The Hymns and Small Cathechism | Page 8

and myself, to consult with him as to the character and
the proper notation of the Eight Tones; and he finally himself decided
to appropriate the Eighth Tone to the Epistle and the Sixth Tone to the
Gospel, speaking on this wise: Our Lord Christ is a good Friend, and
his words are full of love; so we will take the Sixth Tone for the Gospel.
And since Saint Paul is a very earnest apostle we will set the Eighth
Tone to the Epistle. So he himself made the notes over the Epistles, and
the Gospels, and the Words of Institution of the true Body and Blood of
Christ, and sung them over to me to get my judgment thereon. He kept
me three weeks long at Wittenberg, to write out the notes over some of
the Gospels and Epistles, until the first German Mass was sung in the
parish church. And I must needs stay to hear it, and take with me a
copy of the Mass to Torgau and present it to His Grace the Elector from
Doctor Luther.
"Furthermore, he gave orders to re-establish the Vespers, which in
many places were fallen into disuse, with short plain choral hymns for
the students and boys; withal, that the charity-scholars, collecting their
bread, should sing from door to door Latin Hymns, Anthems and
Responses, appropriate to the season. It was no satisfaction to him that
the scholars should sing in the streets nothing but German songs....The
most profitable songs for the common multitude are the plain psalms
and hymns, both Luther's and the earlier ones; but the Latin songs are
useful for the learned and for students. We see, and hear, and clearly
apprehend how the Holy Ghost himself wrought not only in the authors
of the Latin hymns, but also in Luther, who in our time has had the
chief part both in writing the German choral hymns, and in setting them
to tunes; as may be seen, among others in the German Sanctus (Jesaia
dem Propheten das geschah) how masterly and well he has fitted all the

notes to the text, according to the just accent and concent. At the time, I
was moved by His Grace to put the question how or where he had got
this composition, or this instruction; whereupon the dear man laughed
at my simplicity, and said: I learned this of the poet Virgil, who has the
power so artfully to adapt his verses and his words to the story he is
telling; in like manner must Music govern all its notes and melodies by
the text."5
It seems superfluous to add to this testimony the word of Sleidan, the
nearly contemporary historian, who says expressly concerning "Ein'
feste Burg" that Luther made for it a tune singularly suited to the words,
and adapted to stir the heart.6 If ever there were hymn and tune that
told their own story of a common and simultaneous origin, without
need of confirmation by external evidence, it is these.
To an extent quite without parallel in the history of music, the power of
Luther's tunes, as well as of his words, is manifest after three centuries,
over the masters of the art, as well as over the common people.
Peculiarly is thistrue of the great song Ein' feste Burg, which Heine not
vainly predicted would again be heard in Europe in like manner as of
old. The composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries practised
their elaborate artifices upon it. The supreme genius of Sebastian Bach
made it the subject of study.7 And in our own times it has been used
with conspicuous effect in Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony, in
an overture by Raff, in the nobleFestouverture of Nicolai, and in
Wagner's Kaisermarsch; and is introduced with recurring emphasis in
Meyerbeer's masterpiece of The Huguenots.
It is needless to say that the materials of this Birth- day Edition of
Luther's Hymns and Tunes have been prepared in profusion by the
diligence of German scholars. But very thankful acknowledgments are
also due to English translators, who have made this work possible
within the very scanty time allotted to it. Full credit is given in the table
of contents for the help derived from these various translators. But the
exigencies of this volume were peculiarly sever, inasmuch as the
translation was to be printed over against the original, and also under
the music. Not even Mr. Richard Massie's careful work would always

bear this double test; so that I have found myself compelled, in most
cases, to give up the attempt to follow any translation exactly; and in
some instances have reluctantly attempted a wholly new version. The
whole credit of the musical editorship belongs to my accomplished
associate, Mr. Nathan H. Allen, without whose ready resource and
earnest labor