Laudato si (song)

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Audio file / audio sample Melody of the song ? / i

Laudato si, o mi signore ( old Italian "Be praised, sir") is a new spiritual song that became one of the most famous German religious songs in the last quarter of the 20th century and is compared to Thank you for this good morning in terms of popularity . The nine-strophic text was written by the Catholic priest Winfried Pilz in 1974 based on the Canticle of the Sun of St. Francis of Assisi to an anonymous melody from Italy. The song is an integral part of Catholic and Protestant youth song books. It was included in the Evangelical Hymnbook of 1993 (No. 515, category Nature and Seasons ) and the hymnbook of the Evangelical Reformed Churches in German-speaking Switzerland from 1998 (No. 529, category Creation, Seasons, Thanksgiving ). In the Catholic Praise for God of 2013, it is only included in some diocesan editions.

Origin and reception

Winfried Pilz got to know the melody with the Kehrvers Laudato si, o mi signore in 1974 in Italy. It made an impression on him and he wrote the German stanzas for it. As rector and pastor at the Altenberg youth center , he sang the song Whitsun 1975 with young people who were so enthusiastic about it that it began its triumphal march from there.

Proof of the popularity of the song beyond the ecclesiastical milieu is the large number of parodies , including that of Mickie Krause , which became the Ballermann hit.

Form and content

The Italian refrain consists of the four times Laudato si, o mi signore , the opening words of Francis' Canticle of the Sun. The four - rhymed - lines of all nine German stanzas begin with the cry "Be praised", continued by a reason for praising God, summarized in the same final line "Be praised, because you are wonderful, Lord!" The stanzas 1-6 thematize creation , with the addition of Francis' song of the sun, Psalm 104 . Verses 7 and 8 sing about the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ . The ninth stanza forms the eschatological conclusion.

melody

The melody, which essentially consists of tone repetitions, is based on the common cadence scheme tonic – minor parallel – subdominant – dominant . Each of these chords dominates two of the eight bars of both the refrain and the stanzas, so that both can also be combined like a two-part canon . Together with the rhythm, which is syncopated in the same way in every line, this results in the catchy suggestiveness of the song.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christiane Florin : Pope Francis: Because you are wonderfully accessible, Lord. In: Zeit Online . June 18, 2015, accessed February 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Peter Hahnen: Reviews: Baltruweit, Fritz / Studio group Baltruweit: God gave us breath. In: Christ in the Present . 2013, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on February 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c Felix Neumann: Laudato si! - The Pope, St. Francis and the famous New Spiritual Song. In: kathisch.de . June 8, 2015, accessed on February 26, 2019 (interview with Winfried Pilz).
  4. ↑ Most of the songbooks and the Evangelical Hymnbook lack the author's name and the year. Text and melody are not protected by copyright (cf. EG 960: List of pieces protected by copyright and their rights holders ).
  5. ↑ z. B. Würzburg No. 809. It is also contained in the hymnbook of the Evangelical Reformed Churches in German-speaking Switzerland (No. 529), in the German Old Catholic hymn book " Tuned in" (No. 659) and in the hymn book of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland (No. 919) .
  6. ↑ Mickie Krause's version on YouTube