[20] Mattähus Ratzenberger, in a passage of his biography preserved in
the _Bibliotheca Ducalis Gothana_, says: "Lutherus had also this
custom: as soon as he had eaten the evening meal with his table
companions he would fetch out of his little writing-room his _partes_
and hold a _musicam_ with those of them who had a mind for music.
Greatly was he delighted when a good composition of the old master
fitted the responses or _hymnos de tempore anni_, and especially did
he enjoy the _cantu Gregoriana_ and chorale. But if at times he
perceived in a new song that it was incorrectly copied he set it again
upon the lines (that is, he brought the parts together and rectified
it _in continenti_). Right gladly did he join in the singing when
_hymnus_ or _responsorium de tempore_ had been set by the _Musicus_ to
a _Cantum Gregorianum_, as we have said, and his young sons, Martinus
and Paulus, had also after table to sing the _responsoria de tempore_,
as at Christmas, _Verbum caro factum est_, _In principio erat verbum_;
at Easter, _Christus resurgens ex mortuis_, _Vita sanctorum_, _Victimæ
paschali laudes_, etc. In these _responsoria_ he always sang along
with his sons, and in _cantu figurali_ he sang the alto."
The alto which Luther sang must not be confounded with the alto part
of to-day. Here it means the _cantus firmus_, the melody around which
the old composers wove their contrapuntal ornamentation.
Luther was the creator of German congregational singing.
[21] Luther's first poetic publication seems to have been certain
verses composed on the martyrdom of two young Christian monks, who
were burned alive at Brussels in 1523 for their faithful confession of
the evangelical doctrines. A translation of a part of this composition
is given in D'Aubigné's _History of the Reformation_ in these
beautiful and stirring words:
"Flung to the heedless winds or on the waters cast,
Their ashes shall be watched, and gathered at the last;
And from that scattered dust, around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed of witnesses for God.
"Jesus hath now received their latest living breath,
Yet vain is Satan's boast of victory in their death.
Still, still, though dead, they speak, and trumpet-tongued proclaim
To many a wakening land the One availing Name."
Audin, though a Romanist, says: "The hymns which he translated from
the Latin into German may be unreservedly praised, as also those which
he composed for the members of his own communion. He did not travesty
the sacred Word nor set his anger to music. He is grave, simple,
solemn, and grand. He was at once the poet and musician of a great
number of his hymns."