"" (I want to love you, my strength) is a sacred poem by Johann Scheffler who is known by his pen name

Angelus Silesius Angelus Silesius, Order of Friars Minor, OFM (9 July 1677), born Johann Scheffler, was a German Roman Catholicism, Catholic priest, physician, Mysticism, mystic and Christian poetry, religious poet. Born and raised a Lutheranism, Lutheran, he be ...

. It appeared first in a poem collection, ''Heilige Seelen-Lust'' (Holy bliss of the soul) in 1657, and has become a Christian song in notable

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). They are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Christia ...

s of different denominations, with different melodies.

Text

The full title of the collection is: Scheffler's poem is in eight

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

s of six lines each, with

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

ABABCC. The shorter final line accents its content. It is part of a 1657 collection of

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

religious poetry, ''Heilige Seelen-Lust Oder geistliche Hirten-Lieder Der in ihren JESUM verliebten Psyche'' (Holy bliss of the soul, or: spiritual shepherd songs of Psyche who is in love with her Jesus), in which the first person (ich) is the shepherdess and

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

the shepherd. The original header confirm this: "Sie verspricht sich jhn biß in Tod zu lieben" (She promises herself to love him until her death). The poetry is in the tradition to interpret the

Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...

as referring to Jesus. The first two stanzas are a confession of love, with seven of its twelve lines beginning "Ich will dich lieben". The religious dimension is revealed at the end of the second stanza, referring to "Gottes Lamm" (

Lamb of God Lamb of God (; , ) is a Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/John#1:29, John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, " ...

). The first line relates already to

Psalm 18 Psalm 18 is the 18th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "I love you, O LORD, my strength". In the slightly different numbering of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 17. In La ...

:2. The third and fourth stanza refer to the themes of searching for the missed loved one from the

. Love is described as "spät" (late), following

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

's Confessiones 10, 27 and 34. It may relate to Scheffler's "late" (1653)

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * ...

to the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The fifth to seventh stanzas express thanks for "Himmelswonne" (Heavenly bliss), including erotic imagery in the seventh stanza, which is therefore sometimes omitted in hymnals. The final stanza repeats the promise of the first, adding the motif of love for love's sake, without reward.

Melodies

In its first print in 1657, the poem appeared with with

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

by the composer Georg Joseph from Breslau which supports the bucolic character of the poetry by a triple time, and following the stresses of the first stanza. The poem is in

bar form Bar form (German: ''die Barform'' or ''der Bar'') is a musical form of the pattern AAB. Original use The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to refer to their songs and the ...

, but the melody does not repeat the beginning lines. It hides the shorter final line by an expressive

melisma Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...

. The text was also sung with other melodies, such as published in the hymnal ''Harmonischer Liederschatz'' (Harmonic treasure of songs) in 1738 by

Johann Balthasar König Johann Balthasar König (baptised 28 January 1691 – buried 2 April 1758) was a German Baroque composer, especially of hymn melodies, having published a hymnal with 1,913 melodies. He was the church musician at Frankfurt's main Protestant church ...

, a melody that was preferred in Protestant hymnals.

Reception

Although Scheffler represented Catholicism polemically, "Ich will dich lieben" was first included in Protestant song collections. After several changes to the text during the 19th century, it was included in 1950 in the hymnal '' Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch'' with mostly the original words and the 1738 melody, later in the ''

Evangelisches Gesangbuch ''Evangelisches Gesangbuch'' (''EG''; , "Protestantism, Protestant song book") is the current hymnal of German-language congregations in Germany, Alsace and Lorraine, Austria, and Luxembourg, which was introduced from 1993 and 1996, succeeding ...

'' as EG 400. As congregational singing was less prominent in the Catholic liturgy, "Ich will dich lieben" was included in some hymnals and prayer books only from the 19th century. The hymnal '' Kirchenlied'', published in 1938, which had again Joseph's melody, brought its breakthrough. It was included in the 1975 ''

Gotteslob ''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the hymnbook authorized by the Catholic dioceses in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in Advent 2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speak ...

'' and in the 2013 ''

'' as GL 358.

Peter Cornelius Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator. Life He was born in Mainz to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors in ...

composed a six-part

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 ...

on three stanzas, his Op. 18/2.Text
recmusic.org

References

Works cited

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External links