Jesus, my confidence
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Jesus, my confidence is a German evangelical hymn. Actually an Easter song , it developed into one of the most popular and ecumenically used burial songs in the 19th and early 20th centuries .
Origin and structure
The song was first published (today verifiable) in 1653 in the hymn book for the Reformed in the Mark Brandenburg by the Berlin publisher Christoph Runge: Spiritual songs and psalms , as No. 140 and in the same year in the fifth edition of Johann Crüger's hymn book Praxis Pietatis Melica . In both hymn books it is in the section From Jesus Christ's Resurrection as an Easter song. It consists of ten stanzas instead of the seven common today.
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By a reference in the preface by Christoph Runge, in which he announced that Electress Luise Henriette wanted to "increase and decorate such a book with [4] her own songs", including Jesus, my confidence , since the end of the 18th century Century concluded that she was also the author of the text. Very soon doubts arose, especially because of Luise Henriette's lack of knowledge of German. It was also pointed out that "own" at this time should be understood as favorite songs or as songs that she had made her own. After a period of “complete perplexity” with regard to the author, the thesis asserted as early as the 19th century and argued by Siegfried Fornaçon in 1977 has prevailed that the author was Otto von Schwerin , Luise Henriettes Hofmeister and later First Minister of the Electorate of Brandenburg . So today, von Schwerin is named as the author in the Evangelical Hymnal (EG 526). In addition to linguistic reasons, Fornaçon states that Ludwig Erk mentions a print from 1644 (now lost?) In his German song library . At that time, Luise Henriette was 17 years old and was still living in the Netherlands.
The text draws faith and confidence in one's own physical resurrection from Jesus' resurrection . In early Pietist formulations, he emphasizes the close connection between the “I” and Jesus Christ. The image of "this skin" (stanza 5) and "I, no one else not" (stanza 6) go back to the translation of the Luther Bible of Job 19: 25-27 LUT . The passage from the 19th chapter of the book of Job can be found in the Christian tradition of interpretation on numerous funerary monuments and also in Handel's oratorio The Messiah , where the soprano aria I know that my Redeemer liveth / I know that my Redeemer lives opens the third part. It is also the biblical basis for Paul Gerhardt's song I Know That My Savior Lives . In today's hymn books, the 5th stanza has been deleted because the Luther translation was more closely aligned with the original Hebrew text in a revision. The last two moralizing stanzas, which according to Fornaçon, like stanza 8, are based on the didactic poem Apotheosis by the late antique poet Prudentius , can no longer be found in the hymnbook today. Verse 7 (today 6) has echoes of 1 Cor 15.42–44 LUT .
text
| Practice Pietatis Melica (1653) | Common text today (EG 526) |
|---|---|
|
1. JESUS my confidence |
1. Jesus, my confidence |
melody
The song has its own melody added to the song in the Runge hymn book without giving the author. Johannes Zahn thought it possible that Christoph Runge himself was their composer. The first four lines of this melody are composed through. In Crüger's practice Pietatis does the reorganized, and this reworking “can be ascribed to Crüger with certainty”. Here lines 3 and 4 of the original are replaced by a repetition of the first two; the closing lines took on a swing characteristic of Crüger. The melody, however, continued to appear without a name identifier; it was only ascribed to Crüger in the editions of the Praxis Pietatis by Peter Sohr of 1668 and 1683.
Soon the song was presented in a rhythmically simplified, sung. In this form, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert adopted it as a loan melody for his Easter song Jesus lives, with him me too . In the appendix to his collection of sacred songs, Gellert expressly assigns them to the text Jesus lives, and so do I ; he was sure to have it in his ear as he wrote it. There were also alternative melodies , including My Jesus I won't let and a Hamburg melody by Georg Philipp Telemann , but these did not prevail.
In the 19th century, the melody of Jesus, My Confidence, was a classic example often cited in the debate about the restoration of the rhythmic melody forms in the hymnal. The proponents of the restoration of the rhythmic version lamented the, in their opinion, "dull manner of metrical monotony" and demanded my confidence for Jesus , as well as for Now all thank God and A solid castle is our God the imprint in the hymnbook "in the lively, inspiring original form next to the existing form, weakened and stunted according to rhythm and probably also harmony ”. Nevertheless, the isometric form showed a stubborn resistance due to its widespread use and simpler way of singing. In Protestant hymnal (EC 526) are both versions today, besides the rhythmic version Crüger isometric than later form .
Impact history
The song did not develop the greatest impact history as an Easter song as originally, but in the context of the Protestant burial. It has been widely popularized since the beginning of the 19th century “as a resurrection song on the grave”. Even Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert commented: "This song is sung, was buried when my father; it was my mother's funeral song, and when my blessed wife was buried in her grave, it was sung too. ” Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland wanted it for his grave, and at his funeral in 1836 it was sung by a huge mourners.
In the 19th century it was so widespread that it appeared in official ordinances as the funeral song par excellence, for example in a Mecklenburg-Schwerin fee schedule for “ funeral fees” from 1818, where the cantor “for the singing of the song: 'Jesus my confidence', or another at the grave, with a student responding “a fee of 30 shillings had to be paid.
In 1824 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy created a five-part chorale motet about Jesus, my confidence ( MWV B 13), presumably for the Berlin Singakademie . He distributed the six stanzas sung at the time as follows: first stanza chorus (chorale); second stanza solos (SSATB) with the cantus firmus in the second soprano; third stanza choir (SSATB), cantus firmus in tenor; fourth and fifth stanza Aria (bass solo with organ). The motet is concluded by a double fugue from the choir Hallelujah, Amen . The chorale was also heard on Mendelssohn's coffin in 1847: “When the coffin with all its decorations of wreaths of flowers and waving palm trees had arrived at the Anhalt railway station in Berlin, it was brought onto the hearse stopped in front of the house while a music choir sang the chorus' Jesus mein Confidence 'sounded. The cathedral choir sang the same chorale when the funeral procession, illuminated by the first rays of the rising sun, arrived at the Trinity Churchyard in front of the Halle Gate . "
Ever since the song of Jesus, my confidence when the corpse of Queen Luise arrived in Berlin in 1810, the song, her favorite song, had become part of the funeral culture of the Prussian royal family and was heard at all the Hohenzollern funeral ceremonies . In 1842, Hermann Adalbert Daniel , who was not a fan of the song, remarked that its validity in the community was essentially due to "custom and in the Prussian lands also to patriotism ".
A special importance was in the days of the German Revolution in 1848 in connection with the Berlin Märzgefallenen the barricades uprising . The more than 200 fallen were carried into the inner courtyard of the Berlin Palace on March 19, 1848 . The crowd called out loud to the king to come out and pay homage to the dead. When King Friedrich Wilhelm IV , standing on the balcony, the queen by the arm, complied with the demand in front of the bodies laid out and bared their heads, the crowd spontaneously agreed to my confidence in Jesus . The event left an unforgettable impression on everyone. The chorale that restored the dignity of the dead at this gruesome moment has been interpreted in very different ways. Shortly afterwards, Adolf Streckfuss met the democratic writer Julius Stein , who summed up his view of the events in the words: “A people that sings my confidence to Jesus a few hours after the fight does not make a revolution.” Ferdinand Freiligrath grasped this in his political form Poem Die Todten to the Living , in which he causes the fallen to make angry accusations and revolutionary appeals to the living:
"That's it! The ball in the chest, the forehead split wide,
So you held us up to the arbor on a swaying board!
"Down!" - and he came staggered - staggered to our bed;
"Hats off!" - he pulled - he leaned! (so sank to the puppet,
who was only a comedian!) - he stood pale and anxious!
The army meanwhile left the city, which we took dying,
Then "Jesus my confidence!", As you can read in the book:
A "iron my confidence!" Would have been more convenient! "
Friedrich Engels expressed himself in a similarly critical form in the Rheinische Zeitung on the anniversary of 1849: “The Berlin March Revolution, this faint echo of the Vienna Revolution, never inspired us. On March 19, 1848, Berlin sang: 'Jesus my confidence!' This time we advise brave Berlin to say on March 18: ' Wrangel my confidence!' "
The chorale sounded several times during the funeral ceremonies on March 22nd, first through a chapel on the Gendarmenmarkt , where the coffins were laid out in front of the New Church , then at the celebration itself and also during the funeral procession to the cemetery of the March fallen in Friedrichshain , where the on the steps of the Royal Opera House on Unter den Linden intoned the cathedral choir .
In 1870 the song achieved such universal acceptance as civil religious funeral music that it was also played at the funeral of the left-wing liberal Catholic MP Benedikt Waldeck and opened the funeral procession, in which tens of thousands of people took part.
The chorale was immortalized in literature in 1889 in Theodor Fontane's popular ballad Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck in Havelland . It describes the funeral of old Mr. von Ribbeck as follows:
“And three days later, from the double-roofed house,
von Ribbeck carried them out,
All the farmers and Büdner, with their faces of celebration,
sang“ Jesus my confidence ”
and the children complained, their hearts heavy,
“ He is dod nu. Who gives us a beer? ""
The typical funeral procession, accompanied by Jesus, my confidence , is hardly missing in any of Fontane's stories.
The ecumenical opening and use continued in the 20th century. Even if Jesus, my confidence, was not included in the Catholic hymn book Praise God , it can still be found in the ecumenical selection of chants for burial published by the Working Group for Ecumenical Songs .
Catherine Winkworth created an English translation of Jesus, my Redeemer, lives for her collection Lyra Germanica, which she revised in 1863 for her Chorale Book for England as Jesus Christ, my sure defense . Both versions are now in numerous hymn books in various denominations. Jesus Christ predominates , my sure defense .
Military music
Jesus, my confidence in the Protestant territories of the German Empire has been part of the mourning repertoire of military bands since the 19th century and has remained so to this day. In his history of the hymn , Eduard Emil Koch reports that the song, which he calls the “tone of hope of the Brandenburg House”, was “regularly the last consolation at the graves of the fallen” in the Franco-German War of 1870/71.
“The band of a unit that had marched out had nothing more to begin with than the notes of two chorales, namely from Now thank all God and Jesus, my confidence . It was, as the field chaplain who relates this, a very significant selection. Because the idea was that in the field it was important either to win or to die. "
This almost standard use lasted through the First World War and the Weimar Republic until the years of the Nazi regime . Even at the funerals of staunch National Socialists, SA bands continued to play Jesus my confidence as a funeral chorale, for example at the funeral of Gustav Zunkel in Weimar in 1934. This was favored by the civil religious use that had been going on for generations . Only later did the National Socialists resist the song, which was now perceived as "denominational"; for example in a complaint against its use at the funeral service for Colonel General Ernst Udet in 1941, where it was played by the Luftwaffe music corps .
Since 1962 there has been a central service regulation 78/3 of the Bundeswehr with provisions on the appearance of the Bundeswehr music corps . This was the first time that the procedure for the military escort of honor at funeral ceremonies and state acts was laid down. Then the music corps plays a “funeral chorale” or “presentation chorale” when receiving the coffin. The chorale is not fixed, as an example was given in 1970 What God does is well done . In fact, Jesus seems , to my confidence, to be the oldest and most widespread funeral chorale in military music today. To this day, the isometric version of the melody is played with augmented tones. Jesus my confidence sounded as a funeral chorale in the state files for Johannes Rau , Richard von Weizsäcker , Helmut Schmidt , Roman Herzog and Helmut Kohl .
If the chorale is blown while walking to the grave, it can be interrupted by the enticement for the funeral march .
literature
- Johann Friedrich Bachmann: The Easter song "Jesus, my confidence": a hymnological study. Schultze, Berlin 1874 ( digitized in the Google book search).
- Elisabeth Fischer-Krückeberg: Johann Crüger's chorale melodies. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg Church History 28 (1933), pp. 31–95, esp. P. 93.
- Siegfried Fornaçon: Jesus my confidence. In: Musik und Gottesdienst , 31 (1977), pp. 109–120.
- Lukas Lorbeer, Andreas Marti: 526 - Jesus, my confidence . In: Martin Evang, Ilsabe Alpermann (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch . No. 26 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-525-50009-5 , pp. 90–95 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666500091.90 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ DM Luthers and other distinguished, ingenious and learned men Spiritual songs and psalms, on peculiar ones of your Electors. Your Highness, to Brandenburg. . Most gracious orders. . To Berlin, printed and published by Christoff Runge, in the 1653rd year.
- ^ A b Johann Crüger: Practice Pietatis Melica. That is: Exercising godliness in Christian and comforting chants. Editio V. Runge, Berlin 1653 (printed music from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), No. 175, p. 340.
- ↑ Siegfried Fornaçon: Jesus my confidence . In: Musik und Gottesdienst , 31 (1977), pp. 109-120, ZDB -ID 303330-2 .
- ↑ Ludwig Erk, Franz Magnus Böhme (ed.): Deutscher Liederhort , Volume 3. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1893, p. 865, No. 2169.
- ^ Johannes Kulp (ed. By Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Evangelical Church Hymn book (= Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymn book. Special volume). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, p. 517.
- ↑ Siegfried Fornaçon: Jesus my confidence . In: Musik und Gottesdienst ZDB -ID 303330-2 31 (1977), p. 117.
- ↑ Text version based on: Evangelical hymn book . Edition for the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Bavaria and Thuringia. 2nd Edition. Evangelical Press Association for Bavaria, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-583-12100-7 , No. 526
- ↑ The Melodies of the German Protestant Church Songs, Volume 6. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh, 1893, p. 187, No. 3432a.
- ^ Elisabeth Fischer-Krückeberg: Johann Crügers Choral Melodies. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg Church History , 28 (1933), pp. 31–95, here p. 93, ZDB -ID 6344-7 .
- ↑ Bachmann (lit.), pp. 78-80
- ↑ See z. B. Eduard Emil Koch : History of hymns and hymns. Volume 7: The Poets and Singers . Stuttgart 3rd edition, 1872, p. 427f.
- ↑ Siona: Monthly for Liturgy and Church Music 20 (1895), p. 143.
- ^ Johannes Kulp (ed. By Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Evangelical Church Hymn book (= Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymn book. Special volume). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958; P. 517.
- ↑ Quoted from Emil Koch : History of the hymn and hymn of the Christian, especially the German Protestant church. Volume 8: The songs and sages. Belser, Stuttgart, 3rd edition, 1874, p. 74.
- ^ Collection of laws for the Mecklenburg-Schwerin'sche Lande , Volume 4. Hinstorff, Wismar / Ludwigslust, 1852, p. 84.
- ^ Wilhelm Adolf Lampadius: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A total picture of his life and work. Leuckart, Leipzig 1886, p. 357.
- ^ Achim Mayer: History of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1794–1890. Neustrelitz 1894, p. 54.
- ↑ Quoted from Bachmann (Lit.), p. 89.
- ↑ Hans Hattenhauer : Struggle for a historical image: The March fallen. In: Thomas Stamm-Kuhlmann, Jürgen Elvert, Birgit Aschmann and Jens Hohensee (Hrsg.): Geschistorbilder: Festschrift for Michael Salewski on his 65th birthday. Steiner, Stuttgart, 2003, ISBN 978-3-515-08252-5 , pp. 369-380.
- ↑ From fishing village to cosmopolitan city. 500 Years of Berlin City History , Volume 2. Berlin 1885, p. 1007.
- ↑ Ferdinand Freiligrath : The dead to the living . ( Wikisource )
- ^ Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: Works , Volume 6. Dietz, Berlin, 1973, p. 362.
- ↑ Illustrirte Zeitung , April 15, 1848, p. 262.
- ^ Christian Jansen: Founding days and nation building 1849–1871 (= UTB 3253). Schöningh, Paderborn u. a., 2011, ISBN 978-3-8252-3253-5 , p. 238.
- ^ Theodor Fontane : Herr von Ribbeck on Ribbeck in the Havelland . ( Wikisource )
- ↑ Heide Buscher: The function of the secondary characters in Fontane's novels with special consideration of “Before the Storm” and “The Stechlin”. Diss.Bon 1969, p. 75.
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↑ Udo Grub: Evangelical traces in the Catholic standard hymn book "Gotteslob" from 1975 (= Aesthetics - Theology - Liturgy, 55). LIT, Münster, 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11663-5 , p. 154.
Chants for burial: common hymns and prayers of German-speaking Christendom. Edited on behalf of the Christian churches in the German-speaking area by the Working Group for Ecumenical Songs. Merseburger, Berlin, 1978, ISBN 978-3-7917-0520-0 . - ↑ Jesus, my Redeemer, lives at hymnary.org, accessed November 16, 2017.
- ^ Catherine Winkworth: Lyra Germanica. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London 1855, pp. 93-95; for Tuesday in Easter Week .
- ↑ Jesus Christ, my sure defense at hymnary.org, accessed November 15, 2017.
- ↑ Hymnary.org lists 17 hymn books for Jesus, my Redeemer, lives (but only one after 1979) and 53 hymn books for Jesus Christ, my sure defense , 6 of them after 1979.
- ^ Eduard Koch: History of the hymn and hymn of the Christian, especially the German Protestant church. Volume 8: The songs and sages . 3rd edition Stuttgart: Belser 1874, p. 75.
- ↑ Described by Jürgen Boettcher, Jutus H. Ulbricht: 'The way of the new Germany still went forward via graves'. Insights into the political cult of the dead in Weimar . In: Ursula Härtl, Burkhard Stenzel, Justus H. Ulbricht: "Here, here is Germany ..." From national cultural concepts to National Socialist cultural policy . Published on behalf of the Buchenwald Memorial and the Weimar Classic Foundation. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 1997, ISBN 3-89244-279-7 , pp. 57–82, here p. 68.
- ^ The one with Sarah Thieme: National Socialist Martyr Cult: Sacralized Politics and Christianity in the Westphalian Ruhr Area (1929–1939) (= Religion and Modernism 9). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-593-50808-5 , p. 377 In view of the multiple use in 1933/34, there was a hint of amazement that the song belonged to the repertoire of the orchestras and "the SA-Kapellmeister [...] as well [was] ready to play the Christian funeral song at this scenically important point, "fails to recognize the fact that the text no longer played a role here (the song was not sung together, in contrast to church funerals ...) and put it in context military funeral ceremonies have long ceased to be an expression of an individual, specifically Christian belief in the resurrection.
- ↑ It will of course be possible to demand that no denominational funeral music be used at state funerals either. Quoted from Helmut Heiber : The normal madness under the swastika: Trivial and strange things from the files of the Third Reich. Herbig, Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-7766-1968-3 , p. 104.
- ↑ a b Bernhard Höfele: The religious element, represented by music, in the military ceremonies of the Bundeswehr. In: Peter Moormann, Albrecht Riethmüller, Rebecca Wolf (eds.): Paradestück military music: Contributions to the change of state representation through music. transcript, Bielefeld, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-1655-2 , pp. 81–96, here p. 90.
- ↑ Funeral ceremonies for former Federal Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl on July 1, 2017 in Strasbourg and Speyer (PDF) Inland protocol: "The Bundeswehr Music Corps plays the funeral chorale 'Jesu [sic!] My confidence' and then the national anthem", accessed on November 14, 2017.