Composers of hymn tunes

The modern idea of the author-composer relationship in hymn composition, derived from art music, is that the author writes a hymn and the composer invents a tune to suit it, also providing harmony to accompany the tune (although there are many cases where authors have written verses to go with existing tunes.) Such a notion was slow to evolve, and can hardly be traced before the Reformation. Though we now sing many tunes of medieval origin, they are either anonymous or, if a name can be attached to them, they are adapted from a secular work or from part of a plainsong mass movement. It is possible that Martin Luther* himself was the first self-conscious ‘composer’ of hymn tunes; he was...