"Das Jahr steht auf der Höhe" (The year is at its height) is a Christian hymn in German with a text by Detlev Block written in 1978 to an older melody by Johann Steuerlein. In the modern German Catholic hymnal ''
Gotteslob
''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the hymnbook authorized by the Catholic dioceses in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in Advent 2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speaki ...
'', it appears as GL 465. The hymn initially focuses on observing nature and then compares its transience to that of human life.
History and text
The text was written in 1978 by , born on 15 May 1934 in Hanover, who was a retired Protestant pastor and honorary professor, writer, poet and hymnwriter. The author described his motivation as the wish to write about consolation and encouragement facing the shadow of change and transience ("Welchen Trost, welche Ermutigung gibt es für uns, wenn der Schatten des Wechsels und der Vergänglichkeit auf uns fällt?") He wrote four stanzas in
bar form
Bar form (German: ''die Barform'' or ''der Bar'') is a musical form of the pattern AAB.
Original use
The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to refer to their songs and the ...
, with a stollen of two lines and an abgesang of four lines.
The first topic is midsummer, taken as an image for the high point of a human life. The author compares the transience of nature to that of human existence, in the Biblical context of
John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
saying that
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
will increase but he
ohn Ohn is a Burmese name, used by people from Myanmar. Notable people with the name include:
* Daw Ohn (1913–2003), Burmese professor in Pali
* Ohn Gyaw (born 1932), Burmese Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1998
* Ohn Kyaing (born 1944), Bur ...
will decrease (). The poetry alludes to verses from Psalm 102, which call God to not end life at its height () and say that God will be forever while his creatures pass (). In the third stanza, the singer reflects unity with Jesus in the sense of the mysticism of
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master EckhartEvangelisches Gesangbuch'' as EG 501. "Das Jahr steht auf der Höhe" was included, slightly revised, in the 2013 German common Catholic hymnal ''
Gotteslob
''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the hymnbook authorized by the Catholic dioceses in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in Advent 2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speaki ...
'' as GL 465, in the section "Leben in der Welt - Schöpfung" (Life in the World - Creation). It also appears in other songbooks.
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