Adorn yourself, dear soul
Adorn yourself, dear soul, is a Lutheran hymn . Johann Franck wrote the text between 1646 and 1653, the melody was created by Johann Crüger in 1649. The song is, slightly revised, in the Evangelical Hymnbook (EG 218).
content
Franck created the song as a meditation in preparation for the sacrament . At the beginning he takes up a mystical tradition that goes back to Johannes Damascenus via Gabriel Biel . According to tradition, this is the origin of the first antiphon of the Roman Missal for the procession at the feast of the Presentation of the Lord " Decorate your bridal chamber, Sion, take up Christ the King " ( Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, et suscipe Regem Christum ), whose pictorial idea is Franck picks up.
Of the original nine stanzas, the first is an invitation from the soul to adorn itself for the Lord's feast and to leave the den of sin . The mysterious nature of this sacrament unfolds in stanza 2 in the desired union of the bride of Christ with the expected bridegroom, whose grace unmistakably breaks through to the core. Verse 3 illustrates the sacramental fulfillment of the Lutheran principle of grace sola gratia through the contrast to the economically determined world in allusion to the abuse of indulgences and the then culturally dominant mining . The fourth and fifth stanzas reflect, partly in addressing to Christ, the different feelings of longing, joy and fear that move the mind and heart before communion . The sixth stanza confesses the miracle of Christ's real presence in bread and wine, which reason cannot reach . The seventh and ninth stanzas are a humble prayer addressed to Jesus for a dignified and salutary reception of heavenly food , while the eighth deals with Christ's self-emptying ( Phil 2.5-11 LUT ).
The song revolves around the sacramental union of the individual soul with Christ. A community reference is not expressly made; one can however also understand the I (or you ) collectively as a parable for the Christian community. The biblical background, apart from the New Testament reports of Jesus' Last Supper, is above all the bread speech of the Gospel of John with the preceding miracle of feeding ( Jn 6 LUT ) as well as the admonition of Paul with the urgent warning against an unworthy, destructive reception ( 1 Cor 11 : 17-34 LUT ). The original second stanza takes up the imagery of the Song of Songs . The fourth (originally sixth) stanza in particular also refers to the Corpus Christi hymn Lauda Sion by Thomas Aquinas . The self-prompting of the beginning of the song brings to mind the end of the parable of the wedding supper , the guest without a wedding robe ( Mt 22 : 11-13 LUT ).
The Francksche Lied with its bold poetic images and its unusual stanza structure enjoyed an extraordinary appreciation until the 19th century, it achieved almost universal sole status as a song during the Lord's Supper ( sub communione ). Since the middle of the 18th century, there have been repeated changes of seal in order to smooth out the areas that were felt to be offensive at the time. This includes, for example, Klopstock version Tired, sinful soul that reinforces the pathos, but weakens the sacrament reference. The melody has also been smoothed out many times.
Both the Protestant church hymnbook and the Protestant hymn book reproduce the song without the original stanzas 2, 3 and 8.
Catherine Winkworth created a six- verse English translation in 1858, Deck thyself my soul with gladness , which she revised in 1863 and which has found its way into numerous Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist hymn books in this form.
Musical arrangements
The song was arranged by numerous Lutheran church musicians, especially in the Baroque period . Johann Sebastian Bach presented it to several organ works such as BWV 654. Above all, it is the basis of his choral cantata Schmücke dich, oh dear soul, BWV 180 . Georg Friedrich Händel lets the Christian Church sing the verse Oh how hungry my heart is in the communion scene of his Brockes Passion . In Georg Philipp Telemann's version of the Brockes Passion, the stanza is found as a chorale in the same place. Late Romantic arrangements such as those by Johannes Brahms and Max Reger are inspired by Bach .
text
The following overview juxtaposes the text versions in Franck's Spiritual Poems from 1674, those of the Evangelical Hymnbook from 1994 and Klopstock's rewrite.
1674 | Evangelical hymn book | Klopstock |
---|---|---|
1. Adorn yourself, dear soul! |
1. Adorn yourself, dear soul, |
1. Tired, sinful soul, open |
literature
- Konrad Klek: 218 - Adorn yourself, dear soul . In: Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 23 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-50346-1 , p. 8–13 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666503467.8 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- 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; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprechjt 1958; P. 245f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Year on the ground floor: "(Str. 1 1646) 1649/1653"
- ↑ EG
- ↑ See Detlef Metz: Gabriel Biel und die Mystik (= Contubernium. Tübinger contributions to the history of universities and science 55). Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07824-X , p. 251.
- ↑ See the entry: Frederick Holweck: Candlemas . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 3, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1908.
- ↑ Volker Honemann: Mining in the literature of the Middle Ages and early modern times. In: KH Kaufhold, W. Reininghaus (ed.): City and mining. Cologne (inter alia) 2004, pp. 239–261.
- ↑ Its eighth stanza reads: A sumente non concisus, / Non confractus, non divisus / Integer accipitur. / Sumit unus, sumunt mille, / Quantum isti, tantum individuelle, / Nec sumptus consumitur.
- ↑ four pairs of eight-syllable trochaic lines with exclusively feminine rhymes
- ↑ Deck thyself my soul with gladness at hymnary.org with further references, accessed on May 9, 2018
- ^ Johann Sebastian Bach: 18 chorale preludes BWV 651–668 : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- ↑ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy wrote about this work : "If life had taken everything from me, this piece would comfort me again" ( Robert Schumann : Memories of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy at Wikisource ).
- ↑ quoted from Friedrich August Pischon : Monuments of the German language, from the earliest times to the present: A complete collection of examples for his guide to the history of German literature. Third part, Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1843, p. 260
- ↑ Quotes all works from Klopstock. Volume 7: Odes. Holy songs. Epigrams. Leipzig: Göschen 1823, pp. 217–220.
- ↑ Ps 2,11 LUT
- ↑ Pishon (lit.) has Christ , but all other sources read Christ