Lutheran Chorale

The Lutheran chorale is a strophic German hymn designed for congregational singing in four-part harmony, with the melody (cantus firmus) in the soprano and supporting voices below. Tunes are square-rhythmed and memorable so that an entire assembly can sustain them without a trained choir. Bach's Leipzig cantatas, his Passions and his organ chorale preludes elaborate hundreds of these tunes — sometimes harmonizing them simply, sometimes embedding them inside fugues, ornaments and orchestral commentary. Texts are theologically dense in a way that congregational singing in many other traditions is not.

Luther and his musical collaborators, especially Johann Walter, began publishing German-language chorale books in 1524, deliberately co-opting popular tunes and Gregorian melodies so that ordinary believers could sing the faith in their own language. The chorale became central to Lutheran liturgy and to domestic devotional life across the German-speaking lands. Bach's tenure as cantor at Leipzig's Thomaskirche (1723-1750) produced the highest artistic flowering of the form, but chorales continued to be written and harmonized through the 19th and 20th centuries by composers including Brahms, Reger and Distler.

On a plain hymn singing recording, listen to how the soprano carries the tune and the lower three voices move mostly stepwise to support it — the result is harmony almost free of leaps. In Bach's cantatas the same chorale may appear in two radically different settings, one simple and one ornate; comparing them is the quickest way to grasp his art. Following the German text against a translation reveals how harmonic color tracks theology line by line.

Hear the congregational template first in 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott' sung by the Thomanerchor of Leipzig, then move to Bach's elaborate setting of 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme' (BWV 140, 1731). 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' from BWV 147 (1723) is the gentlest gateway to Bach's chorale writing.

Luther was an enthusiastic amateur musician and is credited as the author of both the text and the melody of 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott'. He famously described music as a gift of God second only to theology, and treated singing as a primary tool for religious education.