"" (; In peace and joy I now depart) is a hymn by Martin Luther, a paraphrase in German of the , the

canticle A canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a hymn, psalm or other Christian song of praise with lyrics usually taken from biblical or holy texts. Canticles are used in Christian liturgy. Catholic Church ...

of Simeon. Luther wrote the text and melody, Zahn No. 3986, in 1524 and it was first published in the same year. Originally a song for Purification, it has been used for funerals. Luther included it in 1542 in ' (Christian chants ... for funeral). The hymn appears in several translations, for example

Catherine Winkworth Catherine Winkworth (13 September 1827 – 1 July 1878) was an English hymnwriter and educator. She translated the German chorale tradition of church hymns for English speakers, for which she is recognized in the calendar of the Evangelical Luth ...

's "In peace and joy I now depart", in nine hymnals. It has been used as the base for music, especially for vocal music such as

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 ...

's funeral music 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 ...

's chorale cantata .

History

The text and melody were composed by Luther in the spring of 1524. Later in the same year, it was published in Wittenberg in Johann Walter's (Wittenberg hymnal), but was not included in the

Erfurt Enchiridion The ''Erfurt Enchiridion'' ( enchiridion, from grc, ἐγχειρίδιον, hand book) is the second Lutheran hymnal. It appeared in 1524 in Erfurt in two competing editions. One of them contains 26 songs, the other 25, 18 of them by Martin Lu ...

. Originally a song for Purification, it has been used for funerals. Luther included it in 1542 in ' (Christian chants ... for funeral) as one of six hymns. Luther, a former monk, was familiar with the Latin from the daily night prayer (compline). The hymn was dedicated to the celebration of the Purification on 2 February, which was kept by the Lutherans as a feast day. It became also one of the most important songs for the dying () and for funerals. It is listed among those in the Protestant hymnal as No. 519.

Text

The hymn is based on the , the canticle of Simeon. Luther expanded the thoughts of each of the four verses to a stanza of six lines. The first stanza expresses accepting death in peace (), the second gives as a reason the meeting with the Saviour (), the third accents his coming for all people (), the fourth the coming as a light for the heathen and glory for Israel.() The lines are of different length, meter 8.4.8.4.7.7, stressing single statements. The hymn appears in several translations. The one used here is

's "In peace and joy I now depart", found in 9 hymnals, for example as No. 48 in the

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary The ''Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary'' (''ELH'') is a hymnal created by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in 1996. The Norwegian heritage of the ELS is evident in this hymnal, although a broader ethnicity is clearly represented. From the indexes l ...

Music

The

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 ...

in the

dorian mode Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the medieval musical modes; or—mo ...

, Zahn 3986, follows the text of the first stanza. The melody, which could predate Luther, contains ''figura corta'' motifs, in this case two quavers followed by a crotchet, an

anapaest An anapaest (; also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consist ...

; for dactyls, with a long beat followed by two beats, these were motifs denoting "joy", in the classification of chorales introduced by

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

. In the fourth line, the melody has a descending scale for the text "" (soft and still). There have been several settings of the hymn for organ. In 1674

composed a setting of the hymn as an elegy on the death of his father: 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 ...

BuxWV 76 for two manuals and pedal. In the 1710s,

composed an organ chorale prelude

BWV 616 The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2 ...

as part of the ''

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 ...

''. Twentieth-century organ settings include Max Reger's Choral Preludes Nos. 5 and 10, Op. 79b (1901–03), and Ernst Pepping's Partita No. 3 (1953). Several composers have written vocal settings, some intended for funerals. Four-part choral settings have been composed by

Johann Walter Johann Walter, also known as ''Johann Walther'' or ''Johannes Walter'' (original name: ''Johann Blankenmüller'') (1496 – 25 March 1570) was a Lutheran composer and poet during the Reformation period. Life Walter was born in Kahla, in present-d ...

(1524), Lupus Hellinck, published in 1544,

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 ...

(1601),

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

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 ...

Samuel Scheidt Samuel Scheidt (baptised 3 November 1587 – 24 March 1654) was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era. Life and career Scheidt was born in Halle, and after early studies there, he went to Amsterdam to study with Sw ...

and others.

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 ...

used it in movement 21 of his , composed for the funeral of Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera. Buxtehude wrote four different versions for the four stanzas in complex counterpoint as a funeral music for Menno Hanneken, , which he later expanded by a (lament) into a funeral music for his father. Bach used the hymn as the base for his

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 m ...

. Bach used single stanzas in his cantatas, the funeral cantata (), , for the 16th Sunday after Trinity (1723), and , for Purification 1724).

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 Hild ...

composed around 1729 a first sacred cantata for voices, strings and basso continuo, and a second cantata for voice, violin and continuo which is lost. Johannes Brahms used the first stanza to conclude his motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen?

References

External links

* Andreas Wittenberg
Kirchenlieder aus dem Reformationsjahrhundert: Martin Luthers “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin”
Deutsche Lieder. Bamberger Anthologie, 16 December 2013

bach-chorales.com {{Authority control 16th-century hymns in German Hymn tunes Hymns by Martin Luther

History

Text

Music

References

Further reading

External links