"" (Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial) is a German

Lutheran hymn Martin Luther was a great enthusiast for music, and this is why it forms a large part of Lutheran services; in particular, Luther admired the composers Josquin des Prez and Ludwig Senfl and wanted singing in the church to move away from the '' ...

with lyrics by

Michael Franck Michael Franck (16 March 1609 – 24 September 1667) was a German poet, composer and Protestant hymnwriter. He was born in Schleusingen, and died in Coburg. Franck initially established a career as a baker. Although he was fairly successful, "he ...

, who published it with his own melody and a four-part setting in 1652.

Johann Crüger Johann Crüger (9 April 1598 – 23 February 1662) was a German composer of well-known hymns. He was also the editor of the most widely used Lutheran hymnal of the 17th century, ''Praxis pietatis melica''. Early life and education Crüger was bo ...

's reworked version of the hymn tune was published in 1661. Several Baroque composers used the hymn, including

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

, who wrote a

chorale cantata A chorale cantata is a church cantata based on a chorale—in this context a Lutheran chorale. It is principally from the Germany, German Baroque music, Baroque era. The organizing principle is the words and music of a Lutheran hymn. Usually a chora ...

. It is part of the current

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

hymnal ''Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', and has also been used by 20th-century composers such as

Ernst Pepping Ernst Pepping (12 September 1901 – 1 February 1981) was a German composer of classical music and academic teacher. He is regarded as an important composer of Protestant sacred music in the 20th century. Pepping taught at the and the . His musi ...

and

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

History

The lyrics of the hymn were written by

after the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

. Franck, who initially worked as a baker, before turning to teaching, poetry, and music, based it on the biblical "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." (). His models were

vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic s ...

poems by

Andreas Gryphius Andreas Gryphius (german: Andreas Greif; 2 October 161616 July 1664) was a German poet and playwright. With his eloquent sonnets, which contains "The Suffering, Frailty of Life and the World", he is considered one of the most important Baroque ...

, namely "" ("The Splendour of the Earth / Will end in smoke and ashes"). He published it in Coburg in 1652, with his melody and a four-part setting. The title referred to "Vanity, Falsehood and Transitoriness of the World" (""). The hymn was the topic of sermons (). The hymn originally consisted of 13

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s of five lines each. All odd stanzas begin with "''Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig''" ("Oh how fleeting, oh how vain"), and all even stanzas begin "Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig" ("Oh how vain, oh how fleeting"). The second line specifies what is fleeting, which is expanded by lines three to five, all of which rhyme. Eight of the stanzas are included in the current Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'' as EG 528.

Melodies and settings

Franck's original hymn tune, Zahn No. 1887a, was published together with the hymn text in 1652. According to Franck's preface of that publication, the hymn, text as well as melody, had already been printed before.

published his reworked version of the melody, Zahn No. 1887b, in the 1661 edition of his hymnal ''

Praxis pietatis melica ''Praxis pietatis melica'' (''Practice of Piety in Song'') is a Protestant hymnal first published in the 17th century by Johann Crüger. The hymnal, which appeared under this title from 1647 to 1737 in 45 editions, has been described as "the most ...

''. Other tunes for the hymn were composed by

Andreas Hammerschmidt Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 or 1612 – 29 October 1675), the "Orpheus of Zittau," was a German Bohemian composer and organist of the early to middle Baroque era. He was one of the most significant and popular composers of sacred music in Ger ...

(Zahn No. 1888, published 1658) and (Zahn No. 1889, published 1668).

Georg Philipp Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesh ...

included settings of the hymn in his cantatas

TWV The Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis (Telemann Works Catalogue), abbreviated TWV, is the numbering system identifying compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann, published by musicologist Martin Ruhnke. The prefix TWV is generally followed by a Music genre, ...

1:37, 1:38, 4:2 and 4:6. Bach, who used Crüger's variant of the tune in his compositions, based his chorale cantata , for the 24th Sunday after

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

in 1724, on the hymn. Bach also composed the

chorale prelude In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works of J.S. Bach, who wrote 46 ...

"''Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig''", BWV 644 as No. 46 of his ''

Orgelbüchlein The ''Orgelbüchlein'' (''Little Organ Book'') BWV 599−644 is a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ — one of them is given in two versions — by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three were written between 1708 and 1717 when Bach served as org ...

''.

Johann Gottlieb Naumann Johann Gottlieb Naumann (17 April 1741 – 23 October 1801) was a German composer, conductor, and Kapellmeister. Life Johann Gottlieb Naumann was born in Blasewitz and received his musical training from the teachers at his town school, where he ...

used the final stanza for his ''Zeit und Ewigkeit'' (Time and Eternity). Several motets and organ settings by Baroque composers are extant.

used the hymn as the basis for his Partita for organ, No. 1, in 1953.

quoted the hymn in his oratorio ''

Sankt-Bach-Passion ''Sankt-Bach-Passion'' (Saint Bach Passion) is an oratorio composed by Mauricio Kagel in 1985 for the tricentenary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. It follows the model of Bach's Passions, but the topic is not biblical, rather refers to Bach ...

'' telling Bach's life, composed for the tricentenary of Bach's birth in 1985.

References

External links

{{authority control 17th-century hymns in German Lutheran hymns