"" (From my heart I hold you dear, o Lord) is a
Lutheran hymn
Martin Luther was a great enthusiast for music, and this is why it forms a large part of Lutheranism, Lutheran services; in particular, Luther admired the composers Josquin des Prez and Ludwig Senfl and wanted singing in the church to move away ...
in German by the Protestant theologian and
reformer Martin Schalling, written in
Amberg
Amberg () is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate about halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth.
History
The town was first mentioned in 1034 with the name Ammenberg. It became an important trading c ...
in 1569 and first printed in 1571.
It is sung to an anonymous melody,
8326, which appeared in a
tablature
Tablature (or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...
book for organ in 1577.
The hymn is often used for funerals, especially the third and last stanza,
"" (Ah Lord, let thine own angels dear).
It appears in the current German Protestant hymnal (EG).
Text
The first theme of the hymn is the love to God and one's neighbour, following the
Great Commandment. Schalling included thoughts from . The hymn is regarded as a (song for the dying), as Schalling expressed stations of the transition after death in the last stanza, according to Lutheran doctrine as understood in the 17th century. The soul is seen as carried by angels to (
Abraham's bosom), according to , the body transforming in the grave, rising on the last day ("") to be reunited with the soul.
The final line is "" (I want to praise you for ever!)
Music
Several composers used the tune, some also the text.
chorale prelude
In music, a chorale prelude or chorale setting is a short liturgical composition for pipe organ, organ using a chorale tune as its basis. It was a predominant style of the German Baroque music, Baroque era and reached its culmination in the works ...
s were composed by
Johann Friedrich Alberti
Johann Friedrich Alberti (11 January 1642 – 14 June 1710) was a German composer and organist.
Alberti was born in Tönning, Schleswig. He received his musical training in Leipzig from Werner Fabricius and in Dresden from Vincenzo Albrici ...
and Bach (
BWV
The (, ; BWV) is a Catalogues of classical compositions, 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 and the third edition in ...
340 and BWV 1115
), among others.
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque music, Baroque composer and organ (music), organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of ...
composed both a (Sacred concerto,
SWV 348) and a
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
(SWV 387).
Dieterich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude (; born Diderich Hansen Buxtehude, ; – 9 May 1707) was a Danish composer and organist of the Baroque music, Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal ...
wrote an extensive
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...
(
BuxWV 41), probably for a church concert at the
Marienkirche in Lübeck, a work regarded as a major Baroque cantata because of its clear architecture and thoughtful interpretation of the text.
composed a sacred cantata.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
used the hymn in
his cantatas and notably to conclude his ''
St John Passion''. In 1724, he used stanza 3, "" (Ah Lord, let thine own angels dear), in the first version of the work, and returned to it in the fourth and last version.
In , composed in 1726 for St. Michael's Day, he quotes the melody instrumentally in the central tenor aria, played by the trumpet.
Alfred Dürr
Alfred Dürr (3 March 1918 – 7 April 2011) was a German musicologist. He was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Professional career
Dürr studied musicology and Clas ...
writes that the Leipzig congregation would understand it as an allusion to the third stanza. Bach actually used this stanza to end , written for the same occasion two or three years later.
Bach used the first stanza to conclude , written for Pentecost Monday of 1726.
composed a chorale motet for eight vocal parts
a cappella
Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
, his Op. 2, which
Karl Straube recommended for print as the work of a mature master of polyphony.
"" is part of the current German Protestant hymnal (EG) under number 397.
References
External links
Ach Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein(final stanza, from
Bach's St John Passion), by the
Netherlands Bach Society
{{English-language Lutheran hymns
16th-century hymns in German
Lutheran hymns
Hymn tunes