The Hymns of Martin Luther


Book Description

Collection of 38 hymns and chants widely credited to Martin Luther. Includes piano accompaniment and brief notes about the origin of each hymn.










Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation


Book Description

Over the first four decades of the Reformation, hundreds of songs written in popular styles and set to well-known tunes appeared across the German territories. These polemical songs included satires on the pope or on Martin Luther, ballads retelling historical events, translations of psalms and musical sermons. They ranged from ditties of one strophe to didactic Lieder of fifty or more. Luther wrote many such songs and this book contends that these songs, and the propagandist ballads they inspired, had a greater effect on the German people than Luther’s writings or his sermons. Music was a major force of propaganda in the German Reformation. Rebecca Wagner Oettinger examines a wide selection of songs and the role they played in disseminating Luther’s teachings to a largely non-literate population, while simultaneously spreading subversive criticism of Catholicism. These songs formed an intersection for several forces: the comfortable familiarity of popular music, historical theories on the power of music, the educational beliefs of sixteenth-century theologians and the need for sense of community and identity during troubled times. As Oettinger demonstrates, this music, while in itself simple, provides us with a new understanding of what most people in sixteenth-century Germany knew of the Reformation, how they acquired their knowledge and the ways in which they expressed their views about it. With full details of nearly 200 Lieder from this period provided in the second half of the book, Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation is both a valuable investigation of music as a political and religious agent and a useful resource for future research.




Luther's Spirituality


Book Description

In inclusive and contemporary translations, this volume introduces the reader to the rich complex of issues that Luther contributes to the history of spirituality




The Whole Church Sings


Book Description

The whole church sings : congregational singing in Luther's Wittenberg by Robin A. Leaver (2017).




Music in Martin Luther's Theology


Book Description

The study aims to analyse the impact of Luther's theology on his thoughts about music. It limits itself to an analysis of the topic by focusing on the three most important statements of Luther about music in his unfinished treatise Περι της μουσικης [On Music]. The first statement is that music is "a gift of God and not of man" [Dei donum hominum est], second, music "creates joyful soul" [facit letos animos], and third, music "drives away the devil" [fugat diabolum]. The relation between these three statements to each other and to Luther's theology in general can be understood in connection with his personal experiences and commitments to music, which were undergirded by his theology. Luther, as a man of medieval times, took for granted the existence of the devil, and many of his writings contained frequent references to the personal attacks of the devil, where it influenced his thoughts about music.




Luther's Liturgical Music


Book Description

Martin Luther's relationship to music has been largely downplayed, yet music played a vital role in Luther's life -- and he in turn had a deep and lasting effect on Christian hymnody. In Luther's Liturgical Music Robin Leaver comprehensively explores these connections. Replete with tables, figures, and musical examples, this volume is the most extensive study on Luther and music ever published. Leaver's work makes a formidable contribution to Reformation studies, but worship leaders, musicians, and others will also find it an invaluable, very readable resource.