Listen
- Sarah Perkins with Joshua Zinn (Photo Credit: Hyeok Lee)
- Martin Luther, the face of the Protestant Reformation (Photo Credit: Public Domain; oil on panel by Lucas Cranach the Elder)
- The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences, 1517 print (Photo Credit: Public Domain)
Music and religion have been indelibly linked for centuries, and when the Protestant Reformation of 1517 caused members of the Catholic Church to create their own separate denominations, naturally the music also followed over time. So, for composers like Heinrich Schütz and J.S. Bach, who were practicing Lutherans, they wrote music specifically for the Lutheran Church. It is from this musical lineage that the Houston Brass Quintet found inspiration for their upcoming concert celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” that started the Reformation.
The concert will feature the quintet along with two organists, a soprano, and two percussionists, and the musical selections will reflect the history of the Reformation, with the end of the concert having heavy emphasis on Martin Luther’s most famous of Reformation hymns: Ein feste Burg ist Unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God).
To hear more about the concert, listen to my conversation above with the group’s general manager Sarah Perkins and the transcriber and conductor for the concert Hyeok Lee.
Nun danket alle Gott will take place at First Evangelical Lutheran Church on Sunday, October 29th at 4:30 PM.
