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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Nun danket alle Gott. - 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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Nun danket alle Gott.

lf1393-03_figure_081

Melody:Nun danket alle Gott

Johann Cruger 1648

    • i.

      Now thank we all our God,
    • With heart and hands and voices,
    • Who wondrous things hath done,
    • In Whom His world rejoices;
    • Who from our mother’s arms
    • Hath blessed us on our way
    • With countless gifts of love,
    • And still is ours to-day.
    • ii.

      O may this bounteous God
    • Through all our life be near us,
    • With ever joyful hearts
    • And blessed peace to cheer us;
    • And keep us in His grace,
    • And guide us when perplexed,
    • And free us from all ills
    • In this world and the next.
    • iii.

      All praise and thanks to God
    • The Father now be given,
    • The Son, and Him Who reigns
    • With Them in highest Heaven,
    • The One Eternal God,
    • Whom earth and Heaven adore;
    • For thus it was, is now,
    • And shall be evermore.
    • Martin Rinkart (1586-1649)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Martin Rinkart’s hymn, “Nun danket alle Gott,” was first published in 1648, with the melody (supra). The latter, published anonymously in 1648, was attributed to Crüger in 1653. It has been assigned also to Rinkart himself and to Luca Marenzio.

In addition to the Organ movement infra, Bach uses the melody in Cantatas 79, 192 (c. 1732-5), the Wedding Chorals (No. 3), and Choralgesange, No. 257. His text is invariable. His versions of the second and last lines of the melody differ from the 1648 form and are found in Witt (No. 386).

[101]

N. xvii. 40. The movement, the seventh of the Eighteen Chorals, is both a splendid exercise in the Pachelbel form and a jubilant musical expression of the triumphant hymn2 .

[1 ]Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 379. The original hymn has three stanzas.

[2 ] See supra, p. 81.