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Luther The Musician, Charles L. Hill

Honors Theses

The chief contributions of Martin Luther to Western civilization are in the fields of theology and religious reform; but his influence upon, and even his direct contributions to, the development of music also are of considerable importance. Luther has established a place for himself in history as "the great German religious reformer who began the Protestant Reformation" (Brit., 436), but his abilities as a musician are often overlooked. That Luther had a great love for music is clear from a letter which he sent to Ludwig Senfl, the court musician at Munich, on October 4, 1530, in which he says: …