O Lamb of God, innocent
O Lamb of God, innocent is a Lutheran hymn , which today is the same in most German-language church hymn books. Text and melody are from Nikolaus Decius .
Origin and reception
Decius' authorship is sparse. Until the 18th century, O Lamm Gottes is only printed anonymously. In his Braunschweigische Kirchen-Historie, Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer shares a Latin report from the year 1600, in which Decius acquaintances testify to him as the text and melody writer of O Lamm Gottes and Only God in the Heights be honor . A medieval template is assumed for the melody. Biographically, Decius' song writing is set to 1522/23, i.e. in the early phase of the Reformation, even before Luther's first songs.
The song is first contained in the Low German language in Joachim Slüters Geystlyke leder (Rostock 1531), in the High German version first in a Leipzig hymn book from 1539. It quickly spread throughout the German-speaking area. Johann Spangenberg printed the melody in 1545; a few years earlier it was contained in a different version - with a rhythmically balanced triad beginning - in a Strasbourg hymnbook.
In all of the early prints, O Lamb of God is referred to as the Agnus Dei song; It was therefore intended to take the place of the Latin mass chant for breaking bread in the German-speaking Lutheran communion service . In this capacity, however, it was ousted by Luther's Christian, you Lamb of God . O Lamb of God , which extends the Latin model to include the explicit memory of the Passion according to Isaiah 53: 3-7 LUT , instead became part of the Passion liturgy. Regionally it was the end of the Good Friday service until the 19th century . Johann Sebastian Bach worked it into the opening choir of his St. Matthew Passion .
In the Evangelical Church Hymn book of 1950, O Lamm Gottes is classified among the Passion songs (No. 55). Both the Spangenberg and the Strasbourg versions are included as the melody, one referred to as the "North German" and the other as the "South German version".
In a Catholic hymnal appeared O Lamb of God for the first time in 1616 in Paderborn, then in the United Catholisch Hymns of David Gregor Corner . In 1938 it was the only Agnus Dei song with the beginning of the text O du Lamm Gottes innocent to be included in the hymn book Hymn , then in the list of standard songs from 1947 and from there further distribution.
In 1973 the Working Group for Ecumenical Songs for the Praise of God (1975) worked out an "ö version" of text and . This is contained in the Evangelical Hymnbook (No. 190.1) and in the Catholic Praise to God (No. 203), both of which were originally designated as the Agnus Dei Song.
text
1. – 3 .: O Lamb of God, innocently
slaughtered on the trunk of the cross,
always invented patient,
although you were despised,
you have borne all sin,
otherwise we would have to despair.
1. + 2 .: Have mercy on us, O Jesus.
3 .: Give your peace, O Jesus.
Translations
"O Guds lam uskyldig ..." translated into Danish in the Danish hymn book Rostock 1529, taken over into the hymn book by Ludwig Dietz, Salmebog , 1536, no. 37 (perhaps after the Low German "O Lam Gades vnschüldich ..." by Nikolaus Decius , 1531). In more recent Danish church hymn books "O du Guds lam uskyldig, for os på korset slagted ..." in Den Danske Salmebog , Copenhagen 1953, no. 174, and "O Guds lam uskyldig ..." in Den Danske Salmebog , Copenhagen 2002, no. 440.
literature
- Alex Stock: O Lamb of God innocent. In: Hansjakob Becker u. a. (Ed.): Geistliches Wunderhorn. Great German hymns. Munich 2/2003, pp. 104-110.
- Ludger Stühlmeyer : The hymns of the Hofer Nicolaus Decius. In: Curia sonans. The music history of the city of Hof . A study on the culture of Upper Franconia. From the foundation of the Bamberg diocese to the present. (Phil. Diss.) Bayerische Verlagsanstalt / Heinrichs-Verlag, Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 , pp. 110-112, 135-137, 357-358.
- Frieder Schulz : 190.1 - O Lamb of God, innocent . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 6/7 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-50330-X , p. 100 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ So in this text form in the prayer and hymn book for the Archdiocese of Cologne (1949), No. 77.
- ↑ Text according to EG and GL. - In God's praise, the comma is in the first line after the word “innocent”.
- ↑ 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.