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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich. - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works [1921]

Edition used:

Bach’s Chorals. Part III: The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works, by Charles Sanford Terry (Cambridge University Press, 1915-1921). 3 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

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Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich.

lf1393-03_figure_023

Melody: “Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich”

Anon. 1535

    • i.

      O hail this brightest day of days,
    • All good Christian people!
    • For Christ hath come upon our ways,
    • Ring it from the steeple!
    • Of maiden pure is He the Son;
    • For ever shall thy praise be sung,
    • Christ’s fair mother Mary!
    • Ever was there news so great?
    • God’s own Son from heaven’s high state
    • Is born the Son of Mary!

    • ii.

      This day the wondrous Child is born,
    • Lent to earth from heaven.
    • He comes to cheer a world forlorn,
    • Its heavy sin to leaven.
    • So, sing ye all the glorious birth
    • Which doth redeem our fallen earth,
    • And works our salvation.
    • Laud to Thee, Child Jesu Christ!
    • With mankind Thou’st kept the tryst
    • Thou Star of every nation.

    • iii.

      As from above the sun his rays
    • Poureth down upon us,
    • And with his glow renews our days,
    • Health and life doth give us;
    • E’en so the Christ Child was He sent
    • A maiden’s Babe, for our content,
    • And for our sweet comfort.
    • In a manger was He laid,
    • Sinless, and yet undismayed
    • To dwell on earth among us.

    • iv.

      The shepherds in amaze did stand,
    • As from heaven came streaming
    • Bright angels in a flaming band,
    • Christ the King’s birth hymning.
    • O Christ the King of Kings where’s He?
    • False Herod, raging mightily,
    • Everywhere doth seek Him
    • Whom His mother Jesus dight,
    • And doth slay, O wicked wight,
    • The children for to catch Him.

    • Anon.     Tr. C. S. T.

The Christmas Carol, “Dies est laetitiae, In ortu regali,” dates probably from the fourteenth century. “Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich,” an early fifteenth century translation of it, is found in many versions with a varying number of stanzas. The form translated here is in four stanzas, in Joseph Klug’s Wittenberg Hymn-book, 1535 [1529], along with the melody.

The tune, whose opening phrase is reminiscent of the Carol “Puer natus in Bethlehem,” is that of the Latin “Dies est laetitiae.” Bach uses it in the two Organ movements infra and Choralgesange, No. 62. His text closely follows Witt’s (No. 20).

[35]

N. xv. 18. A Christmas movement in the Orgelbüchlein, instinct with the spirit of the opening lines of the hymn:

  • O hail this brightest day of days,
  • All good Christian people!
  • For Christ hath come upon our ways,
  • Ring it from the steeple!

The image rhythm which pervades the movement uninterruptedly is one of two that Bach employs to express joy and exhilaration. It is found in “Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag” (N. xv. 91), “In dich hab’ich gehoffet, Herr” (N. xv. 113), “Wir danken dir” (N. xv. 73), and “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen” (N. xvii. 43). “A joyful soaring rhythm,” Spitta calls it1 .

[36]

N. xviii. 26. A movement upon the first half of the melody, i.e. stanza i, lines 1-4. Its source is a collection of Organ Chorals made by Johann Christoph Bach, of Eisenach, Sebastian’s uncle. It is the only one by Bach in the collection.

[1 ] Vol. i. 600.