Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist (We now implore the Holy Ghost) is a chorale

Chorale

A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....

in four stanzas. The first stanza dates from the 13th century and alludes to the Latin sequence

Sequence (poetry)

A sequence is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, before the proclamation of the Gospel. By the time of the Council of Trent there were sequences for many feasts in the Church's year.The sequence has always been sung...

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

. The Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit (Christianity)

For the majority of Christians, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is Almighty God...

is addressed, but the general theme makes the hymn appropriate not only for Pentecost

Pentecost

Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

, but also for general occasions and funerals. The chorale is part of many hymnals, sung in several Christian denominations and in translations. The text inspired vocal and organ music from the Renaissance to contemporary, including composers such as Michael Praetorius

Michael Praetorius

Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to make better the relationship between...

, Dieterich Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services...

and Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, among others.

History and text

The first stanza is found in the 13th century, the Franciscan Berthold von Regensburg (died 1272) quoted it in a sermon.

Nû biten wir den heiligen geist

umbe den rechten glouben allermeist,

daz er uns behüete an unsrem ende,

sô wir heim suln varn ûz disem ellende.

Kyrieleis.

It is a prayer in German to the Holy Spirit, reminiscent of the Latin sequence

Sequence (poetry)

Veni Sancte Spiritus
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Veni Sancte Spiritus, sometimes called the "Golden Sequence," is a sequence prescribed in the Roman Liturgy for the Masses of Pentecost and its octave, exclusive of the following Sunday...

. The concern is "most of all" (allermeist) the "right faith" (rechten glouben), considering to return "home" (heim) after the "exile" (ellende) of life. In the old German, "ellende" meant exile and was stressed on the second syllable, rhyming with "ende", whereas the modern "Elend" is stressed on the first syllable and translates to "misery".

Luther continued the by addressing the Holy Spirit in prayer in further stanzas as "Du wertes Licht" (You esteemed light), "Du süße Lieb" (You sweet love) and "Du höchster Tröster" (You highest comforter). The hymn is a "Leise", concluding each stanza by "Kyrieleis". The three added stanzas can be seen related to Paul's concept of "Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung" (faith, love, hope), as expressed in his First Epistle to the Corinthians

First Epistle to the Corinthians

The first epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as First Corinthians , is the seventh book of the New Testament of the Bible...

, . Luther's text appeared first in 1524 in Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

in Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (little spiritual song book).

In Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

liturgies it has been the main hymn (Hauptlied) for Pentecost. The chorale is part of many hymnals, sung in several Christian denominations and in translations. The oldest translation to Danish appeared in 1528. Translations to English include "We now implore God the Holy Ghost" in "The Lutheran Hymnal", St. Louis, 1941. In the Catholic hymnal in Germany, the first stanza and the tune is the same, but the text is continued differently by two poets, three stanzas by Maria Luise Thurmair (1912–2005) and a concluding stanza by Michael Vehe

Michael Vehe

-Life:Vehe was born in Biberach . He joined the Dominicans in Wimpfen and was sent to Heidelberg in 1506, where he taught in 1512 and received a doctorate in theology in 1513...

(1537).

Melody and musical settings

The tune was derived from the chant of the sequence and appeared first in Jistebnitz around 1420. Luther's version appeared in 1524 in Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

, set for four parts by Johann Walter

Johann Walter

Johann Walter was a Lutheran composer and poet during the Reformation period.-Life:Walter was born in Kahla, Thuringia in 1496...

, who collaborated with Luther. Michael Praetorius

Michael Praetorius

composed seven a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

settings, for two to six voices. Dieterich Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude

composed two organ preludes, BuxWV 208 and BuxWV 209. Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

used the third stanza in his cantata

Bach cantata

Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....

Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169, composed in Leipzig for the 18th Sunday after Trinity

Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity...

on 20 October 1726.

Organ preludes were composed by Georg Böhm

Georg Böhm

Georg Böhm was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach.-Life:Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen, near Ohrdruf...

, Helmut Eder

Helmut Eder

Helmut Eder was an Austrian composer.Eder studied until 1948 at the Linz Conservatory, later studying with Johann Nepomuk David in Stuttgart and Carl Orff in Munich. Returning to Linz, he became a teacher at the Linz Conservatory, accepting a position as full professor in 1962...

, Paul Hamburger

Paul Hamburger

Paul Hamburger was a British pianist, accompanist, chamber musician, and scholar.Paul Hamburger was born in Vienna in 1920, and studied at the Vienna State Academy before emigrating to England in 1939...

, Arnold Mendelssohn

Arnold Mendelssohn

Arnold Ludwig Mendelssohn was a German composer and music teacher.Mendelssohn was born in the then Ratibor, Province of Silesia, son of Felix Mendelssohn's second cousin Wilhelm Mendelssohn who had married in 1854 Louise Aimee Cauer...

, Ernst Pepping

Ernst Pepping

Ernst Pepping was a German composer of classical music.-Professional career:Pepping studied composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik with Walter Gmeindl between 1922 and 1926...

, Heinrich Scheidemann

Heinrich Scheidemann

Heinrich Scheidemann was a German organist and composer. He was the best-known composer for the organ in north Germany in the early to mid-17th century, and was an important forerunner of Dieterich Buxtehude and J.S. Bach.-Life:...

, Heinrich Scheidemann

Heinrich Scheidemann

, Johann Gottfried Vierling

Johann Gottfried Vierling

Johann Gottfried Vierling was a German organist and composer.Vierling was born in Metzels. From 1763 he studied at the Lyzeum in Schmalkalden. In 1768 he succeeded his teacher Johann Nikolaus Tischer as organist in Schmalkalden. He later continued his musical studies with Carl Philipp Emanuel...

, Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha was a blind German organist who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters and is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Biography :Born in Leipzig, Walcha was blinded at age 19 after vaccination for smallpox...

and Johann Gottfried Walther

Johann Gottfried Walther

Johann Gottfried Walther was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era.Walther was born at Erfurt...

, among others.

Johann Nepomuk David

Johann Nepomuk David

Johann Nepomuk David was an Austrian composer.He began his musical career in the monastery of Sankt Florian, and was a composition student of Joseph Marx....

wrote in 1936 a Choralmottete (chorale motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

) for four-part choir a cappella Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist. It is the first movement of Ernst Pepping's Deutsche Choralmesse (Chorale Mass in German) for six voices a cappella (SSATBB).

Herbert Blendinger

Herbert Blendinger

Herbert Blendinger is an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin.-Professional career:Blendinger studied viola and composition with Willy Horwath and Max Gebhard at the conservatory in Nuremberg, then from 1961 to 1963 at the Musikhochschule München with Georg Schmid and Franz Xaver...

composed in 1984 for cello and organ Meditation über den Choral „Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist“ Op. 36. Jacques Wildberger composed Diaphanie: per viola sola: fantasia su per "Veni creator spiritus" et canones diversi super "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist", published in Zürich in 1989.

External links

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