Geneva melody for the 134th psalm
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The Geneva melody for the 134th Psalm is the melody of the Geneva Psalter for the rhyming version of Psalm 134 . It is still one of the most widespread ways of singing from the Geneva Reformed tradition . In the German-speaking area, it is contained with different texts in hymn books of different denominations ( Evangelical hymn book No. 140, 142, 300, 413, 464; Gotteslob No. 539) and is usually named with the beginning of the text, Herr Gott, dich proben alle wir . It became particularly popular in the Anglo-Saxon world, where it is called Old 100th .
Origin and character
The French-language Geneva Psalter appeared from 1539 onwards in larger volumes and from 1562 contained all psalms in strophic adaptations with mostly new melodies. The work was inspired and initially written by the reformer Johannes Calvin . For him, words from the Bible, especially psalms, were the only legitimate texts for chanting in worship services; resealings close to the original were allowed. The melodies should be rhythmically designed so that they differ from secular dance songs .
Most of the melodies in the first editions came from Guillaume Franc , the later ones from Loys Bourgeois , including the one for Psalm 134 in the 1551 edition. According to the text by Théodore de Bèze , it has the metrical scheme of the Ambrosian hymn verse , one of the most common of strophic church chant. The first three melody lines have the same rhythmic structure, the fourth breaks the pattern. The melody cannot be periodized in bars and thus corresponds to Calvin's specifications. It has been rhythmically modified many times in the history of reception. The scale type Major highlights the Lobcharakter the text.
Reception in the German-speaking area
Reformed tradition: psalm song
The songs of the Geneva Psalter were translated into German by Ambrosius Lobwasser . The work, in which he retained meter and melodies from the French model, was published in 1573 under the title The Psalter of the Royal Prophet David . His version of Psalm 134 has the beginning of the text Your Servant of the Lord all too . Lobwasser's psalm songs were replaced by new versions by Matthias Jorissen in 1798 . He also kept the Geneva melodies. Psalm 134 begins with him. Praise God, the Lord of glory ( EG 300).
Lutheran tradition: Angel song
In Lutheran church chants, the melody with the text of Paul Ebers Song of the Angels, Lord God, we all praise you at home, a rewrite of the Latin hymn Dicimus grates tibi by Philipp Melanchthon . Eber's stanzas appeared in print in 1554; When exactly they were connected with the Geneva melody is uncertain, at the latest Sethus Calvisius did it in 1597. It became the main hymn of Michaelmas and is still included as such in the evangelical hymn book from 1950 (No. 115). The most prominent arrangement of the song is Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata 130 .
The melody of the Lutheran angel song was chosen by the Catholic priest Ernst Hofmann in 1971 for his new angel song God, Lord of all Creation , which he wrote for the praise of God in 1975 . This text replaced Paul Eber's stanzas in the Evangelical Hymnal of 1993 (No. 142) and is also in the 2013 Praise of God (No. 539).
Reception in the Anglo-Saxon world
During the reign of Mary I , English and Scottish Protestant theologians fled to Geneva and came into contact with the church singing there. This resulted in the so-called Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter , an English rhyming version of the Psalms based on the model of the Geneva Psalter, which was completed in 1562 and subsequently experienced many new editions. The authors treated their submission more freely than praise, changed meters and exchanged melodies. They used the Geneva melody for the 134th Psalm, slightly modified, for Psalm 100 - hence the name Old 100th -: All people that on earth do dwell . The text is now attributed to the Scotsman William Kethe .
All people became one of the most popular hymns in Anglican church chant. In the arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams the song was played u. a at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 and at her 60th anniversary to the throne in 2013. At the coronation in 1953 it was sung as a parish song (or alternately parish / choir) for the offertory ; this was the first time a song sung by the congregation found its way into the British coronation liturgy.
The melody was also linked to other lyrics, including Praise God, from whom all blessings flow , also known as The Doxology . Its popular Hawaiian version Hoʻonani i ka Makua mau was translated by Hiram Bingham (1789–1869) and is included in hymn books.
literature
- William Henry Havergal: A History of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune . New York 1854 ( digitized )
Web links
- Geneva Melody for Psalm 134 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ digitized version
- ↑ digitized version
- ↑ You-Tube-Video
- ^ Matthias Range: Music and Ceremonial at British Coronations: From James I to Elizabeth II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2012, ISBN 9781139560993 , p. 248
- ↑ Hoʻonani i ka Makua mau at Hymnary.org ; Hoʻonani i ka Makua mau at Huapala.org
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