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Several centuries of musical evolution rendered originally rugged Lutheran chorales into fairly staid, rhythmically tamed iso-rhythmic hymn tunes. Enlightenment, Rationalism, Pietism, and in North America–a tendency to accommodate to English frontier song–left a rather bland repertoire for many except for the Saxon immigrants of the 1830s. At the turn of the 20th century, Roman Catholic composer Max Reger remarked that Lutherans didn’t know their own musical heritage. However, massive archival work, particularly by hymnologists Johannes Zahn and Philipp Wackernagel in the late 1800s, brought to light thousands of Reformation era hymns whose musical and textual vitality was still clearly evident. A type of theological, liturgical, and musical renaissance was underway. Already in 1913 the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book with Tunes (1912), followed by The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), reintroduced English-speaking Lutherans to the rhythmic form of the Lutheran chorale. The Service Book and Hymnal (1958) revived some of J. S. Bach’s chorale settings, which complemented many other iso-rhythmic chorale settings in the book. Scandinavian hymnals reassessed folk traditions reflected in much of their hymnody. Many lush post-Romantic anthem settings by F. Melius Christiansen helped to popularize these hymns. German Lutheranism continued its scholarly studies and publishing projects on the chorale tradition.
Beginning with Lutheran Book of Worship, Lutherans adopted a plan of melodic formulas from Roman Catholic musicians that would permit the historic reintroduction of the people singing complete Psalms in the liturgy. A more expansive sense of mission opened Lutheranism to a broader spectrum of other musical styles:
A renewed sense of the church’s entire liturgical life inspired new generations of composers and poets, and resulted in a flood of hymnody after mid-century. The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada contributed substantially to the ecumenical aspects of this outpouring. Other prominent influences included the folk-ballad style of Vatican II Roman Catholicism, a host of responsorial psalm compositions, the contemplative songs of the Taizé community, as well as the recent North American trend of so-called "praise songs" and similar "contemporary" music.
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The
1969 Worship Supplement prepared the way for the Lutheran Book
of Worship (1978) with its retention, for the most part, of rhythmic
chorales, the introduction of new hymnic styles, and a through-composed
musical setting of the eucharistic liturgy. Richard Hillert, Ronald A.
Nelson, and Gerhard Cartford created three influential, through-composed
settings of the liturgy in Lutheran Book of Worship. This work
is reflected in Lutheran Worship (1982), Christian Worship:
A Lutheran Hymnal (1993), and the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary
(1996).