O blessed night

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O blessed night in Christoph Bernhard Verspoell's chants at the Roman Catholic church services , Münster 1829

The song O blessed night is originally an eight-stanza Catholic hymn for the Christmas festival group and is a poetic rendering of the proclamation from the Christmas Gospel .

Origin and variants

The text and melody are generally attributed to Christoph Bernhard Verspoell , who published it in its current version in 1810 in Gesenge at the Roman Catholic church services with the attached prayer book .

The complete authorship of Verspoell is controversial, only the version valid today is from him. The melody ? / i is supposed to be the adaptation of a melody from an Augsburg hymn book. Is the melody version widespread ? / i from Heinrich Bones Cantata (1858). The Gotteslob diocesan portion of the church province of Hamburg contains both variants. The text already exists as a print from the 18th century, the oldest evidence is from 1677. Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample

The song is one of the most frequently sung songs and was already in the diocesan hymns such as the Laudate (1950) or its predecessors from 1932 or 1922. In the 1922 hymn book (Münster) O blessed night has six stanzas, four of which are with the ones known today are identical except for minor modifications.

The song is in the diocesan appendices to the praise of God (2013) of various dioceses, as well as in appendices to the praise of God (1975) . While the Münster's own part and that for the eastern dioceses contain a four-stanza version (stanzas 1–3 and 6 of the text below), a six- stanza variant is printed in the own part of the Archdiocese of Cologne des Gotteslob from 2013. Compared to Verspoell's text, some stanzas have been changed and the order of the stanzas has been reversed.

There is a slightly modified melody version of this song in the Sauerland and Paderborn region ; the organist Johann Martin Roeren from Ahlen had a completely different melody published in his chorale book for Catholic church singing , which was printed in Essen in 1845 .

text

1. O blessed night!
In heavenly splendor
,
a messenger of joy appears to
the shepherds who watch over the flock at night.

2. How comforting he says:
“O fear not!
You were lost,
today
the Savior is born to you, who promises life to all.

3. See Bethlehem there,
the happy place,
where you will find
what we announce to you:
the eagerly awaited divine word! ”

4. They are full of joy,
they hurry quickly
and find
salvation for us all
wrapped in diapers in the stable , the divine child.

5. Hurry, Christians, swiftly
to the divine child.
Hurry, pious and sinners.
Hurry parents and children.
To him consecrate hearts kindled by love.

6. O comforting time that
delights all;
it alleviates pain,
it awakens hearts
to thank you, to love, to heavenly joy.

melody

{\ key c \ major \ time 2/2 \ repeat volta 2 \ small \ partial 4 \ relative c '{\ override Score.BarNumber #' transparent = ## t \ override Staff.Clef # 'break-visibility = ## (#f #f #f) c4 c2 e4 f4 g2. c4 b4 (d4) g, 4 a4 g2. g4 c2 d4 b4 c2 g4 g4 c2 d4 b4 c2 g4 g8 (f8) e2 e4 f4 g2 g4 c4 d2 c4 b4 c2. \ bar "|." }} \ addlyrics {\ small \ set stanza = # "1." O se - lie - ge Nacht! In heavenly splendor, a messenger of joy appears on the pasture to the shepherd, who watches over the flock at night. }

Source: Text and melody: Christoph Bernhard Verspoell

Web links

Commons : O blessed night  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Bernhard Verspoell: Chants at Roman Catholic services with attached prayer book. Aschendorff, Münster 1818, pp. 20–21 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Christoph Bernhard Verspoell: Organ accompaniment to the chants of the Roman Catholic. Church services. Aschendorff, Münster 1810, pp. 15-16 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Georg Caspar Carli, Johann Chrysostomus Drexel: Melodies for the Catholic church chants. Doll, Augsburg 1800.
  4. ↑ GL 733 (Berlin / Dresden-Meißen / Erfurt / Görlitz / Magdeburg), 733 (Essen), 748 (Eichstätt), 758 (Freiburg / Rottenburg-Stuttgart), 737 (Hamburg / Hildesheim / Osnabrück), 735 (Cologne), 755 (Munich), 760 (Münster), 771 (Mainz), 775 (Passau), 735 (Paderborn), 767 (Speyer)
  5. ↑ In the old Gotteslob (1975) it was under GL 908 (Dresden-Meißen / Erfurt), 825 (Essen), 825 (Eichstätt), 924 (Görlitz), 846 (Hamburg), 814 (Hildesheim), 841 (Cologne), 903 (Magdeburg), 907 (Münster), 851 (Osnabrück), 836 (Passau), 832 (Paderborn), 847 (Speyer)
  6. ↑ a b Praise to God for the Archdiocese of Cologne, No. 735