Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr

"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" (Alone to God in the Highest Be Glory) is an early Lutheran hymn, with text and melody attributed to Nikolaus Decius. It was intended as a German version of the Gloria part of the Latin mass.[1] Decius wrote three stanzas, probably in 1523, while a fourth was added—probably by Joachim Slüter.

"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr"
Lutheran hymn
Print in Johann Spangenberg's Kirchengesenge Deudtsch, Magdeburg 1545
English"Glory be to God in the Highest"
CatalogueZahn 4457
Textby Nikolaus Decius
LanguageGerman
Based onGloria
Melodyby Decius
Published1531 (1531)

"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" is included in many German hymnals, including the current Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch and (three stanzas) in the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob. Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn to "All glory be to God on high".

History
From the Easter mass

"Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" is a paraphrase of the Latin Gloria from the mass liturgy.[2] The oldest prints of the hymn do not mention an author,[3] but it is believed that it was written in Low German by Nikolaus Decius in 1523, which makes it one of the earliest songs of the Reformation.[2] The melody, Zahn No. 4457,[4] is adapted from the Gloria of the mass for Easter in Gregorian chant, Lux et origo (GL 114).[5][6]

Early publications

"Aleyne God yn der Höge sy eere" is the first Low German version of the later "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" published in Joachim Slüter's Geystlyke leder (Rostock, 1531).[5][6] The first print in High German appeared in a hymnal by Valentin Schumann in Leipzig in 1539.[7] Text and melody of the hymn were published together for the first time in Johann Spangenberg's Kirchengesenge Deudtsch (Magdeburg 1545),[8] although a slightly different version had already appeared a few years earlier in a Strasbourg hymnal.

Authorship

In 17th-century Leipzig hymnals the German text of "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" was attributed to Nikolaus Selnecker.[9][10] In his church history of Braunschweig, published in five volumes between 1707 and 1720,[11] Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer refers to a Latin document from 1600, which named Decius as the author of text and melody of both "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" and "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig".[8] The creation of hymns by Decius is dated 1522/23,[12] before the first publications of hymns by Martin Luther (1524): thus these hymns belong to the earliest of the Reformation.[12][13]

Text and translation

The following text is taken from the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, where the hymn is EG 179. The Catholic hymnal Gotteslob (GL 170) has only the first three stanzas, and a slight change in the rhythm of one tone. Both hymnals note 1523 as the year of writing. Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn to "All glory be to God on high, who hath our race befriended", which appears in 95 hymnals.[14][15]

Hymn tune and musical settings

Organ settings

As a hymn usually sung every Sunday, "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr" was often the basis for chorale preludes. Among those by Johann Sebastian Bach there are three in Clavier-Übung III (BWV 675, BWV 676 and BWV 677), and three others in the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes (BWV 662, BWV 663 and BWV 664).[16] Other composers from the 18th century or earlier set the hymn tune for organ including Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Georg Böhm, Christian Geist, Johann Peter Kellner and Melchior Schildt.[6]

Max Reger composed two chorale preludes, the first of his 52 chorale preludes, Op. 67 in 1902, and No. 2 of his 30 small chorale preludes, Op. 135a, in 1914. Charles Tomlinson Griffes wrote an organ piece in 1910.[6] Sigfrid Karg-Elert included a setting as No. 23 of his 66 Chorale improvisations for organ, published in 1909.[17] Ernst Pepping used it for the Gloria of his Deutsche Choralmesse, a six-part setting of 1928.[6] Contemporary organ settings were written by Aivars Kalējs, among others.[6]

Vocal settings

Bach set the hymn as a four-part chorale, (BWV 260).[18] In his extant cantatas, the melody appears in association with Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, BWV 128, for Ascension, and for Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, BWV 112, a paraphrase of Psalm 23 by Wolfgang Meuslin, printed in 1530.[6]

Felix Mendelssohn included a setting of the hymn in his oratorio Paulus, as No. 3, the first chorale, following the overture and a chorus.[19]

References
  1. Williams, Peter (2003), The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-89115-9
  2. Leahy 2011, p. 179.
  3. Marti 2000, p. 32.
  4. Zahn 1890.
  5. Leahy 2011, p. 179–180.
  6. Braatz & Oron 2006.
  7. Leahy 2011, p. 180.
  8. Leahy 2011, p. 91.
  9. Johann Hermann Schein. Cantional, Oder Gesang-Buch Augspurgischer Confession. Leipzig: Schuster, 1645, p 134
  10. Gottfried Vopelius. Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. Leipzig: Christoph Klinger, 1682, p. 425
  11. Zimmermann, Paul (1888). "Rehtmeyer, Philipp Julius", pp. 604–606 in Vol. 27 of Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Historical commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
  12. Becker 2009, p. 106.
  13. Leahy 2011, p. 179.
  14. Hymnary 2017.
  15. Winkworth 2017.
  16. Williams, Peter (2003), The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-89115-9
  17. Choral Improvisations for Organ, Op. 65: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
  18. Luke Dahn (2017). BWV 260 at bach-chorales.com
  19. Paulus 1839.

Cited sources

Further reading
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer: Die Kirchenlieder des Hofers Nicolaus Decius. In: Curia sonans. Die Musikgeschichte der Stadt Hof. Eine Studie zur Kultur Oberfrankens. Von der Gründung des Bistums Bamberg bis zur Gegenwart. (dissertation.) Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Heinrichs-Verlag Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4, pp. 110–112, 135–137, 357–358.
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