In the later sixteenth century, Lutheran Liedsätze (chorale-settings) developed both in Agricola’s
direction, so to speak, and in Mahu’s and Walter’s. Utilitarianism reached an extreme with the publication
(Nuremberg, 1586) of a little book with a monster title: Funfftzig geistliche Lieder und Psalmen mit vier
Stimmen auff contrapunctsweise (für die Schulen und Kirchen in löblichen Fürstenthumb Würtenberg)
also gesetzt, das eine gantze Christliche Gemein durchaus mit singen kann (“Fifty sacred songs and
psalms in four-part counterpoint for the schools and churches of the honorable principality of
Württemberg, set in such a way that an entire Christian congregation can sing along throughout”), arranged
by Lucas Osiander, the town pastor of Stuttgart and tutor to the Prince of Württemberg in south-central
Germany.
FIG. 18-3 Front and back of the title page to Newe duedsche geistliche Gesenge (New German Spiritual Songs, Wittenberg:
Rhaw, 1544). The portrait is that of the printer, Georg Rhaw.