When the word gets around that one is working on the hymnal project of a church body, inquiry and suggestion flow freely from all sides. “I hope you’re going to put in some happy hymns!” “How about some hymns of social significance?” “What we need is some hymns with a beat.” “Surely you aren’t going to keep all those dreary chorales!” “We ought to have some hymns on the folksong pattern.” “Give us some hymns that will appeal to the Shehans and the Doughertys in the church rather than just catering to the Germans!” “Are you going to have all those doctrinal things in the hymnal? I feel like crying when I have to sing some of the hymns because of the doctrine they teach!” “Will they take out all our old favorites?” “I hope you are going to dump those junky ditties that some people call hymns!” “Will it still be a Lutheran hymnal?”

Perhaps this last is the basic question which should be examined by any and all Lutherans interested in their church’s worship life. Is there something which makes a hymnal and/or service book distinctly Lutheran? Is there any value to having a distinctively Lutheran service book and hymnal? If not, there certainly would be no sense in wasting money to edit and publish a separate hymnal with its worship aids. The churches could then buy whatever hymnal best suited their desires and use the extra funds to evangelize the world for Christ! Doubtlessly there are Lutheran Christians who feel exactly this way. But what about this question? What does make a hymnal and service book Lutheran?

First of all, the doctrine set forth in the hymn texts and the liturgical texts should immediately show this to be a Lutheran book. Writing in The Hymn, Ruth Ellis Messenger—a non-Lutheran—says that the hymnologist may not

evade the theological issue which from the beginning has controlled and regulated the choice of hymns suitable for worship. It does so today. From the thousands of hymn texts which have been written since 1600, editorial censorship must select those consonant with the theological preferences of the group in question. . . . No greater obligation rests upon the hymnologist who is called to the editorial function than this. Its urgency is measured by the layman’s willingness to appropriate the theology of his hymns as an authentic expression of religious belief.^[1]

There seems to be a growing movement which would rule out doctrine as a factor in Lutheran hymnody, holding that the hymnal should contain only such texts as are doxological (where God is concerned) or speak to the existential needs with which the worshiper must cope in daily life. This attitude seems to find its roots in the desire for ecumenical appeal, a striving for the lowest common theological denominators rather than a conscious endeavor to raise the theological sights of the Christians in the pew.^[2]

In the light of the foregoing, it is most refreshing to hear Luther D. Reed tell The Hymn Society of America:

If Luther were a member of The Hymn Society today, he would not be particularly interested in polished verses and pleasing tunes. Content would be more important to him than form. He would recognize the claims of beauty as well as those of truth and goodness, and he would welcome the ministry of art in worship. But he would also be deeply interested in every expression, whether particularly artistic or not, of positive Christian faith. He would appreciate as he always did the noble tradition of liturgical worship enriched and empowered by great music. But he would insist upon an emphasis in Christian worship upon essential Christianity, a body of belief which rests firmly upon Scriptural foundations.

Thus we see that the essential strength of Luther’s work in this field is not to be found in the inspiration of a new idea, the quality of his gifts as poet and composer, or the force of personal leadership or national influence. It lies in the depth of his faith in God and his Pauline conception of the divine plan of salvation.

Luther was one of the world’s greatest figures because he was a great Christian, a humble believer in the truth of God’s Holy Word, a consecrated minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.^[3]

Martin Britt, O. S. B., notes also that hymnody is one of the best ways to convey doctrine, to have it sung by the average believer. “St. Ambrose began the writing of hymns as a means of combatting the pernicious doctrines of the Arians. His hymns were used to convey correct Catholic doctrine to the mind and hearts of his people.”^[4] It should be noted that Ambrose found it extremely necessary to fight his theological adversaries on their own grounds. The Arians were using hymnody to sing their heterodox faith into the hearts and minds of Christians, and Ambrose merely turned their own methods against them—meanwhile giving to the church a doctrinal treasury in poetic form. It is quite generally recognized that the same situation obtained in the days of the Lutheran Reformation with the doctrinal repristination spreading as much by singing as by preaching.^[5]

And what was the medium by which this Gospel doctrine was sung into the hearts and lives of the Lutheran faithful? The oft-decried chorale in its true form was the chosen vehicle. Not the straight-jacketed isometrical tune divorced from its essential text nor the elaborately embellished harmonizations but the simple tune with its clear-speaking text carried the doctrinal impact of the hymn. To be sure, there are Lutherans who declaim against using the Lutheran chorale in a hymnal for mid-twentieth-century American churches. And yet we find non-Lutherans rejoicing in the availability of just this hymnody for today’s church.

Within the present century, attributes of worship belonging to a number of national, or linguistic, traditions have been recognized and welcomed by the hymnologist. Naturalized by translation into English, the hymnody of other modern languages has been introduced. Had we received only the German chorales with their musical settings, we would have been rich . . .^[6]

Pathfinder, a national news magazine no longer published, a number of years ago quoted Episcopalian T. Tertius Noble as saying:

All bad music is not secular . . . Contrasted with the chorales of the 16th and 17th centuries, destined to live forever, are the bad “jingle” hymns.^[7]

Taking only the hymns of Paul Gerhardt as an example, John J. Johansen notes that his

hymns have a popular appeal because he understood the people; not because he put the teachings of Christian truth into verse but because he had absorbed the Gospel into his innermost being and then reproduced it in poetic form in the language of the people as his own experience and his own possession. He is subjective only in the sense that his hymns are a personal confession of a universal truth. . . .

The length of Gerhardt’s hymns, as those of other German hymn writers, has no doubt caused his hymns to be less used in English than otherwise might have been the case. It ought to be remembered that this feature of German hymnody is due to the practice of dividing a hymn into verses for use throughout a service. The result has been that English books in accommodating these hymns have had to keep in mind the different customs here. This has, however, caused abbreviations and revisions that have weakened the original power and beauty of many of the hymns.^[8]

Indeed, it must be realized that the chorale as found in all too many of today’s hymnals is not the same chorale that the poet and the composer knew. As a result, the cry goes up from many sides for a freer type of music than this longwinded stuff. And yet it is to be remembered that the chorale has been edited into museumpiece status. Edward Dickinson quite rightly says that

there was far more variety and life in the primitive chorale, the movement was more flexible, and the frequent groups of notes to a single syllable imparted a buoyancy and warmth that are unknown to the rigid modern form.^[9]

The church should give serious consideration to Louis F. Benson’s plea—and remember that this was a Presbyterian speaking—that “the German chorales need to be restored to their original rhythms before we discard them as dull and heavy!”^[10] It is, perhaps, this unawareness of the original version of the Lutheran chorale which is behind the cry for hymns in the folksong tradition and for hymns with more rhythm.

Take a look at the three musical examples given below and note their similarity in pattern and rhythm despite their belonging to three supposedly different musical schools of thought.

Click here for music example A.

Click here for music example B.

Click here for music example C.

And now compare melodies B and C with their modern-day counterparts to see how their identity has been altered with a resultant loss for the singing worshiper. Melody B is the plainsong tune Divinum Mysterium, which is used as a musical vehicle for Prudentius’s great Christmas text Corde natus ex parentis. In the Common Service Book with Hymnal the first tune for No. 20 gives the melody as arranged by Sir John Stainer, where considerable liberty has been taken with the melodic line.

Click here for music example D.

The Lutheran Hymnal, at No. 98, claims to have restored the original rhythm to this melody^[11] and yet mutilates the melodic line.

Click here for music example E.

In the Service Book and Hymnal No. 17 brings two settings for this melody; the first by the late Canon Winfred Douglas, is in agreement with the original form of melody B, but setting two again takes unwarranted liberties with the rhythm in Ernest White’s arrangement.

Click here for music example F.

Melody C is, of course, the great chorale Christ lag in Todesbanden, based on the 11th- or 12th-century melody Christ ist erstanden—one of the earliest of the Leisen, or extra-liturgical texts, permitted for use by the people in the medieval church service on special occasions. Note how the very life of the melody has been squeezed out by putting it into a “nonsyncopated” format in CSB, No. 110, and SBH, No. 98 (first tune).

Click here for music example G.

Folksong quality^[12] in chorales is lost when the chorale is edited radically and, in some cases, prejudiciously. This can quite readily be seen in the case of the melody Komm, heiliger Geist Herre Gott.

Click here for music example H.

Now note how the melody has been altered in order to fit the requirements of the Winkworth translation, which has eight syllables in all lines — actually in Long Meter Double — rather than adapting the translation to agree with the melodic flow.

Click here for music example I.

Note also that although Luther had eight syllables per line for his German text as his pattern, his last line before the alleluia in each instance was one of nine syllables. The arrangement of the German text permits a shifting of melodic stress which is not readily available to English versions, hence one finds that Luther’s

O Herr, durch deines Lichtes Glast
Zu dem Glauben versammelt hast
Das Volk aus aller Welt Zungen;
Das sei dir, Herr, zu Lob gesungen!

was rendered in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book as

Lord, by the brightness of Thy light
Thou in the faith dost men unite
Of ev’ry tongue and ev’ry nation;
We, therefore, sing with exultation:

while the editors of The Lutheran Hymnal felt compelled to alter the latter two lines to read

Of ev’ry land and ev’ry tongue;
This to Thy praise, O Lord, our God, be sung.

And yet both versions conform more closely to Luther’s original musical concept than does Winkworth’s original English rendering:

Thy light this day shone forth so clear,
All tongues and nations gather’d near,
To learn that faith, for which we bring
Glad praise to Thee, and loudly sing,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!^[13]

The virile character of the chorale’s melodic message is often lost through editorial handling of the music. As was definitely the case with plainsong, to which the church had long been accustomed, so the chorale of the Reformation era was intended to be the united voice of the church agreeing in unison in its praise unto the Lord who created, redeemed, and sanctified her members. A good case in point is Luther’s vigorous original melody line for Ein’ feste Burg.

Click here for music example J.

The church then went into a period in which her music was not fully written out except for the accompaniment, it being understood that the cantus firmus ought to be so well known that the musician needed no full score to guide him for the melody line. As a result, during the time of Bach and Handel embellishment of the melodic line had become the order of the day—with the musician’s native abilities becoming almost the sole limitation on what might be done to the chorale’s “enhancement” under the improvising hand of the artist. This was true not only of instrumental music but of the vocal rendition as well. Hence it is not exactly fair to charge Bach with having altered the melodic line of the chorale, since he was merely following the custom of his musical times. But when we make use of Bach’s settings for the chorales, we ought to remember that what has come down to us in most instances represents not his arrangement for congregational, that is, unison, singing but rather settings designed for choir. Thus the setting so often used in hymnals and ascribed to Bach is not a fair representation of the chorale. And it is to be noted that the rugged, living quality of Luther’s original has been flattened out. Someone once compared the two versions to a stream of water. In Luther’s original, the chorale is a mountain stream leaping from crag to crag as it is highlighted by white waters, and then having reached the broad plain it becomes the majestic smooth-flowing river of the Bach setting—still beautiful but lacking in essential character.

Click here for music example K.

A further loss of characteristic vigor is noted when one listens to Luther’s melody as adapted by Felix Mendelssohn for his Reformation Symphony, where Samson’s locks are shorn and he has been enslaved by strict isometrical chains. One must look or listen very closely to recognize in

Click here for music example L.

the original Luther chorale.

A return to the rhythmic form of the Lutheran chorale will do much to restore this worthy vehicle as the readily comprehended and appreciated carrier of doctrine. It will go far toward answering the clamor for music with “a beat” and for hymnody in the folksong tradition. However, one must not stop at this juncture and feel that the whole problem of what makes it Lutheran has been solved. Even as the flow of Christian doctrine has not been limited to one national school of teachers, so the church must not limit herself to just one musical format. The chorale is only one form, albeit a very vital one, through which the Lutheran understanding of the Christian message is to be carried in song. There are other possible musical media available to the church. But one criterion must never be forgotten when selecting musical settings to carry the Lord’s message and the church’s response to that Gospel, namely, the melody must be worthy of the message it is to convey!

Many people are deeply concerned over what they term their “old favorites” where hymnody is discussed. All too often they seem to forget that the music is not the total hymnic picture. If it is true that the melody must be worthy of the message to be conveyed, it is even more basic that the message must be worth conveying! Superficiality and sentimentality have no place in a deep-rooted faith which confesses what God has done for mankind through His Son Jesus and what God expects from His believers in return for this grace. Hence it is most refreshing to read Charles Merrill Smith’s tongue-in-cheek remarks on what makes a good church hymn—in which he satirizes sentimental subjectivity in both text and tune.^[14]The Lutheran Christian will recognize as part of his own spiritual heritage those texts and melodies which clearly depict the real vitality of the Christian confession—faith which is grounded in the Christian Evangel and demonstrated in the Christian life—regardless of the source whence such texts and melodies arise, for they are Lutheran without being so labeled. But they must evince such qualities, or they have no place in a Lutheran hymnal or service book.

Cited References and Notes

1. Ruth Ellis Messenger, “Hymnology: Handmaiden of Worship,” The Hymn, Vol. 6, No. 2 (April 1955), pp. 66f. Quotations from The Hymn are by permission of The Hymn Society of America.
2. A good case in point is given in Una Sancta, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 23f., q. v., for a fuller delineation of this ideology.
3. Luther D. Reed, “Luther and Congregational Song,” The Papers of The Hymn Society of America, XII (1947), last three paragraphs—used by permission.
4. Introduction to his The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (New York: Benziger Bros., 1924), p. 21.
5. Millar Patrick, “Congregational Song,” The Hymn, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 8f., notes that “in the church” the people in the pew “were silenced until the Reformation restored their voices to them. It is true to say that multitudes of people sang themselves into the Reformation; such was their relief and joy at being allowed, in their own right, to lift up their own voices in the church’s praise of God.”
6. Messenger, p. 66.
7. Pathfinder Magazine, Oct. 16, 1944, p. 23.
8. John J. Johansen, “Paul Gerhardt (1607–76), Poet of Consolation,” The Hymn, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 86f.
9. Edward Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923), p. 263.
10. Louis F. Benson, The Hymnody of the Christian Church (New York: Doran, 1927), p. 272.
11. William Gustave Polack, The Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), p. 81.
12. Example A above is the well-known English folksong:
    Early one morning just as the sun was rising
    I heard a maid sing in the valley below:
    O don’t deceive me! O never leave me!
    How could you use a poor maiden so!
13. Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica: Translated from the German, First Series, 2d ed. (London: Longmans, Green, 1855).
14. Charles Merrill Smith, How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1965), pp. 78–87.

From The Musical Heritage of the Church, Volume VII (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1970). Copyright Concordia Publishing House. Printed by permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Concordia Publishing House.