DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

788 LUTHER LUTHER
accordingly, in his first 'Formula Missae' (1523),
Luther objects to the singing of long graduals,
and recommends that the choice of certain
hymns should be left to the jiriest. The Reformer
had long cherished the idea of a German
Mass, and during the latter part of the year
1524 he was occuijied with arranging that
service. Li order to help him in the nmsical
part of his work, he summoned to Wittenberg
two able musicians, Conrad Rupf, Capellmeister
to the Elector of Saxony, and Johann Walther,
Cantor at the Court of Frederick the Wise at
Torgau. To the latter we are indeljted for
much information about Luther as a musician.
He says that at this time he stayed with Luther
at Wittenberg for three weeks, and that the
Reformer himself set to music several Gospels
and Epistles and the words of consecration,
inventing the tunes on his flute, while Walther
noted them down. Luther used also to discuss
the eight Church Tones ; giving the Epistle to
the 8th Tone, and the Gospel to the 6th.
'For,' said he, 'Christ is a gentle Lord, and
His words are lovely ; therefore let us take the
6th Tone for the Gospel ; and since St. Paul is
a grave apostle, we will set the Epistle to the
8th Tone.' The result of these labours was
the publication of the ' Order of the German
Mass,' which contained the following alterations.
Instead of the introit there was ordered to be
sung a hymn or German psalm (' Ich will den
Herrn loben, ' or ' Meine Seele soil sich rlihmen ').
Then followed the Kyrie Eleison, sung three
times (instead of nine). After the Collect and
Epistle a German hymn ('Nun bitten wir den
heil'gen Geist,' or another) was sung, and after
the Gospel, instead of the Latin Creed, the
German ('Wir glauben all"). The sermon then
followed, and after this a paraphrase of the
Lord's Prayer, and the Exhortation to Communicants.
After the Consecration, was sung
*Jesaia dem Propheten,' Huss's hymn 'Jesus
Christus, unser Heiland,' or ' Christe, du Lamm
Gottes.' This form of service was first used
on Christmas Day, 1524, in the parish church of
Wittenberg, but it was not published until the
following year. It is evident that while introducing
a more popular element into the music
of the Mass, Luther did not despise the singing
of a trained choir. In the ' Vermahnung zum
Gebet wider den Tiirken ' (1541) he says:
' I rejoice to let the 79th Psalm, " God, the
heathen are come," be sung as usual, one choir
after another. Accordingly, let one sweet- voiced
boy step before the desk in his choir and sing
alone the antiphon or sentence " Domine, ne
secundum," and after him let another boy sing
the other sentence, "Domine, ne memineris " ;
and then let the whole choir sing on their knees,
'
' Adjuva nos, Deus, " just as it was in the Popish
Fasts, for it sounds and looks very devotional.'
At the same time that he was engaged in arranging
the German Mass, Luther was turning his
attention to writing and adapting hymns to be
sung during the service. In 1524 he wrote to
his friend, George Spalatin, 'I wish, after the
example of the Prophets and ancient Fathers of
the Church, to make German psalms for the
people, that is to say, sacred hymns, so that the
word of God may dwell among the people by
means of song also.' In the same year (1524)
thefirstProtestanthymn-bookappeared :
' Etlich
christliohe Lyeder Lobgesang und Psalm dem
reinen AVort Gottes gemess auss der h. gschriift
durch mancherlay Hochgelerter gemacht, in der
Kirchen zu singen, wie es den zum tail bereyt
zu Wittenburg in yebung ist. Witenburg,
1524.' It is not certain whether Luther actually
arranged this book ; it contains only eight
hymns (four of which are by him), and five
tunes. During the same year several other col-
lections appeared, and their number increased so
rapidly that space forbids the insertion of a list
of even those that were published during Luther's
lifetime. Scattered through these ditlerent collections
there is great difficulty in deciding what
hymns are really Luther's, and what are merely
adaptations ; the lists given at the end of this
article have been compiled chiefly from Koch's
Geschichte des Kirchenlieds, etc. (Stuttgart,
1866-1877). The immediate popularity which
these early Protestant hymns attained was
immense ; they were taught in the schools,
and carried through the country by wandering
scholars, until his enemies declared that Luther
had destroyed more souls by his hymns than by
his writings and speeches. On June 11, 1525,
Luther was married to Catherine von Bora,
formerly a nun at Nimptsch in Saxony. This
marriage proved a most happy connection, and
the letters of his friendsabound with descriptions
of the domestic felicity to which it gave rise.
We are told that after supper he used to sing
motets and hymns with his children and friends,
his favourite composers being Senfl and Josquin
des Pres, the works of the latter of whom he
particularly admired. Luther possessed a fine
deep voice, and played both the flute and lute,
the latter so well as to attract the attention of
passers-by as he journeyed to Worms. It has
been said that he wrote motets himself, but there
is no proof of this, and it is probably a mistake
arising from the existence, in the Munich Library,
of a collection of motets with a preface by the
Reformer. In 1 538 Luther wrote a short treatise
in praise of music ; a poem by him on the same
subject (entitled ' Frau Musika' ) also exists, and
may be found in the Leipziger Allgnn-cine ifusikalische
Zeitung for 1811. The latter years of
Luther's life were principally spent at Witten-
berg, but he died at Eisleben, on Feb. 18,
1546. He was buried in the Schloss-Kirche at
W ittenberg ; his greatest hymn, ' Ein' feste
Burg, ' being sung over his grave.
The following Is a list of Hymns, the words
of which were written or arranged by Luther,