Hospodine, pomiluj ny
Hospodine, pomiluj ny (German: Lord be gracious to us ) is the oldest known sacred song in the Czech language . It was probably created at the turn of the 10th to the 11th century. It is a sacred folk song, not a liturgical song, and contains elements of Old Church Slavonic .
history
The song has a simple form with 8 verses , without rhyme and without stanzas , and the range of a fourth . The Old Church Slavonic elements point to its origin at a time when the Old Church Slavic legacy of the Slav apostles Cyril and Methodius was still alive in Bohemia . The final version, however, dates from the time when Old Church Slavonic competed with Latin and also incorporated Czech elements. The song closes with the triple cry of Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy) in the contemporary folk form Krleš . The author is unknown. It is often attributed to St. Adalbert of Prague (Czech: Svatý Vojtěch ). Although there is no evidence of this, it would be possible because, according to tradition, Adalbert also composed songs.
The song Hospodine, pomiluj ny was first mentioned in 1055, when it was sung when Duke Spytihněv II was elected. The Chronica Boemorum des Cosmas of Prague reports on it . Another mention can be found in the chronicle of Václav Hájek z Libočan from the 16th century, when he describes the celebrations after the coronation of King Ottokar I Přemysl in 1198. The oldest surviving copy comes from the pen of the Benedictine monk Jan von Holešov from 1397, who analyzed the song in a Latin treatise, explained the Old Church Slavonic expressions and linked it to the Adalbert tradition. The song was sung both inside and outside the church, especially on festive occasions, but also as a war song. It gained great symbolic significance in the 14th century when the Bohemian King and Emperor Charles IV included it in the Bohemian coronation order . The reformer Jan Hus had it sung in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague .
Together with the St. Wenceslas Choral , it is one of the oldest Czech national anthems. It is the oldest literary and musical monument in the Czech Republic. Hospodine, pomiluj ny is still sung today with the almost unchanged original text.
text
| Czech | Latin translation | |
|
Hospodine, pomiluj ny! |
O domine, miserere! |
Musical use
Several Czech composers have used the song as a template for their works. The most important are:
- Antonín Dvořák uses the song in the third part of his oratorio "Svatá Ludmila" ( Saint Ludmila ) , op. 71, in the form of a festive march and a final fugue.
- Leoš Janáček : Variations on the theme “Hospodine, pomiluj ny”, for solo quartet, mixed double choir, organ, harps and brass.
- Miloslav Kabeláč : Composition in six movements: “Proměny I a II chorálu 'Hospodine, pomiluj ny'” ( Metamorphoses I and II of the chorale 'Hospodine, pomiluj ny' ). Part I is a composition for choir and Part II is for piano and orchestra.
literature
- Josef Hrabák: Dějiny české literatury. 1., Starší česká literatura . Československá akademie věd, Praha 1959, p. 56-57, 151 (Czech, 531 pp.).
- Vladimír Forst a kol .: Lexicon české literatury: osobnosti, díla, instituce. 2 / I. H-J . Academia, Praha 1993, ISBN 80-200-0468-8 , p. 286-287 (Czech, 589 pp.).
- František Václav Mareš: Cyrilometodějská tradice a slavistika . Torst, Praha 2000, ISBN 80-7215-111-8 , p. 403-476 (Czech). [1]
Web links
- Sung by Lucie Lejčková [2] (the first song is Hospodine, pomiluj ny ), accessed on February 19, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Hospodine, pomiluj ny" according to Jan Racek: Česká hudba, Od nejstarších dob do počátku 19th stol. ; Státní nakladatelství krásné literatury, hudby a umění, Praha 1958, accessed on February 12, 2018 (Czech)
- ↑ Current version in Kancionál online, No. 930A . Published in: Czech Bishops' Conference, accessed February 12, 2018
- ^ Antonín Dvořák: Svatá Ludmila , accessed on February 12, 2018.