Sei zu deinem Tisch geladen!
Lass mich durch dies Seelenessen
Deine Liebe recht ermessen,
Dass ich auch, wie jetzt auf Erden,
Mög’ dein Gast im Himmel werden.
The finest of all German communion hymns. It expresses the reverent joy that should accompany the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The hymn is sung, invariably, in many German churches on communion occasions.
Johann Franck was born at Guben, Brandenburg, the son of a lawyer, and was himself educated for the law. At the University of Königsberg he was greatly influenced by Simon Dach, Professor of Poetry, and, in spite of his law practice and the holding of public offices, he became an important poet and hymn writer of his time, second only to Paul Gerhardt. The dominant theme of his hymns is the mystical union of the soul with the Savior. Franck’s hymns had appeared in the works of his friends Weichman and Crüger, and later were published, 110 in all, at Guben, in 1674, in a volume entitled Geistliches Sion.
The hymn is a selection of stanzas 1, 2, 7, and 9 of the original.
For comments on the translator, Catherine Winkworth, see [Hymn 236].
MUSIC. SCHMÜCKE DICH is a beautifully expressive tune by Johann Crüger, 1598-1662, first published in the composer’s Praxis Pietatis Melica, 1644. J. S. Bach used the tune for an organ setting which constitutes one of the most beautiful of Bach organ chorales. Upon hearing it played by Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann wrote concerning the chorale: