Christ fuhr gen Himmel


"Christ fuhr gen Himmel" is a German Ascension hymn. The church song is based the medieval melody of the Easter hymn "Christ ist erstanden". It was an ecumenical song from the beginning, with the first stanza published in 1480, then included in a Lutheran hymnal in 1545, and expanded by the Catholic Johannes Leisentritt in 1567. It appears in modern German Catholic and Protestant hymnals, and has inspired musical settings by composers from the 16th to the 21st century.

History

Most 15th century church hymns were sung in Latin. A few chants on high holidays sung in German became the first to introduce vernacular language into the liturgy. They began as inserts into tropes in Latin sequences. "Christ fuhr gen Himmel" is a Leise, an early church song in German, each verse ending with the word "Kyrieleis".
The hymn was part of the 1938 hymnal Kirchenlied, a Catholic hymnal published by Georg Thurmair containing also Protestant songs. It has been printed in German Protestant hymnals up to Evangelisches Gesangbuch.
The contemporary theologian Alois Albrecht wrote a paraphrase titled "Der ersetzte Himmel", beginning each of five stanzas with the first line of the traditional hymn, then reflecting aspects of its meaning.

Text

The text is:
The text is in modern German:

Musical settings

Johann Werlin composed a setting for three voices in 1648. Hugo Distler wrote a setting as part of his cycle Der Jahrkreis, Op. 5, for three high voices a cappella, replacing Kyrieleis by Halleluja. wrote a three-part setting in 1962. Dominik Gerhard composed an organ improvisation on the song in 2009. Christopher Tambling wrote a setting for three or four voices and brass on his own melody, published in 2015. Hermann Pallhuber composed an orchestral piece "Momentum Profectionis" which is based on the hymn and was premiered in Crailsheim in 2016, for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.