was a commercial bonanza. Rhau met Luther in 1519, while occupying the position of cantor at the St.
Thomas Church in Leipzig (the same position J. S. Bach would hold a couple of centuries later). He wrote
the Mass that consecrated the opening of the great theological debate between Luther and Johann von Eck,
his main orthodox opponent, which led to Luther’s excommunication.
Rhau’s close association with Luther cost him his job at Leipzig, but vouchsafed him a second career
that made his fortune. Rhau’s printing and publishing activity was not confined to music; he also issued
books on theology, catechisms, Luther’s sermons, even mathematics texts for use in the Lutheran schools.
The voluminous music publications, though, are historically the most significant, because they give a
complete picture of the early Protestant musical repertory and its surprising wide stylistic reach. Rhau’s
energetic activities, at once religiously dedicated, nation-centered, “populist,” and highly profitable,
epitomize the overriding reform doctrine—the so-called “Protestant work ethic”—that initiative and
ambition fired by personal faith are the best road to the accomplishment of good works, and that the best
insurance of the common welfare is freedom to pursue one’s enlightened self-interest.
EX. 18-5A Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, as set by Martin Agricola