His enthusiasm for it
overflows in his Letters and his Table Talk. He loved to
surround himself with accomplished musicians, with whom he
would practise the intricate motets of the masters of that
age; and his critical remarks on their several styles are on
record. At least one autograph document proves him to have
been a composer of melodies to his own words: one may see,
appended to von Winterfeld's fine quarto edition of Luther's
hymns (Leipzig, 1840) a fac-simile of the original draft of
_Vater Unser_, with a melody sketched upon a staff of five
lines, and then cancelled, evidently by hand practised in
musical notation. But perhaps the most direct testimony to his
actual work as a composer is found in a letter from the
composer John Walter, capellmeister to the Elector of Saxony,
written in his old age for the express purpose of embodying
his reminiscences of his illustrious friend as a church-musician.
"It is to my certain knowledge," writes Walter, "that
that holy man of God, Luther, prophet and apostle to the
German nation, took great delight in music, both in choral and
in figural composition. With whom I have passed many a
delightful hour in singing; and oftentimes have seen the dear
man wax so happy and merry in heart over the singing as that
it was well-nigh impossible to weary or content him therewithal.
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