Morgenstern der finstern Nacht
"Morgenstern der finstern Nacht" is a Christian poem in German by Angelus Silesius, first published in his poetry collection Heilige Seelen-Lust in 1657. It became a hymn with a melody written for it by Georg Joseph the same year. It is part of the 2013 German Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 372, in the section "Jesus Christus". It has also been used for Advent. A common version in English, "Morning Star, O cheering sight!", was written by Bennett Harvey.
History
Silesius first published "Morgenstern der finstern Nacht" as part of his collection Heilige Seelen-Lust in 1657. The full title of the collection is: "Heilige Seelen-Lust, oder Geistliche Hirten-Lieder der in ihren Jesum verliebten Psyche gesungen von Johann Angelo Silesio, Und von Herren Georgio Josepho mit außbundig schönen Melodeyen geziert / Allen liebhabenden Seelen zur Ergetzligkeit und Vermehrung ihrer heiligen Liebe / zu Lob und Ehren Gottes an Tag gegeben"It is part of the 2013 German Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 372, in the section "Leben in Gott / Jesus Christus".
Text
The 26th song in the collection, it is introduced, speaking of the soul: "Sie will das Jesulein als den wahren Morgenstern in dem Himmel ihres Herzens haben". The poem is in six stanzas of five lines each. It is written as trochaic, rhyming AABB. The third and fourth lines are half the length of the others, giving extra weight to the fifth line, which is used as a summary. The image of the morning star is a mythical spiritual image which in Christianity is often used for Jesus, also in Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". The text is given as in GL 372, juxtaposed with a common version in English by Bennett Harvey, which is shortened to four stanzas:It differs slightly from the original, which has "Jesulein" instead of "Jesu mein" three times, and the older "säum dich nicht" instead of "säume nicht" twice. Jesus is addressed in the second person with an intimate "Du" as the morning star, which shines while darkness prevails. Night turns to brightness when his radiance has smiled at it.
Melodies and musical settings
The melody in triple meter was written by Georg Joseph, a composer from Breslau.\relative c'
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Gabriel Rheinberger composed his own melody for the poem in 1884 and wrote a four-part setting of that melody which was published in 1900. Carus-Verlag re-published both in 2014.