That Divine and Most Excellent Gift: Martin Luther, Music, and the Arts

This posthumous compilation of writing by beloved scholar, teacher, and musician Mark P. Bangert explores how, in addition to his other contributions, Martin Luther expressed a theological valuation of music that can inspire and inform today's understanding and use of music, especially in Christian worship. Luther's preface to Symphoniae iucundae ("Delightful Symphonies," 1538) presents the clearest explication of this theology. At the time of his death, Bangert had composed core components...