Lutheran hymn singing of the Klaipėda region tradition and its interaction with Lithuanian folk singing style

The article deals with the Lutheran hymn singing of the Klaipėda region tradition and its interaction with Lithuanian folk singing style. The history of the melodic lines of Klaipėda region Lutheran hymns is closely connected both with the history of German and Lithuanian folk melodies. Anyway, the local Lithuanian influences are very important here, and they can be seen as reflecting the Lithuanian musical world-view of common people singing hymns in the church and at home. There are two possible ways of the Lithuanian melodic formations of Lutheran hymns in Klaipėda region. On the one hand we know some individual singers, creating very special melodies for their own hymn singing (such as Augustas Deivelaitis); on the other hand we see the local melodic variants, sung in unison and known to all the people in the same parish. Local variants of the same hymn may differ in the neighbouring Lutheran churches (parishes) in Klaipėda region