The first edition of this song book was a group of hymns written by several leaders in the Swiss Anabaptist movement in the 16th and 17th centuries. The original song book only provided texts for the hymns. The tunes we mostly folk tunes familiar to the inhabitants of Central Europe, some of which date back to melodies from the 13th and 14th centuries. The lyrics contained up to twenty-five stanzas. One of the only religious groups in North America still making use of these original tunes and lyrics are the Amish of Pennsylvania.
When these tunes are sung in congregational singing, they often became ponderourly slow, to allow the congregants to harmonize to the original folk melody. Thematically, the songs were often meant to focus the Anabaptists leaders on their eternal heavenly reward, since most were written in prison towers prior to martyrdom. Similar situations of penning hymn stanzas during imprisonment prior to martyrdom are evident beginning with the persecution of the early church, continuing during the Reformation, and finally in the missionary movement of the 18th and 19th centuries.
John Flaming