"" ("A ship is coming, laden"), is an

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

chorale A 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 o ...

and Marian Hymn. It is one of the oldest religious songs of German origin.

History

The oldest existing text source is a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

dated before 1450. It was found in the

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

Dominican convent of St. Nikolaus in undis. Due to the fact that the mystic Johannes Tauler visited this convent frequently, the lyrics of this song are attributed to him. Reference is the word "enphohet" (received) which is characteristically used by Tauler very often. The lyrics are typical for the

allegory in the Middle Ages As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout ...

as a vital element in the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions. Biblical motifs compare the pregnant

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

with a loaded entering ship. The ship is set in motion under

sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

(correspondent to

love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

) and mast (correspondent to the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

).) The oldest source of the

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

is included in ''Andernacher Hymns'' (1608). The song is found there in bilingual text under the title "" as well as the Latin "". Kieler Hansekogge 2007 hinten

Lyrics

Melody

\header \layout global = soprano = \relative c'' alto = \relative c' tenor = \relative c bass = \relative c verse = \lyricmode \score :''c.f.'' =

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 trea ...

Musical setting

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University Chu ...

quotes the tune in his organ pieces ''Sieben Stücke'', Op. 145.

References

External links

"A ship is coming laden"
English translation by Alan and Enid Luff

* Michael Fischer:
Es kommt ein Schiff geladen. Ausführlicher Kommentar zur Liedgeschichte
' May 2005. (PDF, 1.11 MB)
Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen
text in old German and Latin, by lyrik-und-lied.de
"Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen"
Carus-Verlag and SWR2
"Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen"
music in lieder-archiv.de * ,

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

, Cantamus Choir, Gießen * , Fantasia for Organ by C. Meise, Bielefeld, Germany {{Authority control Christmas carols in German Christmas in Germany Advent songs Hymn tunes Marian hymns Christian hymns in German 15th-century hymns