Here’s a musical family story. Well, more precisely a story of family heritage, with some world-class music mixed in along the way. At the end of the day, it’s the story of why the hymnody of the 16th-century Reformation in Germany came to take up residence in the DNA of a kid from Tennessee whose taste in music more often runs to old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes.
The common thread here is a named Johann Walter (or Walther). A court musician in Wittenberg and a friend of Martin Luther’s, he arranged music for Luther — who was a pretty good musician himself — and edited Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn (a little spiritual songbook), the first collection of Luther’s chorales for church choir in 1524.
Walther as we spelled his name in our family, was also one of my ancestors, according to a tradition handed down in my grandmother Ellertsen’s family.
So this afternoon when I was working on something else, I had the Concordia collection of Luther’s hymns, ballads and chants playing in the background and I heard a catchy tune with a nice “Alleluia! Alleluia!” tagline at the end of each verse. Hey, I thought, I could learn that. So I looked it up. It was “Come Holy Ghost” (Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, as it is usually known in German), and Walther edited it for the little 1524 songbook.
It was a bit like meeting a long-lost cousin. Reconnecting with family heritage, at any rate.
‘Great-great-great-great … Uncle Johan’
Here’s something I shared to the blog a couple of months ago; there’s more information there, but here’s the family part:
According to a story handed down in my family, we are descended from Johann Walther. I’m not sure of the exact relationship, but by my calculation he would be roughly my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle. (I’ve blogged about the family connection before, HERE and HERE.) I’ve only been able to trace our forebears back to a Johan Caspar Walther, born in 1764, who emigrated from Schleswig-Holstein to Norway.
That’s about as far north from Wittenberg as you can get and still be in Germany, and a detail about the YouTube videos got me thinking. The performance is by the early music group Weser-Renaissance Bremen, and Bremen isn’t that far from Schleswig-Holstein. Debi and I once took a commuter train from Bremen to Hamburg; we changed trains, and we were in Copenhagen that afternoon. Might there be a connection?
It’s fun to think about, anyway, and just having the story in the family is a lovely bit of heritage.
What if Johan Caspar (one “n” in the Dano-Norwegian spelling) and Johann were long-lost cousins? Our guy was a mining engineer from Schleswig-Holstein, and it’s a long way from Wittenberg. But it’s always fun to speculate.
Note to self: Most hymnals print “Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord” in F, but Andrew Remillard’s Youtube channel features two transcriptions in G. (This is vital information for a self-taught amateur musician who can only read the “sharp keys” (D, G and sometimes A) of old-time string band music — and dulcimer tab). Remillard’s channel has piano solos of 6,000 hymns, and it’s a must-bookmark website if you’re into: (a) hymnody, and (b) lovely, meditative church piano arrangements.
Information, links on Komm Heiliger Geist
Harmonization by Bach at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vOvSV57waw
- Text by: Martin Luther Translated by: Richard Massie 1854
- Tune: Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott by: Johann Walther 1524
- Lutheran Book Concern, Columbus, Ohio, 1908 No 101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xCP_nOAiX4
Chorale Melodies used in Bach’s Vocal Works
- Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott https://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Komm-Heiliger-Geist-Herre-Gott.htm
[Uplinked Sept. 27, 2022, rev. Jan. 25, 2026]
Ordinary Time 