"" (Lord, strengthen me to reflect on your suffering) is a

Passion hymn Passion hymns are hymns dedicated to the Passion of Jesus. They are often sung during Passiontide, namely for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Many of them were used as chorales in Passion (music), Passions, such as Bach's St John Passion structu ...

in German, written by

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (4 July 171513 December 1769) was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing. Biography Gellert was born at Hainichen in Saxony, at the foot of the ...

to the melody of "", and first published in 1757. It is contained in the German Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch''.

History

Gellert wrote "" in 1755. It appeared first in Leipzig in 1757 in his collection ''Geistliche Oden und Lieder'', with 22

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 four lines each, titled "Passionslied" ( Passion song). As the first line indicates, it is a Passiontide prayer requesting strength to think about the suffering of

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 religious ...

. In the 1993 common Protestant hymnal, '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', it appears shortened to ten stanzas and rearranged as EG 91.

Text and theme

Gellert focuses on a reflection on the Passion of Jesus, without description of the actions as narrated by the Evangelists. Speaking in the first-person singular, he contemplates its meaning for the individual believer, both theologically and emotionally. His theological thoughts are based on the

Epistles An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part ...

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

. In accordance with the contemporary

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

, he aims to educate both the mind towards wisdom and the heart towards virtue. The format of the stanzas, with three long lines and a final short line, was based on the

Sapphic stanza The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

hymns. Beginning with a funeral song by

Bartholomäus Ringwaldt Bartholomäus Ringwaldt (c. 1530 – probably May 9, 1599) was a German didactic poet and Lutheran pastor. He is most recognized as a hymnwriter. Biography Bartholomäus Ringwaldt was born in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Germany. From 1543, he studied ...

from the 17th century, the format became associated with the topics of death, Passion and solace. Gellert succeeded mostly in filling the stressed fourth line with meaning,

Melody and musical setting

Gellert chose to write his poem to match the melody of the well-known hymn "", composed by

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 ...

in 1640, which was based on a 1534 tune by Guilleaume Franc. Bach had included the first stanza of that hymn '' in his St Matthew Passion''. Singers of Gellert's hymn would relate it to the context of the older hymn by

Johann Heermann Johann Heermann (11 October 158517 February 1647) was a German poet and hymnodist. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 26 October with Philipp Nicolai and Paul Gerhardt. Life Heermann was born in Raudten (m ...

. The character of the melody has been described as "floating, bitter-sad, serious" ("schwebend, herb-traurig, ernst"). A four-part vocal setting by

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

, who set many songs from Gellert's collection to music in his

Gellert Odes and Songs ''Geistliche Oden und Lieder'' ("Sacred Odes and Songs", H. 686, Wq 194), also known as ''Gellert Oden'' ("Gellert Odes"), is a collection of songs by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with texts by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. Originally published in ...

, was adapted for a publication by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...

References

{{authority control 1757 poems 18th-century hymns in German Christian poetry