When I started to research the hymn on which I wanted to write this week, I realized that I had written about it a few years ago. After I read what I had written previously about this hymn, I wanted to share it with you again, with some revision and updating. The hymn is “How bright appears the Morning Star” (hymns 496 and 497 in The Hymnal 1982), with which we will begin this Sunday’s service, including an organ prelude based on the tune.
“How bright appears the Morning Star” is known as the “Queen of Chorales.” Is there a “King of Chorales?” Well, first, what is a chorale? In this context, a chorale is the text and/or melody of a German hymn, especially those of the Reformation era in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The “King of Chorales” is the nickname given to the hymn “‘Sleepers, wake!’ A voice astounds us” (hymns 61 and 62 in The Hymnal 1982). The music and the original German words for both the “Queen” and the “King” were written by Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608).
This hymn is often connected with the season of Epiphany, which began on January 6 and ends this year on February 16 (Shrove Tuesday). Philipp Nicolai wrote the words for this hymn in 1598 to memorialize his student Wilhelm Ernst, who died that year at the age of fourteen. The beginning letters of the seven original German stanzas of “How bright appears the Morning Star” are W, E, G, V (=U), H, Z, and W, making an acrostic on “Wilhelm Ernst, Graf und Herr zu Waldeck” (Wilhelm Ernst, Count and Lord of Waldeck). Interestingly, in both the German and English versions, each stanza forms a chalice shape when the lines of poetry are centered. Visual devices like this were used sometimes in Latin and German literature. Here is the “chalice” of stanza 1:
How bright appears the Morning Star,
With mercy beaming from afar;
The host of heaven rejoices;
O righteous Branch, O Jesse’s Rod!
Thou Son of man and Son of God!
We too will lift our voices:
Jesus, Jesus!
Holy holy,
Yet most lowly,
Draw thou near us;
Great Emmanuel, come and hear us.
The title of this hymn is based on Christ’s words in the last chapter of the Bible, where he calls himself “the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16). Especially in the original stanzas, there are numerous other references to the book of Revelation. The German text also derives images from Psalm 45, which our pew Bibles (New Revised Standard Version) title “Ode for a Royal Wedding.” Philipp Nicolai labeled his hymn: “A spiritual bridal song of the believing soul concerning Jesus Christ, her heavenly Bridegroom.” A popular choice as a hymn for weddings, “How bright appears the Morning Star” was loved so much in Germany that the clocks in some towns played it on their bells.
Philipp Nicolai wrote the tune for “How bright appears the Morning Star” specifically for his text. The original rhythm (hymn 496) is more varied than the later version which we sing (497), harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The tune name WIE SCHON LEUCHTET comes from the first line of the German text.
A devastating plague hit Unna in Westphalia, Germany, taking over 1,300 lives in a six-month period while Nicolai was a Lutheran minister there. Sometimes he officiated at as many as thirty burials a day. While struggling to get through those tragic times, Nicolai wrote, “There seemed to me nothing more sweet, delightful, and agreeable than the contemplation of the noble, sublime doctrine of eternal life obtained through the blood of Christ.” As we experience anxiety, struggles, and tragedies while the pandemic continues to rage in 2021, pray that we will focus our eyes on Jesus, our bright Morning Star, and on the eternal life that we inherit as his dear children.
Here are stanzas two and three in their “chalice-like” poetic form:
Though circled by the hosts on high,
He deigned to cast a pitying eye
Upon his helpless creature;
The whole creation’s Head and Lord,
By highest seraphim adored,
Assumed our very nature;
Jesus, grant us,
Through thy merit,
To inherit
Thy salvation;
Hear, O hear our supplication.
Rejoice, ye heavens; thou earth, reply;
With praise, ye sinners, fill the sky,
For this his Incarnation.
Incarnate God, put forth thy power,
Ride on, ride on, great Conqueror,
Till all know thy salvation.
Amen, amen!
Alleluia,
Alleluia!
Praise be given
Evermore, by earth and heaven.
Last week I wrote about the hymn “I’m going on a journey,” written in 1978 for the consecration of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in midtown Manhattan. On January 4 a water main break at a nearby subway station caused millions of dollars in damage to the church’s sanctuary, including a magnificent pipe organ. St. Peter’s had a membership of over 800 prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 62 of the church’s parishioners, many of whom are part of its Spanish worshiping community. Please keep St. Peter’s congregation in your prayers.
