Now come, the Gentile Savior
Now come on, the Gentile Savior is an Advent song by Martin Luther (1483–1546), which goes back to the early church hymn Veni redemptor gentium by Ambrosius of Milan (339–397).
The hymn of Ambrose
The text of Ambrose is part of his extensive liturgical hymns and comprises eight stanzas, each with four eight-syllable lines. The Trinitarian doxology was not added until the Middle Ages, while the original opening stanza Intende qui regis Israel ( Psalm 80 ) was dropped.
Ambrose emphasizes the divine-human dual nature of the Redeemer, which manifests itself in the birth of the Virgin right at the beginning of his earthly path , in ever new turns and with numerous psalm quotations .
Transfers
Even before Luther there were German translations of the well-known Ambrosian hymn, for example by Heinrich Laufenberg ( "Kum Har, Erlöser Volkes Schar" , 1418) or by Thomas Müntzer (1524). A later Germanization by Johann Franck ( "Come, Heidenheiland, ransom" ) also found a certain distribution.
With his complete rhyming translation of the Veni redemptor, Luther strictly followed the original, occasionally, for example in verses 2 and 6, at the expense of comprehensibility. In this way he expressed his respect for the authoritative old church text , in deliberate opposition to “ enthusiasm ”. He deviated from the Ambrosian meter by reducing it by one syllable per line. The song was first published in 1524 in Erfurt and in Wittenberg. Verses 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are now linguistically revised in the Evangelical Hymnal (EG 4).
The praise of God contains under number 227 ( GL old 108) a new translation of the Ambrosius text without rhymes (verses 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8) by Markus Jenny ( “Come, you Savior of the whole world” , 1971).
For centuries, the Luther chorale was the main Lutheran song of the Advent season and, especially during the Baroque period, was arranged countless times for organ, choir and other ensembles. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the choral cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 , about the chorale in 1724 , and used the first stanza for Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 as early as 1714 . There are also various chorale arrangements by him for organ:
- Bach Works Directory 599 in A minor
- Bach Works Directory 659 in G minor
- Bach Works Directory 660 (Trio super) in G minor
- Bach Works Directory 661 in G minor
melody
Ambrose probably left at least four melodies for this hymn. The melody sung today, however, goes back to a handwriting of the Benedictine monastery Einsiedeln from the year 1120, which possibly originates from the musical heyday of the monastery of St. Gallen around 900 and was composed in the first church tone . The municipal version published in Erfurt in 1524 was probably created by Martin Luther himself for his text. Like the latter, it reduces the meter by the first syllable of each line. This German version is a counterfactor .
A well-known four-part choral setting of the song comes from Lucas Osiander the Elder .
content
The song initially formulates the request for the final appearance of the Savior, it looks at his incarnation (from ... the royal hall ... his course came from the Father ... ) and the history of salvation associated with the death of the cross ( Christ's descent into hell ) and the resurrection . Ultimately, it leads to the affirmation of trust in the light in the manger. A trinitarian praise (a medieval addition to the Ambrose text) closes the song.
Ambrose | Luther | today |
---|---|---|
Veni, redemptor gentium; |
|
1. Now come, the Gentile Savior, |
literature
- Johannes Kulp (edited by Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Protestant church hymn book ; Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymnal. Special tape. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, pp. 7-12
- Andreas Marti : 4 - Now come, the Gentile Savior . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 12 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-50335-0 , p. 3–11 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Alexander Zerfass: Mysterium mirabile. Poetry, theology and liturgy in the hymns of Ambrose of Milan for the Christ feasts of the church year . Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7720-8271-9 , pp. 9-148 ( limited preview in Google book search)
Web links
- Hymnological Analysis (Joachim Grabinski)
- Fritz Wagner: "Veni redemptor gentium" - A Christmas hymn by Ambrosius of Milan . In: Pegasus , 3/2002, 1.
Individual evidence
- ^ Markus Bautsch: On counterfactures of Gregorian repertoire - Veni redemptor gentium . Retrieved December 3, 2014
- ↑ In Kurt Aland's orthographically adapted edition, the line reads: “shines out some virtue already” ( Luther Deutsch , Volume 6, Göttingen, 3rd edition 1983, p. 248).