# RPW & Music In The Wider Culture



## Jared (Aug 13, 2008)

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out the disparity between Puritan worship in the 17th century and the particular evolutionary stage of popular music of the same era. My suspicion is that there was not as great of a difference between acapella singing and popular music then as there would be now. 

This is not to say that rejecting EP is wrong simply based on this observation, but it might account for the widespread use of instruments in the church.


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## Christusregnat (Aug 13, 2008)

Jared104 said:


> I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out the disparity between Puritan worship in the 17th century and the particular evolutionary stage of popular music of the same era. My suspicion is that there was not as great of a difference between acapella singing and popular music then as there would be now.
> 
> This is not to say that rejecting EP is wrong simply based on this observation, but it might account for the widespread use of instruments in the church.



"Secular" music flourished during the era of Cromwell. This puzzles historians, but the reality is that Puritans loved music in both church, and in the other parts of their lives. The tunes resemble each other, but are different in subject matter.

Cheers,

Adam


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## VictorBravo (Aug 13, 2008)

Don't forget developments in Germany, France, and Italy, none of which were under a regulative principle. In Germany, the Lutheran church adopted music early, and by the end of the 17th century (and into the 18th) organ music in church had reached a peak in the works of Bach. Simultaneously, Scarlatti, Couperin, and many others were developing "sacred" and secular music, and the distinction often is quite blurred. Composers were gaining fame and passing music back and forth in a way never before seen.

It seems that "cutting edge" churches in England were interested in adopting some of these things, not unlike the "cutting edge" churches of today.

And, of course, Handel in England was becoming a sensation, adopting the styles of all the best of Europe. "The Messiah", is it a sacred work or a secular work? Also, by his time (late 17th century--18th century), the organ was well established in the Anglican church.


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## JBaldwin (Aug 13, 2008)

Interesting thoughts. The puritan movement was relatively small in comparison to the larger protestant movement in Europe. Though I had never given it much thought, I have wondered how well composers like Bach and Telemann would have been received in the Puritan church.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 13, 2008)

JBaldwin said:


> Interesting thoughts. The puritan movement was relatively small in comparison to the larger protestant movement in Europe. Though I had never given it much thought, I have wondered how well composers like Bach and Telemann would have been received in the Puritan church.



Bach, owner of the Calov Bible, was Lutheran, and so was Telemann, if I am not mistaken. Being Lutheran, Bach did not adhere to the RPW. However, the Brandenburg Concertoes, for example, were a direct product of his exposure to the RPW. For the story on that, see this older post.


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## JBaldwin (Aug 13, 2008)

Was it even called the RPW back then? I thought that term was coined much later.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 13, 2008)

JBaldwin said:


> Was it even called the RPW back then? I thought that term was coined much later.



I believe the term was coined by John Murray in connection with the 1946 OPC minority report on psalmody.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Aug 16, 2008)

Horton Davies, _The Worship of the English Puritans_, Appendix B, "Art and Music in Puritan Worship," pp. 268-272:



> Macaulay has popularized a grave misrepresentation of the Puritans as fanatical Philistines, apostles of gloom, utterly antagonistic to the arts and music.
> ...
> This charge would make all Puritans tone-deaf and colour-blind iconoclasts. Its untruth has been fully and finally rebutted Dr Percy Scholes in _The Puritans and Music_ (1934).
> ...
> ...


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