Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor

Joachim Neander (1650–1680)

German Evangelical Hymn book (1915), Rhineland-Westphalia edition 1929

Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor is a spiritual song with a text by Joachim Neander from 1680. In the EC it is printed under number 317 or in the ecumenical version under number 316, under no. 392 also in the Catholic praise of God ( GL ^old 258).

Emergence

Joachim Neander published the song in 1680 in his Faith and Love Exercise , which contained the covenant songs and Danck psalms . Originally, the song was not intended for church services, but should, as the title says, "on trips / at home or when Christians are replaced in the countryside". The basis of the original melody is the song "Have you, Jesus, your face"; Today's melody is the result of a reshaping process that was not completed until the 18th century and resulted in the melody known today.

reception

A wealth of arrangements have been made over the centuries, including the cantata BWV 137 by Johann Sebastian Bach, organ arrangement by Johann Gottfried Walther and Sigfrid Karg-Elert and a motet by Hugo Distler . Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill parody the chorale in the “Berliner Requiem” from 1929. Since the 20th century, the song has also found its way into Catholic song collections and hymn books. The song has been part of the carillon program of the Potsdam Garrison Church since 1797 .

The song was given a contemporary, particularly elaborately arranged and live broadcast worldwide at the closing fair for World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne on the Marienfeld . In many stanzas, it accompanied the quarter-hour procession of the numerous celebrants up to the altar. The orchestra was composed of various local musical instruments and rhythm groups from all over the world. Each stanza was interpreted in various ways, sometimes also as a soloist. Interspersed in the solos, the choir sang verses of the song in various languages.

text

Praise the Lord , print version 1686

Original version

Ecumenical version

Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor, my beloved soul, this is my desire. Come abound, psaltery and harp, wake up, let the hymn of praise be heard! Praise the Lord, who rules everything so splendidly, who has safely led you onto Adeler's wing, who keeps you as you please; didn't you feel this? Praise the Lord who prepares you artificially and delicately, who bestows you health, guides you kindly. In how much trouble did not gracious God spread wings over you! Praise the Lord, who visibly blessed your stand, who rained down from heaven with streams of love. Remember what the Almighty can do who meets you with love. Praise the Lord that is in me, praise the name. Praise all that has breath with the seed of Abraham. He is your light, soul, don't forget it. Honorable, close with amen!

Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor, praise him, O soul, united with the heavenly choirs. Come abound, psaltery and harp, wake up, let the hymn of praise be heard! Praise the Lord, who rules everything so splendidly, who has safely led you onto Adeler's wing, who keeps you as you please; didn't you feel this? Praise the Lord who prepares you artificially and delicately, who bestows you health, guides you kindly. In how much trouble did not gracious God spread wings over you! Praise the Lord, who visibly blessed your life, who rained down from heaven with streams of love. Remember what the Almighty can do who meets you with love. Praise the Lord that is in me, praise the name. Praise him with all who have received his promise. He is your light, soul, don't forget it. Praise him forever. Amen.

verse

The hymn verse used by Neander consists of five dactylic verses of different lengths with the rhyme scheme[aabba]came into use during the 17th century and continued to be used after Neander's death. A compared to praise the gentlemen, ... an older song is Did you, Jesus, your face completely hidden by Ahasverus Fritsch , a younger rejoicing you heaven, you angels rejoice in choirs by Gerhard Tersteegen .

melody

Translations

Translated into Danish, "Lover den Herre, den mægtige konge med ære ...", in the hymn book Pontoppidan 1740, taken over into the Danish church hymn book Den Danske Salmebog , Copenhagen 1953, No. 2, in Den Danske Salme Bog , Copenhagen 1993, No. 2, and in Den Danske Salmebog , Copenhagen 2002, No. 2; also in the hymn book of the Danish folk high school movement Højskolesangbogen , 18th edition, Copenhagen 2006, no.43.

literature

• Siegfried Meier, Andreas Marti: 316/317 - Praise the Lord, the mighty King of Honor . In: Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 25 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-50348-5 , pp. 35–42 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666503481.35 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Praise the Lord, the Mighty King of Honor  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Fischer: Praise the Lord, the Mighty King (2005). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
2. ↑ Thomas Labonté: The collection "Hymn" (1938). Origin, corpus analysis, reception. Francke Verlag, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7720-8251-1 , pp. 72-75.86-90.
3. ↑ Neander: "the Musicam"
4. ↑ cf. EG 317
5. ↑ cf. EG 316
6. ↑ Horst Joachim Frank: Handbuch der Deutschen Strophenformen, Hanser, Munich 1980, p. 400.
7. ↑ Cf. Otto Holzapfel : Lied index: The older German-language popular song tradition ( online version on the Volksmusikarchiv homepage of the Upper Bavaria district ; in PDF format; ongoing updates) with further information.