A house full of glory looks
A house full of glory looks is one of the most sung German-speaking Catholic hymns . It can be heard regularly on Kirchweihtag and other festive occasions of the communities. Joseph Mohr wrote the original text and the melody in 1875. The stanzas 2–5 contained today in God's Praise (No. 478) were written by Hans W. Marx in 1972/75.
Origin and reception
The Rhinelander Joseph Mohr worked his life literarily and pastorally for the enrichment and deepening of the Catholic parish singing. For the holy mass , especially for the high mass , his objective was Latin chant based on the model of Gregorian chant . For the liturgical subsidiary forms and folk devotion, he also valued the German song and ascribed it strong effects on the life of faith, provided that it met a minimum aesthetic and content standard. Of his own creations for this genre, A House of Glory became the most popular.
The song was probably written in 1875 and was first published in 1876. At this time the Jesuit Mohr was abroad as a result of the Bismarck culture war and the Jesuit law . Against this background, a house full of glory is designed as a confessional and processional song that should strengthen the Catholic identity and make it perceptible to the outside world. In powerful images, it formulates the new self-confidence of the Catholic Church that developed in the decades after the collapse of the old imperial church in 1803, which culminated in the dogmatic definitions of the First Vatican Council in 1870.
The effect of the song is largely based on its hymn melody , in particular on the increase in the (original) refrain “God, we praise you, God, we praise you. O let us all be safe in your house ”. The quiet four-four time and the forwards and upwards pressing interval steps clearly depict the walking of a procession.
During the time of National Socialism there was a textual parallel between Mohr's stanza 6, which deals with the martyrs and the ecclesia militans , and the first stanza of the Horst Wessel song , especially in the formulation of the tightly closed rows . In the increasingly rare possible public church celebrations, A House of Glory got additional explosiveness.
After the Second Vatican Council , many of the formulations in the song, which could also be called "a kind of national anthem of the new people of God", were considered obsolete. Instead of an exclusivist ecclesiology , the focus on the world and the fundamental incompleteness of the “wandering people of God” should be emphasized. This concern was more in line with today's stanzas 3–5, created for the praise of God in 1975 by Friedrich Dörr under the pseudonym "Hans W. Marx". In contrast, today's second stanza, which was created at the same time, adheres to a church image that understands the institution as a divine institution (“founded on Zion”) with the preaching mandate of God's word as “witnesses in the world”.
Original text (1875)
A house full of glory looks
far over all land,
Built from eternal stone
By God's master hand.
God! we praise you;
God! we praise you;
O leave yours in the house
We are all safe!
It is
very gloriously crowned with strong towers of defense,
And high above the
signs of the cross shine glorious.
God! we praise you ...
The storm
rages around the walls in wild fury;
The house will outlast,
on solid ground it rests.
God! we praise you ...
Whether the enemy also threatens him, the
power of hell rushes:
The Savior's love and loyalty
watches over his battlements.
God! we praise you ...
The purest virgin
stands by the son ;
To it crowd to battle
the war Schaar fully confide.
God! we praise you ...
Many thousands have already shed
their blood with holy lust;
The ranks stand firmly
in high spirits of faith.
God! we praise you ...
On! We
too hurry to a holy quarrel;
The Lord who founded the house,
gives us everlasting victory.
God! we praise you ...
literature
- Bernd Distelkamp: "A house full of glory looks ..." The Siegburg hymn composer Joseph Mohr . Siegburger Blätter 21, 2009 ( online ; PDF; 429 kB).
- Michael Hölscher, C. Mönkehues: “Holy, Lord of Heaven ?!” Problematic imagery in psalms and hymns. Material for Bible study at the 97th German Catholic Day in Osnabrück. Pp. 10-12 ( online ).
- Rebecca Schmidt: Against the allure of novelty. Catholic restoration in the 19th century. Heinrich Bone, Joseph Mohr, Guido Maria Dreves (= Mainz hymnological studies, volume 15). Francke, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-7720-8073-1 ( limited preview in the Google book search - also a review by Michael Fischer in Lied und popular Kultur - Song and Popular Culture. Yearbook of the German Folk Song Archive, 49th year. Waxmann, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8309-6591-5 , p. 263 f., Limited preview in the Google book search).
- Meinrad Walter: "I praise my God ..." 40 God praise songs presented and made accessible. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2015, ISBN 978-3-451-31260-1 , pp. 79-82.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermann Kurzke: Church song and culture (= Mainz hymnological studies, volume 24). Francke, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-7720-8378-5 , p. 185 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Alex Stock : Poetic Dogmatics, 1st room. Paderborn 2014, p. 79.
- ↑ Ansgar Franz , Hermann Kurzke , Christiane Schäfer (ed.): The songs of God's praise. History - liturgy - culture . Katholisches Bibelwerk GmbH, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-460-42900-0 , p. 269 f .
- ^ Text version based on Cantate 1883; today's verses 2-5 are still subject to copyright protection and cannot be reproduced here.