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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ. - 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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Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ.

lf1393-03_figure_037

Plainsong: “Grates nunc omnes reddamus”

1524

lf1393-03_figure_038

Melody: “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ”

Anon. 1524

    • i.

      Now blessed be Thou, Christ Jesu;
    • Thou art man borne, this is true:
    • The aungels made a mery noyse,
    • Yet have we more cause to rejoyse.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • ii.

      The blessed Sonne of God onely
    • In a crybbe full poore dyd lye:
    • With oure poore flesh and oure poore bloude
    • Was clothed that everlastynge good.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • iii.

      He that made heaven and earth of nought
    • In oure flesh hath oure health brought;
    • For oure sake made He hymselfe full small,
    • That reigneth Lorde and Kynge over all.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • iv.

      Eternall lyght doth now appeare
    • To the worlde both farre and neare;
    • It shyneth full cleare even at mydnyght,
    • Makynge us chyldren of His lyght.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • v.

      The Lorde Christ Jesu, God’s Sonne deare,
    • Was a gest and a straunger here;
    • Us for to brynge from mysery,
    • That we might lyve eternally.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • vi.

      Into this worlde ryght poore came He,
    • To make us ryche in mercye:
    • Therefore wolde He oure synnes forgeve,
    • That we with Hym in heaven myght lyve.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • vii.

      All this dyd He for us frely,
    • For to declare His great mercy:
    • All Christendome be mery therfore,
    • And geve Hym thankes evermore.
    • Kirieleyson.

    • Martin Luther (1483-1546)     Tr. Bishop Myles Coverdale1 .

Luther’s hymn, “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ,” was published in 1524, in Johann Walther’s Hymnbook. Words and melody are derived from the Christmas Sequence, “Grates nuncomnes reddamus,” the plainsong of which is printed supra. Its simplification was accomplished, presumably, by Walther himself. Outside the Organ movements infra Bach uses the tune in Cantatas 64, 91 (1723?-c. 1740); Christmas Oratorio (1734), Nos. 7, 28; Choralgesänge, No. 107. His melodic text follows Witt (No. 19) and is invariable, except in one detail. In one Organ movement (N. xviii. 37) B natural replaces C as the sixth note of the melody. The variant is found in an early text (1535), but is not in Witt.

There are four Organ movements upon the melody:

[47]

N. xv. 15. The movement is the third of the Christmas Preludes in the Orgelbüchlein. Bach treats the tidings of Christ’s birth in another mood than that which distinguishes the first Christmas Prelude, “Puer natus in Bethlehem.” The latter exhibits exuberant joy. In the present movement the rhythm expresses restrained adoration. It already has been remarked in “Alle Menschen müssen sterben” and occurs again in “Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn” (N. xv. 9).

[48]

N. xviii. 37. An Organ accompaniment of the melody. Griepenkerl (P. v. 102) printed it from mss. in the handwriting of Johann Christian Kittel and Johann Gottfried Walther. Both are now in the Berlin Royal Library. Krebs, too, preserved a sketch of it.

In B.G. xl. 158, a “Variant” of the accompaniment is printed from a Krebs ms. in the Berlin Royal Library.

[49]

N. xviii. 38. The movement is a Fughetta upon the first line of the melody. A copy of it is in the Kirnberger, and others exist in the Schicht, Schelble, and Hauser mss.

[50]

N. xviii. 39. The movement is among the miscellaneous Preludes. Apparently only a single ms. of it exists. It is in the Royal Library, Berlin, and is described as faulty and comparatively modern. Griepenkerl printed the movement in 1847 from a copy “written by Cantor Kegel.” Presumably it and the Berlin ms. are one and the same. The treatment is formal.

[1 ]Remains, p. 562. The original hymn has seven stanzas.