Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from heaven) is a Lutheran chorale of 1524, with words written by Martin Luther paraphrasing Psalm 12. It was published as one of eight songs in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal, the Achtliederbuch, which contained four songs by Luther, three by Speratus, and one by Justus Jonas. It is part of many hymnals, also in translations. The text inspired vocal and organ music by composers such as Heinr...
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Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from heaven) is a Lutheran chorale of 1524, with words written by Martin Luther paraphrasing Psalm 12. It was published as one of eight songs in 1524 in the first Lutheran hymnal, the Achtliederbuch, which contained four songs by Luther, three by Speratus, and one by Justus Jonas. It is part of many hymnals, also in translations. The text inspired vocal and organ music by composers such as Heinrich Schütz, who set it as part of his Becker Psalter, and Johann Sebastian Bach, who based a chorale cantata on it. Mozart used one of its tunes in his opera The Magic Flute.
At the end of 1523, Luther paraphrased Psalm 12 (Psalm 11 in Vulgata numbering), Psalms 12, in Latin Salvum me fac, attempting to make the psalms accessible to Protestant church services in German. Luther's poetry first follows the verses of the psalm exactly, then combines two verses to one. He expands the content of the psalm to show the precise situation of the early...
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