epistle and the Sixth Tone
to the Gospel, speaking on this wise: Our Lord Christ is a
good Friend, and his words are full of love; so we will take
the Sixth Tone for the Gospel. And since Saint Paul is a very
earnest apostle we will set the Eighth Tone to the Epistle. So
he himself made the notes over the Epistles, and the Gospels,
and the Words of Institution of the true Body and Blood of
Christ, and sung them over to me to get my judgment thereon.
He kept me three weeks long at Wittenberg, to write out the
notes over some of the Gospels and Epistles, until the first
German Mass was sung in the parish church. And I must needs
stay to hear it, and take with me a copy of the Mass to Torgau
and present it to His Grace the Elector from Doctor Luther.
Pages:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40