"" ("Oh God, look down from heaven") is a

Lutheran chorale A Lutheran chorale is a musical setting of a Lutheran hymn, intended to be sung by a congregation in a German Protestant Church service. The typical four-part setting of a chorale, in which the sopranos (and the congregation) sing the melody a ...

of 1524, with words written by

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

paraphrasing Psalm 12. It was published as one of eight songs in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal, the Achtliederbuch, which contained four songs by Luther, three by Speratus, and one by Justus Jonas. It was contained in 1524 in the Erfurt ''Enchiridion''. It is part of many hymnals, also in translations. The text inspired vocal and organ music by composers such as

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

, who set it as part of his

Becker Psalter The ''Becker Psalter'' is a German metrical psalter authored by the Leipzig theologian Cornelius Becker and first published by Jakob Apel in Leipzig in 1602 under the title ''Der Psalter Davids Gesangweis''. Several composers set the psalms cont ...

, and

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 ...

, who based 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 German Baroque era. The organizing principle is the words and music of a Lutheran hymn. Usually a chorale cantata includes mult ...

on it. Mozart used one of its tunes in his opera ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

''.

History and text

At the end of 1523, Luther paraphrased Psalm 12 (Psalm 11 in

Vulgata The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...

numbering), , in Latin , attempting to make the psalms accessible to Protestant church services in German. Luther's poetry first follows the verses of the psalm exactly, then combines two verses to one. He expands the content of the psalm to show the precise situation of the early

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

as a time of conflict. The hymn was first printed as one page inserted in the (lost). It was one of eight hymns of the first Lutheran hymnal, published 1524 in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

under the title (Some Christian songs), also called Achtliederbuch. The same year it appeared in Erfurt in '' Eyn Enchiridion''. The hymn was soon used as a Protestant ''Kampflied'' (battle song). The chorale became the Lutheran (main hymn) for the second 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 th ...

Melody

In the first Lutheran hymnal the melody was the same as for "" by

Paul Speratus Paul Speratus (13 December 148412 August 1551) was a Swabian Catholic priest who became a Protestant preacher, reformer and hymn-writer. In 1523, he helped Martin Luther to create the First Lutheran hymnal, published in 1524 and called ''Achtliede ...

( Zahn No. 4430).

Johannes Zahn Johannes Christoph Andreas Zahn (1 August 1817 in Eschenbach/ Pegnitz – 17 February 1895 in Neuendettelsau) was a German theologian and musicologist best known for his opus ''Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder'', a critical ...

(1890). ''Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder'', Vol. III. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann
pp. 70–71
/ref> In the Erfurt ''Enchiridion'', also in 1524, the text first appeared with a tune codified by Martin Luther, Julian, John, ed., ''A Dictionary of Hymnology: Setting forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of all Ages and Nations'', Second revised edition, 2 vols., n.p., 1907, reprint, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1957, 1:322-25 Zahn No. 4431, which was derived from the secular song "Begierlich in dem Herzen mein" (The lustful desires in my heart) from about 1410. This melody is in

Phrygian mode The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern ...

, preferred by Luther for texts of repentance, such as "". In Johann Walter's hymnal , published in Wittenberg in 1524, it appeared with a different melody (Zahn No. 4432a).

Musical settings

The Zahn No. 4431 melody was set by composers for instruments like

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

and organ, and for voices.

Instrumental

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck ( ; April or May, 1562 – 16 October 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard compo ...

composed a piece for

, elaborating on the tune.

Johann Pachelbel Johann Pachelbel (baptised – buried 9 March 1706; also Bachelbel) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and h ...

composed two

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 ...

s for organ as part of before 1693.

's setting for organ

, BWV 741, raises some problems of dating and authenticity according to .

Vocal

set the chorale as part of the ''

''. Bach used the complete chorale as the base for , a

composed in 1724, but also in others as four-part settings ( BWV 77 and BWV 153).

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (22 November 17101 July 1784), the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach, was a German composer and performer. Despite his acknowledged genius as an organist, improviser and compose ...

set the chorale as a

church cantata A church cantata or sacred cantata is a cantata intended to be performed during Christian liturgy. The genre was particularly popular in 18th-century Lutheran Germany, with many composers writing an extensive output: Stölzel, Telemann, Graupne ...

( Fk 96).

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...

composed in 1832 a chorale cantata for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra ( MWV A13).

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

used the melody in his opera ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that includ ...

'' in act 2, Finale, scene 10, when the two "" (men in armour) recite it in

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

on Schikaneder's words "" as a

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tre ...

of a Baroque-style

Alfred Einstein Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for ...

comments in his biography ''Mozart / His Character, His Work'':

In the second act it is the final test of the lovers, the "'test of fire and water", for which Mozart called into play every musical means at his disposal and for which he ordained extreme simplicity, extreme mastery; the scene of the men in armor, which he constructed in the form of a chorale prelude, building upon a solemn fugato around the chorale ''Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein'' ...

References

External links

O Lord, look down from heaven
CyberHymnal 2011

openhymnal.org 2009 * ttp://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0002_6.htm BWV 2.6bach-chorales.com {{Hymn tunes by Zahn number 16th century in music Lutheran hymns based on Psalms Hymn tunes Hymns by Martin Luther 16th-century hymns in German