Welcome to us, Lord Christ
We welcome you, Herre Christ is the oldest surviving German-language Christmas carol . It was originally a quiet one . The melody can be documented for the first time in an Aachen fragment, probably from the 14th century. The earliest complete copy is an Erfurt manuscript from 1394. August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben saw the origin of the song even in the 11th century and in 1861, as a reconstruction, transferred the text of the Erfurt version back into Old High German .
The song welcomes the Greek as Kyrios and German as Lord called Christ , whose mission is to expand the scope of his rule to all, that the community and the entire globe.
The song is also known as the Aachen Christmas Carol or the Aachen Schöffenlied . According to old Aachen chronicles , it was sung by the lay judges , i.e. honorable citizens who were involved in general jurisdiction, during Christmas mass from the choir stalls of the Aachen cathedral .
Melodies
The song was in the old praise of God from 1975 (number 131) with an on the Aachen melody of the 13th / 14th. A melody version based on the century, but rhythmically modern notated, supplemented by a second stanza from 1970. It is no longer included in the main section of the new praise of God introduced in 2013 ; the own part of the Diocese of Limburg contains it under number 757.
For Protestant church chant, Otto Riethmüller won the song again with a version following the Flemish melody (Antwerp 1638). It was included as an Advent song in the Rhenish-Westphalian regional church section of the Protestant church hymn book (No. 400). The Evangelical Hymnal does not contain the song, but it does contain a canon arrangement by Walter Rein from 1934 (EG 22, Now we are welcome, Herre Christ ).
Aachen jury song
Source:
Current version
Source: Gotteslob (1975) No. 131
text
Ludwig Erk and Franz Magnus Böhme perform three different German-language versions in the Deutsches Liederhort (1894) (as well as two in Dutch):
1st version
Syt willekomen, heirre kirst,
do you want our alre herre bis.
- Aachen fragment, 14./15. Century
Sys willekomen heirre kerst,
want you onser alre heirre bis,
sys willekomen, lieve heirre,
here in trische so schone:
Kirieleys.
- Erfurt manuscript around 1394
2nd version
Now welcome us, hero kerst,
You who are our all hero.
Now welcome us, dear hero,
You who are beautiful in the churches.
Kyrie-eleyson!
Now god is born, consolation for all of us,
Who opens the gates of hell with his cross.
The mother has secret maria,
As it is written in all kersten books.
Kyrie-eleyson!
- Aachen 1825
3rd version
Nu sîs us willekomen hêrro Crist,
you are our hero!
nu sîs us willekomen dear herro,
who stast scôno in the churches.
Kyrieleison.
Now we are born all of us comfort
of the Hellenic porten with sîm kriuze ûfslôz.
diu mueter is hot Marjâ,
so in all kristen buechen stât.
Kyrieleison.
- Transfer back by Fallersleben, 1861
literature
- Heinrich Böckeler : The melody of the Aachen Christmas carol . In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein 11 (1889), pp. 176-184.
- Ludwig Erk , Franz Magnus Böhme (Hrsg.): Deutscher Liederhort . Selection of the more excellent German folk songs, verbatim and from the past and present. Volume 3. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1894 (reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1988), p. 625 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Johannes Janota: Sit willekomen herre kirst. In: Kurt Ruh (Ed.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . Volume 8. de Gruyter, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-012690-7 , Sp. 1287-1288.
- Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): The song source . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 1048 f .
- Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : The book of Christmas carols. Schott, Mainz 1982, ISBN 3-7957-2061-3 , p. 9 f.
Web links
- Sys willekomen heire kerst . Article on the website of the Aachen History Association
- Erfurt, Universitätsbibl., Cod. Ampl. 4 ° 332 in the manuscript census . Mention of the song on f. 105r as a love song
- Polyphonic version on YouTube
Remarks
- ↑ So in Erk, Böhme: Deutscher Liederhort. Volume 3, 1894, p. 626; Gotteslob (1975) p. 208, no. 131; Franz Karl Praßl in song studies on the Protestant hymn book. P. 9. The Evangelical Hymn book (EG) itself lists the canon based on the text of this song in the Advent section .
- ↑ a b August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben : History of the German hymn up to Luther's time. 1861, p. 29 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
- ^ A b Christian Quix : Historical description of the minster church and the Heiligthumsfahrt in Aachen. Urlichs, Aachen 1825, p. 119 ( digitized in the Google book search).
- ↑ Guido Fuchs: Our Christmas carols and their story. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2009, ISBN 978-3-451-32278-5 , pp. 48-54.
- ↑ Otto Riethmüller (Ed.): A new song , 1932
- ↑ Franz Karl Praßl : 22 - Now be welcome to us, Herre Christ . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 10 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-50333-4 , pp. 9 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Hans Jürgen Roth: House of two worlds - 1200 years of Aachen Cathedral. B. Kühlen, Mönchengladbach 1999, ISBN 3-87448-203-0 , p. 50 ( limited preview in the Google book search).