Martin Geck – a musicologist who has also studied theology – binds together in this book the musical, theological, literary and cultural-historical threads of his theme to create a concise and original presentation of Luther’s major songs against a wider horizon.

Thus for example the song ‘Ein feste Burg’ – praised by Heinrich Heine as the ‘Marseillaise of the Reformation’ – is not only set against Luther’s theology but also against its multi-faceted later history up to and including its rece...