Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein, the first Lutheran choral from the first collection of Protestant hymns – a rhetorical analysis

Abstract

This material is an extract from a larger research of Lutheran chorals, focusing on the first collection of Protestant hymns, published after the Reformation, Etlich Cristlich lider (Achtliederbuch - The Book of Eight Songs), signed by Martin Luther, Paul Speratus and Justus Jonas. Beyond the general considerations related to the place and year of publication, but also to the inner construction of the collection, the analysis focuses on the first hymn composed by Luther, original both as text and as music. The rhetorical perspective I approached in the study of chorals is not arbitrary, given the impact of Luther's vision of music for that period and the attention he himself paid to classical rhetoric in his sermons, or in the courses he taught at the University of Wittenberg. His chorals are impregnated with explicit messages, both in terms of his Christian creed, but also in terms of elementary principles of Christian living.