The subversive weapon of the Reformation: musical propaganda

The reference to a "weapon" is appropriate when describing the "bitterness and savagery" that characterized violent struggle between Catholics loyal to popes and insurgent Reformed Christians -- those in today's terms "Calvinists" and in France "Huguenots" -- in the mid-16th century. And the story, as told in Diarmaid MacCulloch's The Reformation: A History, of what served as popular weaponry is surprising to a modern ear.

He writes that French Huguenot belief grew exponentially in mid-century despite practical and political obstacles created by Catholic rulers.

How had such a rapid expansion taken place? Public preaching had not been possible on a significant scale to spread the message in France; there had not been enough ministers and limited opportunities to gather to listen to sermons. Books played a major part, but the two central texts, the Bible and Calvin's Institutes, were bulky and expensive and could not have had a major circulation in the years of persecution before 1560 ...

The explanation for ... mass lay activism may lie in the one text which the Reformed found perfectly conveyed their message across all barriers of social status and literacy. This was the Psalter, the book of 150 Psalms, translated into French verse, set to music and published in unobtrusive pocket-size editions ... [the psalms] were deployed in Reformed Protestantism in this metrical form to articulate the hope, fear, joy and fury of the new movement. ...

The metrical psalm was the perfect vehicle for turning the Protestant message into a mass movement capable of embracing the illiterate alongside the literate. What better than the very words of the Bible as sung by hero-King David? The psalms were easily memorized, so that an incriminating printed text could rapidly be dispensed with. ...

The words of a particular psalm could be associated with a particular melody; even to hum the tune spoke of the words of the psalm behind it, and was an act of Protestant subversion. A mood could be summoned up in an instant: Psalm 68 led a crowd into battle, Psalm 124 led to victory, Psalm 115 scorned dumb and blind idols and made the perfect accompaniment for smashing up church interiors. The psalms could be sung in worship or in the market-place; instantly they marked out the singer as a Protestant, and equally instantly united a Protestant crowd in ecstatic companionship ...

It's interesting to think about popular music used today for political signaling.

• The civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s was still using the psalms as mediated through the African-American spiritual tradition, for example Psalm 1:3 -- "like a tree planted by the water, we shall not be moved ..."

• Early hip-hop pioneers like Tupac and Michael Franti provided such unifying, expressive compositions.

• So did that forgotten niche genre "women's music" -- more honestly called "lesbian music" -- by artists like Chris Williamson and Ferron.

• In the current political campaigns, candidates frame their entrances with distinctive "walk up" songs: Elizabeth Warren uses Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" while Bernie comes on to John Lennon's "Power to the People."

• President Trump has done his best to appropriate Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" despite the artist's protests; Springsteen responded with “That’s What Makes Us Great.”

Sometimes the music can assemble and grow the chorus.