During the Reformation, hymns were used to alter the world view of the population. In Denmark, many of the hymns sung by the congregation during the time of the Reformation were borrowed from other languages and used with existing melodies or brought forward a rich legacy from the mediaeval church.

The new album Reforming Hymns explores the sound world of the Reformation and illustrates through sound how the hymns went through striking developments from the song of the mediaeval times to the new psalms. In that way it becomes clear that musical traditions from the Middle Ages lives on to the present day in the Danish hymn singing.

Musical traditions under development

Musical traditions of hymn singing were influenced from several sides during the Reformation:

A substantial part of singing in the new Protestant church were reworkings of Gregorian chants from the Middle Ages. On the album we hear for example how an old Kyrie melody was transformed to a Danish hymn and how fragments of the melody are included in polyphonic choral works by both the Roman chapel master Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and the Danish Mogens Pedersøn.

Another important musical current which was intended to carry the Protestant message was the use of secular melodies. From the beginning of the Reformation movement in the 1520s, hymns can be found which are rewritings of secular ballads and they came to play an important role in the repertoire.

Finally, the album illustrates how an international repertoire found it's way to the Danish hymn singing. The hymns sung by the congregations were, for the most part, borrowed from other languages and then translated or rewritten in the local mother tongue, to let ordinary people follow them. So an international exchange of melodies took place and the songs of the Danish communities were tightly bound to European traditions.

Research project on hymn singing

The new release contains 30 tracks under different headings: "Singing professionals", "From professional to congregational singing", "From secular song to hymn", "The Reformation's new core hymns" and "To each his own".

Besides both polyphonic and unison hymns sung by Musica Ficta, the album also contains a number of organ pieces performed by Søren Christian Vestergaard. In addition, one hymn by Arnolt Schlick also features lutenist Fredrik Bock.

Reforming Hymns is the result of a collaboration between the vocal ensemble Musica Ficta, conductor Bo Holten and music scholar Bjarke Moe, who have participated in the research project “Music and Language in Danish Reformation Hymns” carried out by Society for Danish Language and Literature.