Ursula Schlenker

Ursula Schlenker (b. 1930) is a 20th-century German sacred music writer and liturgist whose concise, celebratory choral structures have crossed international and linguistic borders. Writing in the mid-20th century, Schlenker focused her work on crafting communal, participatory music designed to be easily internalized by congregations, small vocal ensembles, and choirs alike.

Her enduring contribution to contemporary hymnody came to fruition in 1949 when she pinned a vibrant, rhythmic choral piece published by the prominent German liturgical house Verlag Merseburger. Built structurally as a dynamic four-voice canon, the piece was designed to allow a congregation or choir to split into successive parts, layering voices over each other to create a rich, cascading wall of corporate adoration. The musical setting for her text was composed by the noted German church musician and cantor Alfred Stier (1880–1967).

In 1895, a composite translation team adapted Schlenker's canon into English, and it quickly found a prominent home as Hymn #14 in the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (1985). In the English-speaking church, the text—"Let us praise the name of the Lord!"—is deeply cherished as an opening introit or a responsive call to worship. The first section draws straight from the language of Psalm 148:13, crying, "Let us praise the name of the Lord! Give Him glory, Amen." The canon then pivots beautifully into a missional charge based on Mark 16:15, singing, "Go ye into all the world, Alleluia, Amen," before culminating in a layered, overlapping refrain of Amens.

Parallel to its English usage, the canon remains an active, joyful staple in Spanish-speaking Protestant congregations under the title "Alabemos al Señor, Demos gloria al Señor." Celebrated for its deceptive simplicity, Schlenker's work avoids complex, heavy prose in favor of direct, scriptural acclamations. By wedding a basic, accessible vocabulary with a communal choral device, her work effectively transforms a simple melody into an energetic, multi-layered experience of shared praise that continues to be sung globally.