Luthers Hochzeitmusik

"Unexpectedly, Luther married this von Bora, without even telling his friends what he had planned." This is the indignant report from the humanist Philipp Melanchthon on June 27th 1525.  The marriage ceremony of the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, and the former Cistercian nun Katharina von Bora had actually already taken place on June 13th 1525.  Melanchthon' critical attitude was shared by many contemporaries, not only because of the new husband and wife's former religious vows, but also because of the general turbulence of the time.  During the battles of the Peasants' Revolt near Frankenhausen on May 15th, and near Würzburg on June 4th, thousands had lost their lives, peasants whom Luther had recently attacked in his tract "Against the Thieving and Murderous Hordes of Peasants." Wittenberg, however, where the marriage and the wedding celebrations had taken place remained mostly untouched by the violence of the period. 
 
 It is to be assumed that the occasion of this marriage would have been accompanied by music befitting such an elevated couple, provided by the Town Waits (the town's  official wind ensemble)  from the church service in the morning, throughout the day to the ceremonial dances in the evening.  After a controversial beginning, the marriage had a positive effect on the personality of the church reformer. Erasmus von Rotterdam reported that, "Luther has become milder, and doesn't rage so much with his quill pen.  There is nothing so wild that it cannot be tamed by a woman." 
 
 The ensemble "Capella de la Torre" which plays on the the historical wind instruments shawm, bombard, sackbut, and dulcian corresponds exactly to the instrumentation of Town Waits of the sixteenth century.  We reconstruct the atmosphere and the environment of Luther's wedding celebration with spirited performances of sacred and secular music of the time.