"Valet will ich dir geben"
hymn
The Sterbelied (hymn for the dying) in a Lutheran hymnal, 1614
English"Farewell I Gladly Bid Thee"
CatalogueZahn 5403–5404a
Written1613
Textby Valerius Herberger, translated by Catherine Winkworth (1865)
Composedby Melchior Teschner (1615)

"Valet will ich dir geben" is a Lutheran hymn written by Valerius Herberger in 1613. It is a Sterbelied (hymn for the dying). The text was published with two hymn tunes by Melchior Teschner, Zahn Nos. 5403 and 5404a, in 1615. The second of these melodies was used in compositions such as chorale preludes by Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger. Bach used single stanzas in vocal works, including his St John Passion.

Catherine Winkworth made a metrical translation to "Farewell I Gladly Bid Thee" which also appeared with the second tune as No. 137 in The Chorale Book for England in 1865.

Valet will ich dir geben

First emprint of Valet will ich dir gerben, with acrostic

Herberger wrote the hymn in 1613 in response to the plague in Fraustadt, as a Sterbelied (hymn for the dying).[1][2] Its subtitle reads:[3]

The hymn's first word, "Valet", is derived from the Latin valete (fare thee well) in the original imprint: Herberger arranged his own Christian name "Valerius" as an acrostic—the first letters of each of the five stanzas form his name, Vale R I V S.[3] The hymn text was first printed in Leipzig in 1614.[4]

Teschner composed two melodies for the hymn, Zahn 5403 and 5404a,[5] which he published in Ein andächtiges Gebet (a devotional prayer) in 1615, both in a five-part setting.[2]

Musical settings

Johann Sebastian Bach used the second of these melodies in his compositions, for instance the chorale preludes BWV 735 and 736.[6][7] He used the first stanza of the hymn as movement 3 in his cantata Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95,[1][8] and the third stanza, "In meines Herzens Grunde" (Within my heart's foundation), in his St John Passion.[9]

Max Reger composed a chorale prelude as No. 38 of his 52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67 in 1902.[10] Naji Hakim composed in 2011 "Valet will ich dir geben / 5 Variations for Choir and Organ on a Choral by Melchior Teschner".[11] "Valet will ich dir geben" is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, under number EG 523.

In English

Winkworth's translation was published as No. 137 in The Chorale Book for England in 1865, with a four-part harmonisation of the tune.[12]

The hymn tune is also known as "St. Theodulph" after Theodulf of Orléans who was the author of the Latin hymn which became, in John Mason Neale's 1845 English translation, "All Glory, Laud and Honour".[13]

References

  1. 1 2 "Valet will ich dir geben / Text and Translation of Chorale". bach-cantatas.com. 2003. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  2. 1 2 "St. Theodulph (Teschner)". hymnary.org. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 Albrecht, Christoph (1995). Einführung in die Hymnologie. Göttingen. pp. 36ff.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Valet will ich dir geben". bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Zahn, Johannes (1890). Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder. Vol. III. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann. pp. 406–407. {{cite book}}: External link in |volume= (help)
  6. ↑ Williams, Peter (2003), The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-89115-9
  7. ↑ BWV2a (1998), p. 479
  8. ↑ Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 95 - "Christus, der ist mein Leben"". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  9. ↑ Ambrose, Z. Philip (2012). "BWV 245 Johannes-Passion". University of Vermont. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  10. ↑ Becker, Alexander; Grafschmidt, Christopher; König, Stefan; Steiner-Grage, Stefanie, eds. (2014). "Reger: 52 easy preludes for the most common Lutheran chorales op. 67, Volumes 1–3". Carus Verlag. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  11. ↑ "Valet will ich dir geben". Schott. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Bennett, William Sterndale, ed. (1865). "No. 137". The Chorale book for England. Translated by Winkworth, Catherine. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green.
  13. ↑ Marti, Andreas (2017). "523 Valet will ich dir geben". In Evang, Martin; Alpermann, Ilsabe (eds.). Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch, Heft 4 (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 88–95. ISBN 9783647503462. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
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