God, holy creator of all stars

Fresco: The Creator of the Starry Sky , Vittskövle Church, Skåne

Hans Holbein the Younger : Christ vera lux ("Christ, the true light")

God, holy creator of all stars is an Advent song that the reformer and revolutionary Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525) created in 1523. It is a rhyming translation of the Latin hymn Conditor alme siderum , which is sung at Vespers in Advent . In addition to the book of hours , the hymn can also be found in the Praise of God under number 230 ( GL ^old 116) and in the Evangelical Hymnal (EG 3).

The Latin hymn

Conditor alme siderum in a manuscript from 1397

The basic holdings of the Conditor alme siderum go back to late antiquity . After a profound redesign for Breviary Urban VIII (1632), it is used again in the liturgical books of the Catholic Church in the versionattested toin the 10th century in the Kempten Monastery .

The hymn, originally with six stanzas and later expanded to include stanza 5, addresses Christ and praises him as the eternal Son of God , identical with the Father , who became man from the Virgin Mary in order to redeem humanity and thus all of creation to submit to his rule. The penultimate stanza asks Christ, the coming world judge, for guidance and preservation in faith. The hymn ends with the doxology .

The rewrite of Müntzer

Müntzer translates literally over long distances, but also clearly sets its own accents. The original address addressed to the second person of the Trinity, the creator logos, refers Müntzer to the father. So he makes the Christological hymn praise God, whose appearance through Christ by the people in apocalyptic reference recognized (M 1 M .; 3) is to be. (M 4.) extends God's domain beyond heaven and earth to hell . In M 5. Müntzer placed a concise summary of his theology, so to speak, whereby he took up the original text of a fifth cosmologically tinged stanza, which in turn was a later addition to the original Latin text of the hymn, at best associatively. His mariology and incarnation doctrine also go beyond the original through attributes such as tenderness (M 3 .; M 7). M 6. asks - unlike the submission - not protection from the enemy, but an increase in faith. The final stanza (M 7.) takes up the reference to the All Creator (M 5.).

The current form of the Müntz text has been carefully adapted to modern linguistic usage and the sense of rhythms. The otherwise identical versions of the Evangelical Hymnbook and the Praise of God differ in stanza 2, line 4, which is formulated as a salutation in the Praise of God (as in Müntzer), but in the EC is turned into the third person, otherwise, through Müntzer's shifting of addressees, incarnation and vicarious suffering would apparently be predicated by God the Father.

melody

The melody is handed down in a hymn of the Kempten monastery around 1000. It is composed in the 4th church tone . The well-known German version is a counterfactor . The Advent song Praise be to Almighty God by Michael Weisse, based on the hymn, was sung regionally with this melody. It is based on Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement in the Little Organ Book ( BWV 602 ^{? / I} ).

text

Kempten (10th century)	translation	Thomas Müntzer	Evangelical hymn book
Conditor alme siderum, aeterna lux credentium, Christe, redemptor omnium, exaudi preces supplicum. Qui condolens interitu mortis perire saeculum, salvasti mundum languidum, donans reis remedium, Vergente mundi vespere, uti sponsus de thalamo, egressus honestissima Virginis matris clausula. Cuius forti potentiae genu curvantur omnia; caelestia, terrestria nutu fatentur subdita. Occasum sol custodiens, Luna pallorem retinens, Candor in astris relucens Certos observant limites. Te, Sancte, fide quaesumus, venture iudex saeculi, conserva nos in tempore hostis a telo perfidi. Laus, honor, virtus, gloria Deo Patri cum Filio Sancto simul Paraclito, in sempiterna saecula. Amen.	Exalted Creator of the stars, eternal light of believers, Christ, Redeemer of all, hear the supplications of those who plead. Compassionate for the world that passed in the end of death, you saved the sick world by giving the cure to the accused; when the evening of the world fell, how the bridegroom emerged from the bridal chamber from the most venerable cell of the virgin mother; you, before whose mighty power everything bows down, at whose hint the powers of heaven and earth confess to submit. The sun, which keeps its time of setting, the moon, which keeps its pale glow, the white gleam that shines against in the stars, they observe the certain limits. You, saint, we confidently ask, coming judge of the world, protect us in time from the missile of the faithless enemy. Praise, honor, power, glory God the Father with the Son as well as the holy Comforter for all eternity. Amen.	God, heylger schöpffer aller stern, enlighten us, who we are so distant, to know that we were Christians who became hye man before us. Then it went to heart very much, that we were caught heavy should be forever of death; so you call yourself guilty and peyn. Do the world want to adventure, the breutgam Christ was discovered. outside seyner mother kemerleyn the junckfraw remained tender and wholly reyn. He has created his great power, which reveals it in the whole world, all knees must be in the hymel, bright and alhye. Everything that is created by yhn He gives strength , being and time according to his will to recognize yhn clearly. We ask you, oh holy Christian, when you will be the judge in the future, teach us to do your will before doing your will and to believe. Praise, preyß be, father, your strengthens deym tender son, who creates all things, in a being the dreyheyt, with the geyst deyner heyligkeyt. Amen.	God, holy creator of all stars, illuminates us who are so far away that we recognize Jesus Christ, who became man for us. Because it went to your heart very much, since we were caught heavy and should even be death; so he took on himself guilt and pain. As the world turned towards evening, the bridegroom Christ was sent. From his mother's little room it emerged as a clear glow. He has shown his great power that it resounds all over the world , all knees in heaven and on earth must bend . We ask you, O holy Christian, who will be judge in the future, teach us beforehand to do your will and to increase in faith. Praise, praise be, father, your strength and your son, who creates all things, the holy comforter also both here and there in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

literature

• Siegfried Bräuer : 3 - God, holy creator of all stars . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 5 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-50326-1 , pp. 5–8 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Conditor alme siderum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikibooks: song book / God, holy creator of all stars  - sheet music for the song

Remarks

1. ↑ Markus Bautsch: On counterfactures of Gregorian repertoire - Conditor alme siderum. In: mater-dolorosa-lankwitz.de, accessed on December 3, 2014.
2. ↑ text
3. ^ User: Rabanus Flavus .
4. ↑ Ps 18.6  VUL .
5. ↑ Phil 2.10  VUL .