The golden sun full of joy and delight

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Hymn in four-part set in a German-American hymn book (1878)

The golden sun full of joy and bliss is a Christian morning song, the text of which Paul Gerhardt wrote. It has twelve stanzas in one verse form, which Gerhardt developed in it for the first time. It was published in 1666 with the melody and composition by Johann Georg Ebeling in a collection of Gerhardt's songs. Itappears in the Evangelical Hymnbook under the number 449. It is included in many hymn books and song books.

history

The Lutheran theologian and songwriter Paul Gerhardt was pastor at the Nikolaikirche in Berlin when he wrote Die Güldne Sonne full of joy and delight . It was probably one of his last songs. Gerhardt took up two older morning songs by Philipp von Zesen ( The golden sun brings joy and bliss from 1641) and by Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern ( I see with joy, the golden sun breaks in again from 1644).

Most of Gerhardt's earlier hymns appeared in Johann Crüger's hymn book Praxis Pietatis Melica . Crüger was a church musician at the Nikolaikirche until his death in 1662, when he was succeeded by Johann Georg Ebeling . Ebeling began in 1666, after Gerhardt was removed from office by the Elector, to provide Gerhardt's songs with new music and to publish them in several volumes under the title Pauli Gerhardi . The series consisted of 120 songs and was completed in 1667. Each song appeared with a choral setting, 112 of them with new melodies by Ebeling. The golden sun appeared in the third volume of the spiritual devotions in 1666 with Ebeling's melody in a four-part movement. Ebeling's headline for the song was Morning Blessing . In the same year the golden sun appeared in an edition of the Pietatis Melica practice . Parts of the song were translated into English in the 19th century.

text

Gerhardt's song is structured like a sermon , in twelve stanzas, like the months in a yearly cycle. He used the image of the sun as a symbol of God's love in 25 of his songs, e.g. B. in the 4th (3rd on the ground floor) stanza of I stand at your crib here , in the tradition of the Lutheran theologian Johann Arndt . The song looks at the sunlight without avoiding shadows and suffering. In the style of baroque poetry, Gerhardt often lists two similar terms, e.g. B. "cheerful and cheerful" and "goods and gifts". The last stanza offers a glimpse of a heavenly garden, "Joy, Abundance and Blissful Silence," on which the author's thoughts are directed.

Each stanza has ten lines, in a verse form that Gerhardt created for this song:

Row: 1-2 3-4 5 6-7 8-9 10    
Rhyme scheme: aa bb c dd ee c   
Meter: 5.5. 5.5. 10. 5.6. 5.6.  10.

The following is the wording after the first edition from 1666 shown opposite, with the rhyming scheme in the first stanza:

First edition, p. 70, seven stanzas with soprano and alto parts
First edition, p. 71, tenor and bass parts to the text of the first stanza, then the five last stanzas

1. The golden sun,
full of joy and bliss
,
with its shine brings our borders
a heart-teasing, lovely light.
My head and members, they
lay down;
but now I
'm standing, lively and happy,
looking at the sky with my face.

2. My eye looks at what God has built
in his honor and to teach us
how his fortune is mighty and great
and where the pious should then go,
when they have passed away with peace
from this earth's transitory womb.

3. Let us sing, bring
goods and gifts to the Creator ; whatever we have,
everything is sacrificed to God!
The best goods are our minds;
grateful songs are incense and ram,
which he delights most.

4. Evening and morning are his worries;
blessing and increasing, preventing misfortune
are his works and deeds alone.
When we lie down, he is present;
when we rise, he makes a
light of his mercy rise over us.

5. I have raised
all my senses to you high above ; let my beginnings
proceed happily and without concern.
Vice and shame, Lucifer's bonds,
traps and deceit drift back afar;
let me insist on your commandments.

6. Let me
see with joy and without all envy the blessing that you will place
in my brother's and closest house.
Stingy burning, unchristian race
for good with sin, wipe it out
of my heart and throw it out.

7. Human being, what was it?
It will perish in an hour
as soon as the breeze of death blows on it.
Everything in all must break and fall,
heaven and earth must become
what they were before they were exhausted.

8. Everything perishes, but God stands
without wavering; his thoughts,
his word and his will have eternal reason.
His salvation and graces, which are not harmed,
heal deadly pains in the heart,
keep us healthy in time and forever.

9. God, my crown, forgive and spare,
let my debts
be turned away from your eyes with grace and grace .
Otherwise rule me, guide and lead
as you please; I have put
everything in your discretion and hand.

10. If you want to give me what
I can nourish my life with , let me hear
this holy word in my heart at all times :
God is the greatest, the most beautiful and the best,
God is the sweetest and most certain,
of all the treasures of noblest hoard.

11. If you want to offend me, soak me with gall,
and should I also wear
something of plagues, well, do it as you please.
What is good and efficient, what is harmful and void to
my bones, you know alone,
have never troubled anyone too much.

12. The cross and the wretched will come to an end;
after the roar of the sea and the blowing of the wind
, the sun's desired face lights up. I have
joy, abundance and blissful silence
to wait in the heavenly garden;
that is where my thoughts are directed.

translation

Excerpts from the song have been translated into English several times. Catherine Winkworth translated stanzas 1-4, 8, 9 and 12 as The golden sunbeams with their joyous gleams and published it in 1855 in her Lyra Germanica collection . Their translation follows the rhyme scheme, but not always the meter. Richard Massie translated stanzas 4, 8-12 as Evening and Morning and considered the meter for a singable version that appeared in Mercer's Church Psalm & Hymn Book in 1857 .

Melodies and musical arrangements

The golden sun full of joy and bliss (organ)

Ebeling's melody follows the text of the first verse in its course, beginning high, leading down to the text “lay darnieder” and rising again to “But now I stand”. The text alludes to the resurrection. While many lines of the song have five syllables, Ebeling chose the Galliarde's three- bar , whose light-footed dance rhythm musically cancel out the often earthy thoughts of the text.

The song appears in Schemelli's hymn book with a different melody, which was first published in Freylinghausen's hymn book in 1708 and to which Johann Sebastian Bach probably wrote the figured bass. Johannes Schmidlin published a third melody in his hymn book Singendes und spielendes Genuss pure prayer, or Geistiges Gesänge from 1758.

literature

  • Jürgen Henkys : The golden sun. In: Singing and sung faith: hymnological contributions in a new series. 1999, pp. 120-133.
  • Handbook for the evangelical church hymn book: Liederkunde: T. 1. Lied 1 to 175. T. 2. Lied 176–394. Göttingen 1990, p. 432ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The golden sun full of joy and bliss ( de ) In: www.evangeliums.net . Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Henkys : The golden sun. P. 124.
  3. ^ Songs by Paul Gerhardt . In: iah-hymnologie.de . Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ Elke Liebig: Johann Georg Ebeling and Paul Gerhardt: Song composition in confessional conflict. The spiritual devotions Berlin 1666/67 . In: Europäische Hochschulschriften , Volume 253. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-63-157469-0 , p. 11.
  5. ↑ a b Walter Blankenburg : The development of hymnology since around 1950/3. Paul Gerhardt - research . In: Theologische Rundschau . 44, 1979, pp. 319-349.
  6. ↑ a b c Johannes Zahn : The melodies of the German Protestant church songs (Zahn, Johannes) , Volume IV . Bertelsmann , Gütersloh 1891, pp.  642 - 644 .
  7. ↑ a b c Dieter Koch: Choral devotion / The golden sun full of joy and delight (EG 449) . In: Evangelical Church in Korb . August 2, 2020. Accessed September 24, 2020.
  8. ↑ Die güldne Sonne ( en ) In: The Free Lutheran Chorale-Book . Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  9. ↑ a b The golden sun, full of joy and delight . In: hymnary.org . Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  10. ^ A b Evening and Morning . In: hymnary.org . Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Christa Kirschbaum: Choral devotion / The golden sun full of joy and delight (EG 449) . In: WDR . August 6, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  12. ↑ a b The golden sunbeams with their joyous gleams ( en ) In: hymnary.org . Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  13. ^ A b c Paul Kohler: Songs by Paul Gerhardt . Schweizerischer Kirchengesangsbund , March 2007, p. 11 (accessed on November 5, 2020).
  14. ↑ Melody at Freylinghausen 1708
  15. ↑ The golden sun (sacred song) BWV 451; BC F 219 / song . In: Bach Digital . Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  16. ↑ Johannes Schmidlin: Singing and playing pleasure of pure devotion, or, Geistige Gesänge , Zurich 1758, p. 12f.