The chorale tune CHRISTE, DU LAMM GOTTES was published as the setting for the Agnus Dei in Bugenhagen's 1528 manual. The tune name comes from the opening words in the German text. Ulrich S. Leupold, editor of Martin Luther's hymns and liturgies (vol. 53 of Luther's Works, 1965), suggests that Luther may be the tune's arranger. It seems to derive from a Kyrie melody (Gregorian Tone 1) that Luther used in his German Mass of 1526 (see PHH 258 for information on the Kyrie).
The 1984 arrangement is by Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4), who modeled it after a setting by Carl Hirsch (1858-1918) published in Redeeming Love (rev. ed., Concordia, 1963), a collection of Lenten and funeral music. Grotenhuis's arrangement is a fine antiphonal setting of the historic text the first and second clauses are for two-part singing by women and men, respectively; the final clause is for everyone in four-part harmony. The hymn concludes with an "Amen" set to a delightfully challenging melisma.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988
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