Vater Unser

"Vater unser im Himmelreich"
Hymn by Martin Luther
Second page of the autograph with the only notes extant in Luther's handwriting
English	Our Father in Heaven
Text	by Martin Luther
Language	German
Based on	The Lord's Prayer
Published	1538 (1538)

"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, 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.

Below is the German text from the 1539 Gesangbuch of Valentin Schumann with the English translation by George Macdonald.

Below is the hymn tune from Valentin Schumann's Gesangbuch of 1539.

Numerous composers used the hymn tune, some also the text. There are choral settings by Orlando di Lasso, Michael Praetorius and Samuel Scheidt. Johann Ulrich Steigleder composed 40 three-part variations on the hymn tune and published them as a Tabulaturbuch in Strasbourg in 1627. Amongst those who set it as a chorale prelude for organ are Michael Praetorius, Jacob Praetorius, Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Scheidemann. Johann Pachelbel included a chorale prelude in his liturgical collection Erster Theil etlicher Choräle.