Apologies – I haven’t learned to put in the accents

Festgesang, for men’s chorus and orchestra, text by A.E. Proelss

1st part (chorale)

Begeht mit heil’gen Lobgesang
die grosse Freudenstunde,
kommt, singet tausend stimme Dank
dem Herrn mit Herz und Munde.

Er hat uns diesen Tag gemacht,
er hat aus dicht verhuellter Nacht
das Licht hervor gerufen

Jahrhunderte schon freuen sich
in seinem hellen Strahle,
und immer weiter giesst es sich
bis in die fernsten Thale,

wo Finsterniss und Grm einst lag
da glaenzt nun sonnenhell der Tag.
O preis’t den Gott der Liebe.

Part 2 (the tune later known as Hark, the herald angels sing)

Vaterland, in deinem Gauen brach der gold’ne Tag einst an,
Deutschland, deine Voelkersah’n seinem Schimmer niederthauen.
Gutenberg, der deithsche Mann, zuendete die Fackel an

Neues allgewalt’ges Streben wogt im Land des Lichtes auf,
seinem raschen Siegeslauf folgt ein allbeglueckend Leben.
Gutenberg, der grosse Mann, hat dies hehre Werk gethan.

Ob die Finsterniss sich wehrt, ob sie fuehret tausend Streiche,
ob sie wuethet, sich empoert, sie erblasst, sie sinkt als Leiche,
doch gekroent als Siegesheld, stejt das Licht vor alle Welt.
Gutenberg, du wackrer Mann, du stehst glorreich auf dem Plan.

Part 3

Der Herr, der sprach:
Es werde Licht!

Er half im harten Streite
er stand mit Trost und Zuversicht
beschuetzend dir zur Seite

Der Glaube an sein heilig Wort
war deine Wehr, dein Schild, dein Hort
so musstest Du gewinnen

Heil dir, nun kroent Unsterblichkeit
dich, frommer Held, mit Herrlichkeit,
Heil dir, Heil uns in Ewigkeit.

Part 4 (chorale tune – Nun Danket Alle Gott)

Heil ihm! Heil uns! So schallt zu deinen heil’gen Thronen,
Herr, unser Gott, hinauf der Ruf von Millionen,
und bruenstig flehen wir: lass in des Lochtes Schein
der ganzen Menschheit Heil, Herr, immermehr gedeih’n

Nate W. contributes a text that appears to have been associated with a tune also known as Kingsfold, paired in our hymnbook with the Phelps text being discussed in a concurrent thread. For much more, see here

I’m afraid I had to depend on a search engine to ferret these ones out.

Near Banbridge town, in the County Down
One morning in July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so sweet from her two white feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, I’d to shake myself
To make sure I was standing there.
From Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay
And from Galway to Dublin town
No maid I’ve seen like the sweet colleen
That I met in the County Down.

Gran’ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I ‘ll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibuls that lives in Ceylon’s Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an’ only man is vile!

Vaterland, in deinen Gauen brach der gold’ne Tag einst an
Deutschland, deine Völker sahn seinen Schimmer niederthauen
Gutenberg, der deutsche Mann…

Post 5 refers to the original texts for Song 13 by Orlando Gibbons. In 1623 George Wither published “Hymnes and Songs of the Church” which included 17 tunes by Gibbons. Song 13 was used for both texts above, the music for the second pair of lines being repeated for the six-line stanza.

Song 13 appears in our hymnbook as 231, Father, Cheer Our Souls Tonight

Post 4 gives the first lines of the trio from Act I of Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto, an opera on the sixth crusade, first performed in Venice at La Fenice in 1824, and has the signal distinction of being probably the last opera ever written to feature a castrato.

It appears in our hymnbook as 196, Jesus, Once of Humble Birth

I was referring to the Jean-Jacques Roussea opera, Le devin du village, which is the source for hymn 163. Actually there is some dispute as to whether the tune arose independently around the same time, but our hymnbook still credits Rousseau, despite his version of the tune being somewhat different.

The text, Lord, Dimiss Us with Thy Blessing, by Fawcett (there is another hymn text of the same first line by Henry Buckoll, from 1850), is almost as old (1773) as the Rousseau opera (1752). I don’t know how old the text Go, tell Aunt Rhody is (apparently it was sung as early as 1798 as aunt Dinah). Nor do I know when the tune was first put together with the Fawcett text. The tune (sometimes called Greenville) can also be found as the 19th century sacred harp piece, Sweet Affliction. The Fawcett text is more commonly sung to the Sicilian Mariner’s hymn, although it has also been paired with the tunes Regent Square, St. Raphael, Dismissal (which also has similarities to the Rousseau tune), and probably others with the 8787D meter.

Still, it’s a bit jarring when you realize…