"" ("This Day in Triumph God the Son") is a

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 ''a ...

for

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

. Kaspar Stolzhagen published the hymn in 1592, and its setting by

Bartholomäus Gesius Bartholomäus Gesius (also: ''Göß'', ''Gese'', – 1613) was a German theologian, church musician, composer and hymn writer. He worked at Schloss Muskau and in Frankfurt (Oder) and is known for choral Passions in German and Latin and for the ...

( Zahn No. 2585) was published in 1601. The hymn was adopted in several hymnals, including the '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch''. Composers such as

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 wo ...

based compositions on its hymn tune.

History

Although hymnologists sometimes doubt his authorship, Stolzhagen (1550–1594) would have written "" in 1591. In 1592, Stolzhagen published the text as an Easter hymn (, "song of the

resurrection of Christ The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord ...

"). Gesius's setting of the hymn (Zahn No. 2585) appeared in two independent publications in 1601, indicating that its dissemination, and composition, dated from some time before it was printed.

Hymn

In its original publication, Stolzhagen's Easter hymn had sixteen stanzas of three lines. This version with three-line stanzas was possibly sung to the "Resurrexit Dominus" tune, Zahn No. 25a. In 1601, Gesius published a five-part setting ( SSATB) of the hymn in the section about Easter of his ''Geistliche Deutsche Lieder'' (German spiritual songs). In his publication the hymn had six stanzas of six lines, derived from Stolzhagen's text. After Gesius, the hymn was mostly published in six-line stanzas. "Halleluja, Halleluja" is the text of every third line. In Gesius's setting, the melody rises on every first mentioning of Halleluja.

Musical settings

From the 17th to the 19th century, the hymn was included in dozens of hymnals.

Johann Hermann Schein Johann Hermann Schein (20 January 1586 – 19 November 1630) was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630. He was one of the first to import the early Italian stylistic innovations into Germa ...

published a six-part setting with seven stanzas, based on Gesius's hymn tune, in his 1627 , a setting which was republished by Gottfried Vopelius in 1682. Cantatas based on the hymn were written by

Dieterich Buxtehude Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...

( BuxWV 43, setting the text of the first stanza) and Christoph Graupner ( GWV 1129/15). Bach wrote a

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 ...

BWV 630 as part of the Easter section 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 ...

''; and a four-part

chorale Chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale: * Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the th ...

( BWV 342, based on the hymn tune. The hymn was adopted as No. 109 in the German Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch'', in

References

Sources

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External links

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GVL 6045 "Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn" (Osterlied, Halleluja)
Volksmusikarchiv des Bezirks Oberbayern
BWV 630
audio at James Kibbie'
Bach Organ Works
website {{Hymns and songs for Easter Lutheran hymns 16th-century hymns in German Easter hymns