What classical music was written for early Christian hymns?

Answer 1

Only if it's written to be Christian. There was also secular Classical Music.

My two bits: This is a really interesting question, and I am not sure I will satisfy the original poster, but I will try to address it!

The Western classical music tradition (because I assume we aren't talking about, e.g., the classical music of India) has very deep roots in the various musical traditions of Christendom. Though there has always been secular music, it was music of the church that was first written down; in fact it was the need to record and organize church liturgies that drove the development of Western music notation. And perhaps the most distinctive developments of Western music, harmony and counterpoint, came about largely from sacred music contexts. Through the end of the middle ages, it is really hard to talk about Western music without addressing Christian Music.

In the Renaissance and Baroque eras, purely secular styles of music emerged, such as madrigal, dance, and opera. But a huge proportion of classical music was sacred choral music, the oratorio (sacred opera), and instrumental works that might be either sacred or secular in application (sonatas, concertos). Also, most of the leading composers of these eras spent significant parts of their careers in church employ, or as church musicians for the private chapels of their patrons.

The "Classical" period of the late 18th century showed the change that would take full root in the 19th century. Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven each started their careers as church musicians (yes, even the unruly Beethoven worked as an organist), and each wrote significant church works throughout their careers. But we don't usually think of them as primarily sacred music composers, the way we would J. S. Bach or Josquin Desprez. By the 19th century there was an even more sharp division between the sacred and secular music professions, in the sense that relatively few of the major composers could be considered primarily church musicians. Added to this was the growing undercurrent of skepticism toward the major religious establishments, fed by the Enlightenment and pushed further by the individualism of the Romantic era.

But however unorthodox their own religious views, sacred music and Christian themes in general captured the imagination of most of the great composers of the 19th and 20th centuries as well. Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and especially his Ringoperas may have been tributes to pagan mythology, but he came back to overtly Christian themes in Parsifal. Franz Liszt, notoriously secular (so to speak) in his younger days, took holy orders in his old age and wrote sacred music. Felix Mendelssohn, an excellent composer of church music himself, was critically important to the revival of the sacred music of J. S. Bach.

Looking at the 20th century, there have been many classical composers who are not primarily church music composers, yet were overtly Christian in many works--Olivier Messiaen, Charles Ives, and Paul Hindemith come to mind. Igor Stravinsky is an interesting example, and might be representative of the diverse ways that a composer could be "Christian" in outlook. His Soldier's Story represents a soldier traveling home after WW1, haunted by the devil, represented by the violin. The existence of the devil, and the temptation of the protagonist, are traditional Christian themes even if presented in a non-traditional story. Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms is a more cerebral and abstract work, divided into three movements titled "God," "Man" and "God-Man." The "God" movement represents the Almighty in a fugue--what else?--and emphasizes the "otherness" of God very effectively. Finally, we can look at Stravinsky's a cappella choral works in Russian, written in the vibrant tradition of Russian Orthodox liturgical music.

All that being said, I am hesitant to say that Western classical music is "Christian," because obviously there have been and are many composers, performers, and listeners who are not Christian. I am thinking particularly of the long-standing impact of Jewish composers and performers in Western Europe, without whose contributions the history books would have to be rewritten. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Western classical music is Judeo-Christian?

You obviously don't have to be a Christian to be a composer, performer, or fan of Western classical music, but you certainly can't really understand it without a knowledge of the religious worldview that underlies so much of it. In the same way, you could not really understand the classical opera of China or Japan without knowing the mythology and history that underlies them, and the cultural significance of the characters and their actions. Likewise, you will understand the classical music of India better if you understand not only the theoretical and formal underpinnings, but also the philosophical and aesthetic basis.

If the original poster means, "Should a Christian listen to classical music?," I would point him or her to Philippians 4:8, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." There is certainly plenty of all of these in classical music!

Answer 2

I know of Bach and Handel.