The Lutheran chorale (derived from a chant melody) "Vater unser in Himmelreich" is "onse Vader" in the
Fluyten-Lusthof. See the melody and van Eyck's first variation below. Note that his word for "diminished" is "gebroken," literally "broken." The variation holds closely to the melody but does introduce one interesting feature: at *1 in the second graphic, Eyck uses his diminution to realize the
clausula vera. It's an unusual figure as a diminution; my guess is that he was making a reference to the upper register of the melody, reached most emphatically in the cadence of the second phrase.
If my guess is good, then we can assert that van Eyck was sensitive (and, really, why shouldn't he be?) to the arch and palindromic shape of the chorale, which moves its way gradually up, then down, a set of framing intervals. A glimpse of "Himmelreich," perhaps?
