Honor only to God on high

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God alone in the heights with Johann Spangenberg, Kirchengesenge Deudtsch , Magdeburg 1545

Honor to God alone is a Lutheran hymn that is included in most German-language hymn books today. Text and melody were created by Nikolaus Decius in 1523 as a glory for the Reformation German mass . Joachim Slueter added a fourth stanza in 1525.

Emergence

Decius' authorship is sparse. Alone God in the Heights was only printed anonymously until the 18th century . In his Braunschweigische Kirchen-Historie, Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer shares a Latin report from the year 1600 in which Decius's acquaintances testify innocently as the writer of texts and melodies from Only God in the Heights, Honor and O Lamb of God . Biographically, Decius' song writing is set to 1522/23 in Braunschweig , i.e. in the early phase of the Reformation, even before Luther's first songs.

The song was written in Low German and was first printed; only afterwards was it translated into standard German , which can be seen in places in the syllable and rhyme structure.

Synopsis of the choral mass Lux et origo with God alone in the heights be honor

Decius paraphrased the Latin Gloria text in three stanzas. Martin Luther's “September Testament was already available to him ; this is proven by his formulation “God is pleased with us” (cf. Lk 2,14  LUT ) for the Latin “hominibus bonae voluntatis”, which is usually translated as “people of good will”.

Decius concluded with the request “Have mercy on us. Amen". Slütersche fourth stanza was created with the intention of completing the trinitarian structure of the original. In place of the original doxology , he put an supplication to the Holy Spirit with passion memory .

The melody is a rhythmic adaptation of the Gloria of the Easter choral mass Lux et origo ( GL 114).

reception

Although the song is missing from Luther's printed song collections - perhaps because of Decius' later inclination to Zwinglianism - it achieved a monopoly as a glory chant in the divine service regulations of the emerging Lutheran regional churches and has retained it to this day. In German Lutheran church music up to the end of the 18th century, especially in the work of Johann Sebastian Bach , Alone God in the Heights is one of the most frequently arranged melodies.

Translations

Alone God in the Heights was translated into Danish by Arvid Pedersen as Allene Gud i det høje være ære ... in the Danish hymn book, Rostock 1529, based on the Low German version by Nikolaus Decius , 1525, Aleyne Godt yn der hoege sy ere ... , reprinted in the Danish hymn book by Ludwig Dietz, 1536, and again in Hans Tausen , En Ny Psalmebog (A new hymn book), 1553. Later it came in other versions in the newer Danish hymn books.

text

Honor to
God alone , EG 179, GL 170

Lyrics in use today

The Lutheran Gloria

Only God on high be honor
and thanks for his grace,
so that now and never
can we move, no harm.
God is pleased with us;
now there is great peace without ceasing,
all feuds are now over.

Glory to God on high
and peace on earth,
a pleasure to men.

We praise, praise, adore you;
We thank
you for your honor that you, God the Father,
rule forever without wavering.
Your power is completely immeasurable
; what you consider to happen always happens.
Good for us such a gentleman!

We praise you, we adore you,
we praise you, we give you thanks
for your great honor,
Lord God, heavenly King,
God, almighty Father.

O Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of
the most high Father,
reconciler of those who lost,
you stiller of our strife,
Lamb of God, holy Lord and God: accept the request
out of our need, have
mercy on all of us.

Lord, only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,
you Most High.
Lord God, Lamb of God, a son of the Father,
who accept the sins of the world: have
mercy on us,
who accept the sins of the world: accept
our prayer,
who sit at the right hand of the Father: have
mercy on us.

O
Holy Spirit, you greatest good, you most
salutary comforter: from now on guarded from the violence of the devil,
which Jesus Christ redeems
through great martyrdom and bitter death;
avert all our misery and misery!
We rely on that.

For you alone are holy,
you are the Lord alone,
you are the highest, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

literature

Web links

Commons : Honor God alone on high  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Werner Merten: Decius, Nikolaus . In: Wolfgang Herbst (ed.): Who is who in the hymnal? , Göttingen 2001, pp. 73f.
  2. Bach based - including the vocal arrangements with different lyrics - BWV 85.3, 104.6, 112.1.5, 128.1, 260, 662, 663, 664, 675, 676, 677, 711, 715, 716, 717 and 771 (today Nicolaus Vetter attributed to) on the melody.
  3. Cf. Otto Holzapfel : Lied index: The older German-language popular song tradition ( online version on the Volksmusikarchiv homepage of the Upper Bavaria district ; in PDF format; ongoing updates) with further information.
  4. Evangelisches Gesangbuch 179; Mennonite Hymns 24; In Praise of God (No. 170) the 4th stanza is missing; there the second half of the fifth melody line is divided into two quarter notes, so that the apostrophes “well-liked”, “unmeasured” and “holy” are omitted.
  5. EG 180.1