Meditation and Consolatory Soul God Dialogues in Seventeenth-Century Lutheran Germany

Abstract

The use of dialogue as a consolatory device in seventeenth-century Germany is well documented. Literary and musical dialogues use personification as a persuasive device, offering consolation on the death of a loved one. But dialogues were much more than poetic conceits in early modern Germany. In particular, dialogues between God and an abstraction of the individual soul model and reinforce contemporary devotional activity, namely, meditation. For seventeenth-century Lutherans, dialogue was a vital part of meditation and could thereby act as a bridge between literary devices and pious acts. Musical dialogues by central German composers such as Wolfgang Carl Briegel and Andreas Hammerschmidt demonstrate ways in which scriptural juxtaposition could offer consolation not on the death of a loved one, but on one's own imminent death through inner meditative conversation. As such, musical dialogues between God and the soul contribute to the Lutheran Sterbekunst or ars moriendi, a body of activities meant to prepare the pious for eternal life. Compositions by Daniel Eberlin and Dietrich Buxtehude also demonstrate how new poetic dialogues could engage tenets central to Lutheran theology while modelling pious activity.