The hymns of Martin Luther became the songs of the moment, first published on broadsheets like a newsletter and circulated among the populace. Their virtue was the ability to be memorized and not depend upon the printed form. In 1524, some enterprising printers put together the first Lutheran collection of hymns. They were followed by counterparts in Nürnberg, Augsburg, and Erfurt and, yes, Wittenberg. There the Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn appeared with Luther’s own preface the same year. Luther himself promoted and continued to work with evangelical musicians and composers such as Johann Gottfried Walter until five years later the first Wittenberg hymnal had been expanded, revised, and augmented. New editions appeared in 1533, 1535, and 1543, the Begräbnisgesänge (burial hymns) of 1542, and the 1545 Geystliche Lieder (published in Leipzig by Valentin Babst with 129 hymns including forty-five by Luther himself).
After Luther died, Lutheran hymnals continued to be written and published with Luther's own name on the title page to remind the readers of Luther's approval of the hymn and chorale. By 1569, the Nürnberg hymnal published by Valentin Fuhrman had swelled to 213 hymns and in thirty years it increased by another 125 hymns. These were largely entrepreneurial ventures instead of authorized productions just as with other kinds of Lutheran literature. During the sixteenth century alone, these printers published some 192 editions of the complete German Bible printed, 252 of the New Testament alone, 330 printings of the Small Catechism, and Lutheran prayer books together appeared in 373 editions and some 1,500 Lutheran hymn editions.
The first Wittenberg hymnal of 1524 had four-part settings of Luther’s hymns and was intended for school use, in order to “give the young . . . something to wean them away from love ballads and carnal songs and to teach them something of value in their place.” In addition to the role of the choirs in leading the liturgy in general, the weekday offices of Matins and Vespers were the particular province of the schoolboys, who were supplied with the ancient Latin hymns as well as new Lutheran ones by Philip Melanchthon and his students. The classes were in Latin but the boys sang in both Latin and in German. From 1529 onward, Lutheran hymnals contained a section of “catechism hymns.” Beginning with his hymns on the Ten Commandments and the Creed, Luther composed hymns corresponding to each part of the Small Catechism. These were expanded in the next generations with Nicolaus Herman’s hymn on absolution (“ ‘As Surely as I Live,’ God Said,” LSB 614) and Ludwig Helmbold’s summary of the entire catechism (“Lord, Help Us Ever to Retain,” LSB 865). These hymns were the means by which students memorized and understood the Catechism and they were sung in the Sunday afternoon catechism preaching services.
Today we tend to use the Lutheran hymnals as less devotional tool and resource for the home than as instrument for corporate worship. This is to our poverty, to be sure. Furthermore, the practice of printing out hymns (and omitting stanzas) as well as putting the music on screens only distances the people from the ordinary uses of the Lutheran hymnals in the home and within the devotional life of the individual. But the Lutheran hymnal is not a relic of the past; it is still very much a profound and effective tool for learning, expressing, and finding comfort in the faith. Our own Lutheran Service Book is not old but is will soon turn 20 years of age and, as it takes nearly a decade to produce a new or revised book, it will continue to service us for another decade or more. That said, the hymnals of today need to find a medium between change for change's sake and failing to change until it makes change nearly impossible. Lutherans should not be afraid of a new hymnal just as Lutherans should make sure that, as Norman Nagel once wrote, we preserve the best of the past while adding our own best, thus renewing what is old and discerning the value of what is new.
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