"Vater unser im Himmelreich" (Our father in Heaven) is
a Lutheran hymn in German by Martin Luther. He wrote
the paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer in 1538,
corresponding to his explanation of the prayer in his
Kleiner Katechismus (Small Catechism). He dedicated one
stanza to each of the seven petitions and framed it
with an opening and a closing stanza, each stanza in
six lines. Luther revised the text several times, as
extant manuscript show, concerned to clarify and
improve it. He chose and possi...(+)
"Vater unser im Himmelreich" (Our father in Heaven) is
a Lutheran hymn in German by Martin Luther. He wrote
the paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer in 1538,
corresponding to his explanation of the prayer in his
Kleiner Katechismus (Small Catechism). He dedicated one
stanza to each of the seven petitions and framed it
with an opening and a closing stanza, each stanza in
six lines. Luther revised the text several times, as
extant manuscript show, concerned to clarify and
improve it. He chose and possibly adapted an older
anonymous melody, which was possibly associated with
secular text, after he had first selected a different
one. Other hymn versions of the Lord's Prayer from the
16th and 20th-century have adopted the same tune, known
as "Vater unser" and "Old 112th".
The hymn was published in Leipzig in 1539 in Valentin
Schumann's hymnal Gesangbuch (Hymnal, literally: song
book), with a title explaining "The Lord's Prayer
briefly expounded and turned into metre". It was likely
first published as a broadsheet.
The hymn was translated into English in several
versions, for example "Our Father, Lord of Heaven and
Earth" by Henry J. de Jong in 1982. In the current
German hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch (EG) it is
number 344.
According to the Württemberg Order of Church Services
from 1536, it was permissible on church holidays to
sing before the sermon as a replacement for the usual
one or two Psalm chorales, “Leisen” like “Gelobet
seist du, Jesu Christ,” “Christ ist erstanden,”
etc., while after the sermon Luther’s Credo could
also be sung as a replacement. In the communion portion
of the main church service, the “Our Father” was
sung by the congregation, most often in the form of
Luther’s “Vater unser im Himmelreich”, which at
first was treated in Middle and North Germany as an
instructive catechism chorale and only later assumed
its position as a chorale associated with the Epistle
for the Sunday Rogate, while other chorales sung during
communion were the same as those in the Wittenberg
region.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgelb%C3%BCchlein).
Although originally created for Organ, I created this
Interpretation of Choral Prelude (BWV 737) "Heut
triumphieret Gottes Sohn" (Today the Son of God
triumphs) for Brass Quartet (Bb Trumpet, Flugelhorn,
French Horn & F Tuba).
