| Biography: German hymn-writers of the 1600'sGerman Hymn-Writers of the 1600sPhilipp Nicolai,Johann Heermann, Paul Gerhardt,Joachim NeanderOne of the great treasures of the Christian church is its hymns, andone of the greatest contributions to that treasure is that of theearly Lutheran writers, beginning with Martin Luther and reaching apeak with J.S.Bach. On 26 October, the Lutheran church remembersthree outstanding hymn-writers from Germany in the 1600's. Sincethat date is already taken on my Calendar, I here place them on 24October.Philipp Nicolai, hymnwriter 26 October 1608Philipp Nicolai was born in 1556 in Germany, son of a Lutheranpastor. He studied theology at the universities of Erfurt andWittenberg, 1575-1579, and became a pastor himself. It was a time ofreligious wars in Europe, and several times he had to flee or gointo hiding and minister to his congregations secretly in housemeetings. He was a theological writer, defending Lutheran theologychiefly against Calvinistic opponents. He also preached with greatpower and effectiveness. In 1588 he became pastor at Altwildungen,in 1596 he became pastor at Unna in Westphalia, and in 1601 pastorin Hamburg. But he is remembered today for writing two hymns. While he was pastor in Westphalia, the plague took 1300 of hisparishioners, mostly in the latter half of 1597, 170 in one week. Tocomfort his parishioners, he wrote a series of meditations which hecalled Freudenspiegel (Mirror of Joy), and to this he appended twohymns, both of which have become world-famous. The first hymn was, "Wake, awake, for night is flying" (Wachetauf, ruft uns die Stimme). It uses the image of the watchman on acity wall (Isaiah 52:8), and of the Parable of the Bridesmaidswelcoming the Bridegroom to the Marriage Feast (Matthew 25:1-13),and of the Song of Triumph in Heaven (Revelation 19:6-9). It is afavorite Advent hymn. The second hymn was, "How bright appears the morning star" (Wieschoen leuchtet der Morgenstern). This also, with a wealth ofimagery, hails Christ as our deliverer, and celebrates his triumph.It has become a favorite wedding hymn, but is also sung for Advent,for Christmas, for Epiphany, and and as a general hymn of praise. Nicolai wrote both the words and the tunes, but thearrangements we know are due to Bach. The earliest Englishtranslations are those of Catherine Winkworth, but there have beenmany translations since, some of them (especially for the secondhymn) content to reproduce the general spirit of the original wordsrather than their specific meaning. In addition, several hymnwritershave set their own words (in various languages) to one of Nicolai'stunes. If pure quality, without respect to quantity, were ourcriterion, Nicolai would have to be ranked as history's greatestchorale-writer, and one of its greatest hymn-writers. Nicolai died 26 October 1608 after a brief (four-day) illness.Johann Heermann, hymnwriter 17 February 1647Johann Heermann was born in Silesia in Germany in 1585, the fifthand only surviving child of his parents. As a child he suffered asevere illness, and his mother vowed that if he lived he would betrained for the ministry. He became a minister, and taught at theuniversity, but was forced to stop in 1607 because of an eyeinfection. In 1611 he became deacon and then pastor of the Lutheranchurch in the small town of Koeben near his birthplace. The ThirtyYears' War was then in progress, and Koeben was burned in 1616,plundered four times between 1629 and 1634, and ravaged bypestilence in 1631. Heermann several times was forced to flee,narrowly excaping death and losing all his possessions. In 1634 athroat problem forced him to stop preaching, and he retired in 1638and died in 1647.During the preceding century, during and immediately following theLutheran Reformation, most Lutheran hymns had been "objective,"affirming the doctrines of the faith, but not explicitly stating anemotional response. Heermann's hymns move toward the expression ofthe feelings of the believer. His best-known hymn (in English circles) is "Ah, holy Jesus,how hast thou offended?" (Herzliebster Jesu, was hast duverbrochen), a chorale used by Bach in the St Matthew Passion. It isloosely based on a Latin verse (beginning "Quid commisisti,dulcissime puer, ut sic judicareris?"), variously attributed toAugustine and to Anselm, but now to Jean de Fecamp (d. 1078). Thetune, by Johann Crueger, is perhaps indebted to Psalm 23 of theGeneva Psalter. Other hymns of his include: "O gracious God above, true fount of joy unending" or "O God,my faithful God" (O Gott, du frommer Gott); "Oh, what precious balm and healing, Jesus, in thy wounds Ifind" (based on a Latin hymn of Bernard of Clairvaux); "O Christ, our true and only Light, Illumine those who sit innight" or "O Christ, our Light, our Radiance true"; "Lord, thy death and passion give Strength and comfort at myneed" (based on a Latin hymn of Bernard of Clairvaux); "Lord, grant thy servants grace" (an ordination hymn); "Praise God, this hour of sorrow Shall bring a brighter morrow"(a funeral hymn).Paul Gerhardt, hymnwriter 7 June 1676Paul (Paulus) Gerhardt was born in 1607 near Wittenberg in Germany,and studied theology at the University of Wittenberg from 1628 to1642. In 1651 he was ordained and made pastor of a church inBrandenburg, near Berlin. In 1657 he became third assistant at StNicholas Church in Berlin. In his sermons, he maintained theLutheran position against the Calvinists. He refused to sign apledge not to bring theological argument into his sermons, and wasdeposed by Frederick William of Brandenberg-Prussia in 1666. Hiswife and four of his children died. In 1669 he was made archdeaconof Luebben, and died there 7 June 1676.Despite personal suffering and the horrors of the Thirty Years War,Gerhardt wrote over 130 hymns, expressing both orthodox doctrinesand emotional warmth in response to them. His work, like that ofHeerman cited above, is counted by hymnologists as transitionalbetween the Confessional and the Pietistic periods of Lutheranhymnody. He has been called he greatest of Lutheran hymn-writers.(Note that when we say "hymns," we are talking about words. Thecomposing of hymn-tunes is another matter.)His hymns include the following: "O sacred head, sore wounded" (O Haupt voll Blut), atranslation of the Latin "Salve caput cruentatum," attributed toBernard of Clairvaux. This hymn, known as the Passion Chorale, isused with great effectiveness by Bach in the St Matthew Passion,where eleven stanzas of it are interspersed through the account ofthe Passion of Christ, all sung to the same tune, but with differentarrangements suited to the words of the different stanzas and to thecontexts in which they appear. It is one of the best-known andbest-loved of Good Friday hymns. "Awake, my heart, and render" (Wach auf mein Herz, und singe),a morning hymn. "The duteous day now closeth" or "Now all the woods aresleeping" or "Now rest beneath night's shadow" (Nun ruhen alleWaelder), an evening hymn. "All my heart this night rejoices" or "Once again my heartrejoices" (Froehlich soll mein Herze springen), a Christmas orNativity hymn. "Commit thou all that grieves thee" (Befiehl du deine Wege),often sung to the same tune as the Passion Chorale. It is a hymnabout trust in God in time of trouble, and is based on a poem ofMartin Luther which in turn is a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 37("Fret not yourself because of the evil-doer.... Commit your way tothe LORD and put your trust in him, and he will bring it to pass.") "O how shall I receive thee" or "How shall I fitly meet thee"or "O Lord, how shall I meet you" (Valet will ich dir geben), a hymnwelcoming the newborn Christ, used during Advent and Christmas, andin Bach's Christmas Oratorio. "Awake, my heart, with gladness, See what today is done" (Auf,auf, mein Herz), an Easter hymn; "Evening and morning, sunset and dawning"; "Jesus, thy boundless love to me" (translated by John Wesley); "Since Jesus is my friend, and I to him belong"; "Put thou thy trust in God, in duty's path go on"; "A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth" or "A Lamb goes forth, ourgriefs to share", a Good Friday hymn; "Blest is he that never walketh", a paraphrase of Psalm 1; "If God Himself be for me, I may a host defy" (Ist Gott fuermich); "Emmanuel, we sing thy praise", a Christmas hymn; "Holy Spirit, source of gladness! Come with all thy radiancebright"; "O enter, Lord, Thy temple, be Thou my spirit's Guest"; "O draw me, Saviour, after Thee! So shall I run and nevertire", tr. J. Wesley; "Give to the winds thy fears", tr. J. Wesley; "A pilgrim and a stranger, I journey here below"; "I will sing to my Creator, Unto God I'll render praise"; "I'll praise thee with my heart and tongue, O Lord my soul'sdelight";The hymn "Awake, my heart, and render," mentioned above, is oftensung to a tune by a pupil of Melanchthon, Nicolaus Selnecker(1528-1592), Lutheran professor of theology at Leipzig, co-drafterof the Lutheran creedal statement called the Formula of Concord, whowrote words and music for many hymns. This particular tune is ahemiole (or hemiola): that is, it has alternate 6/8 and 3/4 rhythm.(A well-known modern example is the song "America" from the musical"West Side Story.") Thus, the first stanza is: Awake, my heart, and render c - | c - B A - c | d - c - to God, thy sure Defender, c - | c - d B - G | c - B - thy Maker and Preserver, B - | c - c d - e | d - d - a song of love and fervor. e - | f - e d - c | d - c -The hemiola form is traditional in Latin America, in Africa, inGermany, and Finland, and elsewhere (The old Finnish Koraalikirja isfull of hemiolas. Query: what are the German, Finnish, and Swedishnames for the form?)Joachim Neander, hymnwriter1680To these Lutheran hymnwriters, we may add a Calvinist, JoachimNeander, born in Bremen in 1650. After a rowdy life as anundergraduate, he underwent conversion and amendment. He became aschoolteacher, then undertook a life of solitary meditation. Thereis a cave named for him near Mettman-am-Rhein, which he perhaps usedas his hermitage, until his death at the age of thirty. He isaccounted the principal Calvinist poet in Germany, but only a few ofhis hymns are known in English. The best-known is "Praise to theLord, the Almighty, the King of Creation" (Lobe den Herren, denmaechtigen Koenig der Ehren!), based on Psalms 150 and 103:1-6.Neander was originally surnamed Neumann (New man). However, likemany others of his time (such as Martin Luther's colleague PhilipSchwartzerd, whose name means "black earth," and who changed it to"Melanchthon," which means the same thing in Greek), he adopted aGreek surname with the same meaning (NE- meaning "new" as in"neo-Marxist" or whatever, and ANDER meaning "man" as in "android,polyandry, andrology," and so on. In Greek, ANTHROPOS means "man(gender-inclusive)" while ANER, ANDR- means "man (gender-specific)".Thus, "anthropology" is the study of humans in general, while"andrology" is the medical study of the male body, just as"gynecology" is cencerned with the female body. The respectiveequivalents in Latin are HOMO, HOMIN- (gender-inclusive) and VIR(gender-specific). In English, "man" does double-duty for both. Somefeminists are trying to substitute "person" for "man" in allgender-inclusive uses, but this is awkward, because thegender-inclusive meaning is the primary one for "man". I havethought of reviving "were" (pronounced "weer") as in "werewolf" and"weregeld" for the gender-specific meaning, but am not optimisticabout the chances of success.). When Joachim Neander went to live ina cave by a river, the river came to be named for him as the NeanderRiver, and the valley of that river was called the Neander Valley,or Neander Dale. The German word for "dale" is "thal" (the "th" ispronounced much like English "t"), and so the valley and generalregion is the Neanderthal. It is here that remains were first foundof an early European population that have accordingly come to becalled Neanderthal Man.Prayer (traditional language) Almighty God, who through thy holy Apostle hast taught us to praise thee in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs: We give thee thanks this day for the gift of writing great hymns which thou didst give to thy servants Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, Paul Gerhardt, and Joachim Neander; and we pray that thy Church may never lack those with the gifts of writing words and music to thy praise, and may be ever filled with the desire to praise and thank thee for thy great goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever.Prayer (contemporary language) Almighty God, who through your holy Apostle have taught us to praise you in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs: We give you thanks this day for the gift of writing great hymns which you gave to your servants Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, Paul Gerhardt, and Joachim Neander; and we pray that your Church may never lack those with the gifts of writing words and music to your praise, and may be ever filled with the desire to praise and thank you for your great goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. |
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