Editor's Preface

This lecture was presented as part of the seventh annual Kessler Reformation Concert. These concerts have been sponsored by the Candler School of Theology and the Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection of the Pitts Theology Library and celebrate the musical holdings of the Kessler Reformation Collection. The 1994 concert was based on Elisabeth Creutziger’s 1524 hymn Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn, which was included in the Magdeburg Enchiridion of 1536. The copy of this hymnal that is part of the Kessler Reformation Collection has been issued in facsimile and with critical notes in Stephen A. Crist’s Enchiridion Geistliker Leder unde Psalmen, Magdeburg 1536 (Emory Texts and Studies in Ecclesial Life 2; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994).

Robin A. Leaver is professor of church music at Westminster Choir College of Rider University (Princeton, New Jersey) and visiting professor of liturgy for the liturgical studies program of the Graduate School of Drew University. His willingness to participate in the 1994 Kessler Reformation Concert is deeply appreciated, as is the energy and expertise that he brought to his task. In addition, thanks are due to Professor Stephen A. Crist for his editorial assistance with the present essay and to G. Gordon Boice (University Publications, Emory) for his work on the design of this pamphlet and the program for the 1994 concert.

M. Patrick Graham
Margaret A. Pitts Associate Professor of Theological Bibliography
Candler School of Theology
Emory University