Now carry a light into the world
Now carry a light into the world is an Advent song of the 20th century. It is contained in five editions of the Evangelical Hymn book in the regional section (Rhineland, Westphalia and Lippe: EG 538; Lower Saxony and Bremen: EG 571; North Elbian Church: EG 539; Hesse: EG 588; Austria: EG 593).
Emergence
Wolfgang Longardt wrote the text and melody in 1972. Longardt was a grammar school teacher for music, religion and English at a Berlin boarding school until 1965 and then worked as a music teacher at the Breklum seminar for missionary and church service and at the Evangelical Center Rissen in Hamburg.
He was asked when the children's church service was to be renewed in a parish in a Hamburg suburb. This also affected neighboring kindergartens. The song Carry a Light into the World was created for an Advent service in which four to six year old children entered the church with a light procession. The worshipers sat in different groups: “In one part of the church seniors, there parents, there grandparents, there specially invited children from a home. Older children who enjoyed role-play lay down on cots and stretchers in a corner of the church ... "
content
Longardt took the two Bible verses Mt 5,14 LUT and Lk 12,35 LUT as the basis for the text , which he elementaryized to such an extent that they were also understandable for younger children. The song is an invitation to bring the light of God's love, which drives away fear, “into the world”. All stanzas are textually identical except for the words “into the world”, which are replaced by different groups of people (“to the elderly, to the sick, to the children”). Additional stanzas can be added in the same way.
melody
In order for the melody to be memorable, Longardt used the basic levels of the winter song “ Leise rieselt der Schnee ” in the first melody part . In order to record the biblical “see and look”, the song should end melodically with a signal motif. “Look at the light!”, With which all stanzas end, contains a pointing impulse.
reception
The song was soon used in Easter Vigil services as well as in Epiphany, but not combined with a candlelight procession.
literature
- Archive of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (ed.): The new song in the Evangelical Hymnbook: Song poets and composers report. (= Working aids of the archive of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. No. 3) Düsseldorf 1996. ISBN 3-930250-12-8 . Pp. 167-170.