Beyond 'Borning Cry,' another 1,000 songs

The musical topic most interesting to Lutheran composer John Ylvisaker is the reuse of traditional tunes. He notes that there is a strong tradition for tune-borrowing in Lutheranism, as Martin Luther was “real good at it.”

Ylvisaker, a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Waverly, Iowa, leads workshops and has written articles on the practice of borrowing melodies from bygone cultures and compositions. Despite that, it came as a surprise when, 15 years after writing “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry,” Ylvisaker learned he may have unknowingly borrowed the tune.

Read the full story at TheLutheran.org

A subscription to The Lutheran is required to access the full article.