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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern. - 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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Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.

lf1393-03_figure_103

Melody: “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern”

? Philipp Nicolai 1599

lf1393-03_figure_104

Melody: “Jauchzet dem Herren, alle Land”

Anon. 1538

    • i.

      O Morning Star! how fair and bright
    • Thou beamest forth in truth and light!
    • O Sovereign meek and lowly,
    • Thou Root of Jesse, David’s Son,
    • My Lord and Bridegroom, Thou hast won
    • My heart to serve Thee solely!
    • Holy art Thou,
    • Fair and glorious, all victorious,
    • Rich in blessing,
    • Rule and might o’er all possessing.
    • * * *

    • iii.

      Thou Heavenly Brightness! Light Divine!
    • O deep within my heart now shine,
    • And make Thee there an altar!
    • Fill me with joy and strength to be
    • Thy member, ever joined to Thee
    • In love that cannot falter;
    • Toward Thee longing
    • Doth possess me; turn and bless me;
    • For Thy gladness
    • Eye and heart here pine in sadness.

    • iv.

      But if Thou look on me in love,
    • There straightway falls from God above
    • A ray of purest pleasure;
    • Thy word and Spirit, flesh and blood,
    • Refresh my soul with heavenly food.
    • Thou art my hidden treasure;
    • Let Thy grace, Lord,
    • Warm and cheer me. O draw near me;
    • Thou hast taught us
    • Thee to seek since Thou hast sought us!
    • * * *

    • vii.

      Here will I rest, and hold it fast,
    • The Lord I love is First and Last,
    • The End as the Beginning!
    • Here I can calmly die, for Thou
    • Wilt raise me where Thou dwellest now,
    • Above all tears, all sinning:
    • Amen! Amen!
    • Come, Lord Jesus, soon release us.
    • With deep yearning,
    • Lord, we look for Thy returning!

    • Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Philipp Nicolai’s hymn was first published, with the melody, in 1599. The tune (supra) is a reconstruction of older material. The first half is taken, with the alteration of two notes, from the first, second, and concluding phrases of the melody (supra) to which Psalm 100, “Jauchzet dem Herren, alle Land,” is set in Wolff Köphel’s Psalter, published in 1538. The concluding phrase of Nicolaī’s tune also is modelled on that original. The opening phrase of the second part of his tune (line 7 of the hymn) is identical with one in the old Carol “Resonet in laudibus,” whose opening phrase, moreover, bears close similarity to “Jauchzet dem Herren,” a fact, perhaps, which drew Nicolai’s attention to it.

The tune occurs in Cantatas 1, 36, 37, 49, 61, 172 (1714-c. 1740); Choralgesänge, No. 375; and the movement infra. Bach’s text is invariable for the first part of the melody and follows the original, except for the substitution of A for C as the first note of the third phrase, as in Witt (No. 479). For the second part of the tune Bach either keeps to the original, as in Witt (No. 479), Cantata 172 (1724-5), and the Organ movement; or follows Crüger (1640) in substituting A and B flat for G and A as the sixth and seventh notes of line 3 supra, as in Cantatas 1 and 36 (c. 1730-40); or adopts Vopelius’ (1682) text there, as in Choralgesange, No. 375.

[135]

N. xix. 23. The movement seems to be inspired by the third stanza of the hymn:

  • Fill me with joy and strength to be
  • Thy member, ever joined to Thee.

Bach’s Autograph (four leaves of small quarto) is in the Royal Library, Berlin. Spitta assigns it to the Arnstadt period1 .

B.G. xl. 164 prints another, but incomplete (23 bars), movement on the melody, the Autograph of which is in the Berlin Royal Library.

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 149. The original hymn has seven stanzas, of which ii, v, vi are omitted in the translation.

[1 ] Vol. i. 254.