Songs of Reformation

Martin Luther's music evokes a great theologian who was a great artist | Gene Edward Veith

On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, igniting the Reformation. Now, for the first time, those of us living nearly 500 years later can do something almost no one has done before: listen to all of Luther's musical compositions. That comes to 39 songs, nearly four hours of music.

It is possible that Luther's wife Katie and some of the folks at Wittenberg heard it all, but only now can we take it all in at once and fully appreciate Luther's greatness as a musical artist.

For the record, Luther did not take "bar tunes" and put biblical words to them. That legend comes from a comical misunderstanding. Someone apparently heard a music historian referring to Luther's use of the "bar form," which refers to a stanza structure, not to what drunks sing in a tavern. Luther did borrow and adapt tunes from earlier hymns, medieval chants, and contemporary composers, but a good number of his melodies were his own original compositions.