A Mighty Fortress/ EIN’ FESTE BURG
  • JazFenn
    Posts: 21
    Is Ein’ Feste Burg appropriate for Mass, considering its historical implications? Theologically it’s fine, musically as well. But being the anthem of Lutheranism….?
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,695
    I will respond with an anecdote from 1970/71ish:

    My father's four grandparents were all from deeply Catholic parts of Germany, and they helped establish the German national parish in Bridgeport CT, a parish whose congregants sang hymns with enthusiasm (and High Masses were well attended as well, unlike the Irish-Catholic churches where High Mass was experienced as the penalty for sleeping in on Sundays).

    I was with my father in the front row (the penalty box for most Catholics back then, essentially left open for latecomers; except we were invariably among the very first to arrive - because, in German-American culture, if you're on time, you're late...). At some point, it was announced we would sing AMFIOG from the music section of the Monthly MIssalette, heretofore never heard in our parish. My father sang with gusto, and encouraged me to join him (he was a model of singing Catholic fathers). (I knew AMFIOG tune from Davey & Goliath, of course*) After we were done, he had a nearly beatific smile. As he explained on the way home, he had longed for years to be able to sing that hymn at Mass. For him, any polemical aspect of the hymn and text had washed out with the tides of history. It was a fabulous text and tune. He was an avid Bible reader, and taught his children to read the Bible; in the Germanic culture in which he was raised, Bible reading was not something to be left to Protestants, but was something Catholics shared. Et cet.

    When my father died nearly a decade ago, I programmed AMIOG for the processional hymn. His dying was a testimony to the text of the hymn. (We forewent "remembrances"; the music I chose was the remembrance of his faith life.)

    YMMV.

    * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTkFgdMNRAE
    Thanked by 6mattebery CHGiffen davido Abbysmum probe Roborgelmeister
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 3,004
    A Mighty Fortress is no. 339 in GIA's The Catholic Community Hymnal. Theologically sound? Yes, on the whole. We used to sing it, until one priest insisted on the very Catholic custom of ending the Introit after the first stanza ;-)
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 3,004
    Continuing my morning reading (Cr. Russel's From Serra to Sancho) I now find George Simpson's account of a 1842 visit to Santa Barbara:
    "In the music gallery was a small but well-tuned organ [one of the only such in 19c California] on which a native convert was executing several pieces of sacred music with considerable taste, amongst them, to our great surprise, Martin Luther's hymn."
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 817
    I have never been able to bring myself to program it because of its historical associations, but it's also quite possible that I'm more preoccupied with the Reformation than most. YMMV.
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 154
    The use of Luther's popular hymns in a catholic worship is no longer controversial as it was even half a century ago. Attached is a photo from the 1950 chant/hymn and prayer book "Laudate" for the diocese of Münster, that bashfully tries to hide the origin of a Lutheran hymn (I must admit that I do not grasp why ascribing the melody to THE composer most closely tied to Lutheran worship was considered preferrable by the editors).
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    3369 x 2479 - 126K
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 405
    A few of you may remember Bud Clark, (Old St. Mary's, among others). At another parish he worked in (not OSM), The Peoples Mass Book was placed in the pews right after V 2. The page with Omer Westendorf's version of AMFIOG was continually ripped out of the books.
    Many hymns from Lutheran sources appeared in RC hymnals... but Montani was vigorously opposed to them.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,278
    I was raised LC-MS, so I'm partial to Fr. Marty's tunes. I've done AMFIOG exactly once, as recessional on Christ the King 2017 (500th anniversary of the 95 Theses), to Steven Ottomanyi's words. I caught flak at the time, and promised not to do it again for another hundred years. In general, though, I wouldn't, just because of the battle hymn vibe.
    Thanked by 2oldhymns CHGiffen
  • DrJS
    Posts: 23
    I think it would be, objectively speaking, okay to sing that hymn. Luther wrote the hymn to be the hymn of the day for Lent 1, the gospel for which is Jesus' temptation. He intended it as a hymn of comfort, and not a bombastic anti-Catholic anthem. Go ahead and sing it. And please look at the original rhythm too, which is much more exciting (you can find it in Lutheran Service Book at #656).
    What I find more of a historical problem is the Catholic use of the tune "Erhalt, Uns Herr," which in the Lutheran tradition was always paired with the Luther's text "Lord, Keep us Steadfast in Thy Word." The original version of which said, "save us from murderous Pope and Turk!" It appeared in that form in Lutheran hymnals through the 19th century until it was edited for a more ecumenical era.
    I'm a Lutheran convert and have never programmed A Mighty Fortress. I personally associate it with Reformation Sunday celebrations and think of it as the Lutheran anthem. It would also make me too sad to hear Catholics mumble sing only one or two stanzas of an important part of my heritage.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Diapason84
    Posts: 164
    I recall the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal and its "Prayer against the Pope and papists." I continue to be uncomfortable about including Martin's texts and melodies in Catholic worship.
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