The First Lutheran Hymnals of 1524

The year 2024 marks the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Lutheran hymnal. During the winter of 1523/24 Luther and his colleagues in Wittenberg began expressing their theology in poetry and music. Like contemporary news ballads the early Lutheran hymns were first circulated from Wittenb...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Leaver, Robin A. 1939-2020 (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: The Johns Hopkins University Press 2023
In: Lutheran quarterly
Year: 2023, Volume: 37, Issue: 4, Pages: 373-406
IxTheo Classification:KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance
KBB German language area
KDD Protestant Church
RD Hymnology
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Summary:The year 2024 marks the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Lutheran hymnal. During the winter of 1523/24 Luther and his colleagues in Wittenberg began expressing their theology in poetry and music. Like contemporary news ballads the early Lutheran hymns were first circulated from Wittenberg on single printed sheets, which were reprinted by printers in other towns and cities. One of them, Jobst Gutknecht of Nuremberg, reprinted a collection of eight of the early Wittenberg hymns, thus creating the first Lutheran hymnal, the Achtliederbuch (Eight Song Book). Later the same year, 1524, two different hymnals with similar contents were published in Erfurt. Like Gutknecht's Achtliederbuch the twenty-five hymns they contain were reprinted from single sheet Wittenberg broadsides. Towards the end of 1524 a set of part-books were published in Wittenberg with Walter's polyphonic settings of hymns mostly by Luther, who also provided a preface. Luther's close connection to the project has accorded the collection a kind of foundational status as the primary Wittenberg hymnal of 1524. However, there is evidence-explored in this article-that there must have a been a basic Wittenberg collection of thirty-two primary hymns that pre-date both Walter's part-books for choirs, and the 1524 hymnal specifically issued for the Wittenberg congregations.
ISSN:2470-5616
Contains:Enthalten in: Lutheran quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/lut.2023.a911858