The Glory of the Lutheran Chorales

[BrotherBoris]

On this dreary,cold, rainy Saturday I decided to life my spirits with some fine Lutheran chorales from all over the world. Enjoy and feel free to add more!

Boris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6eHp0Xtob4

A Version of Decius' "All Glory Be to God on High" sung at St. Alban's Catholic Church, somewhere in Germany.

[BrotherBoris]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARfFeteekoY

This is "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" by a Lutheran Choir from Hungary in the Magyar language.

[BrotherBoris]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJllFAzN8Ek

from a Lutheran Church somewhere in Finland:  I think I detect a Russian cultural influence here in this basso profundo.  How rich and beautiful!

[BrotherBoris]

A video of the beautiful, yet austere, Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral in Reykjavik, Island with a choir singing "A Mighty Fortress" (in English) in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUsAGaDpW0k

[BrotherBoris]

And how could I leave out Germany?  Here is the Lutheran Church of Saints Peter and Mary in Berlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAarft1Wq50

[BrotherBoris]

The Anglicans have such good taste that they know good music when they hear it. And they just can't leave the Lutheran chorales alone. Listen to these Anglicans in Detroit belt out this Lutheran chorale!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjCJrNQsefc (Wake, awake, for night is flying)

[BrotherBoris]

Good taste is making a comeback in the Roman Catholic Church now due to Pope Benedict's influence.  Listen as these Minnesota Catholics from Stillwater sing Luther's "Savior of the Nations, Come" for the First Sunday in Advent. 

Isn't it ironic that as some American Lutherans cast away their liturgical and Kernlieder heritage, many non-Lutherans have the common sense to realize how good musically and textually these hymns are?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldb56S3ZQ7M

What do you bet the Lutheran churches in Stillwater, MN have praise bands? Catholics preserving Lutheran hymnody?  Who have thunk it? 

[Jeremy Loesch]

Brother Boris, bless you for posting these links!  May your Lenten season be filled with deep awe for the coming Eastertide.  Thanks again.

While I prepare dinner for the family, I type Paul Gerhardt into the search feature of youtube and listen to different pieces. 

Thanks again.  Jeremy

[FatherWilliam57]

Lovely thread, Brother Boris!  But you cannot have the Anglicans singing The King of Chorales without giving equal time for the United Methodists to sing The Queen of Chrorales! (I really like this arrangement, but I wish they had done all the verses):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj1COyzrf54&feature=related

[BrotherBoris]

Simply gloriious, Father William! O how I love to sing the bass line in that one. 

Boris

[BrotherBoris]

Here's a 19th century hymn from Finland sung by a lovely soprano accompanied by a reed organ. I love the tenderness and passion with which she sings.  Perhaps a Finnish Lutheran could translate it for us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xf3VctNP3k

[BrotherBoris]

This really isn't a Lutheran chorale as musicians define it, but .....   it is a well known and well loved hymn of American Lutherans. Here's "Abide With Me" sung in Finnish, in a very tasteful, reverent and moving style.  The harmonies are just wonderful. I must confess I never have liked this hymn before, but I think the Finnish people have redeemed it for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3zl4qtcIzU

[BrotherBoris]

This is for all my Slavic Lutheran friends: Vicar Bob, Scott Yamikov, Pastor Dave Poedel and everyone else.  Enjoy this!  Its a very moving hymn in Polish, from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Warsaw, Poland.  Again, note the awe, reverence and majesty and the crucifixes.  American Lutheranism could learn from this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDcNUN-nI9Q

[BrotherBoris]

Not exactly a Lutheran chorale here, this is a fragment of the Polish Luther an Liturgy, quite beautifully chanted.  Enjoy the Introit, Gloria Patri, Kyrie, and Gloria in Excelsis in Polish! 

Wow!  I had no idea Polish was so close to Church Slavonic!  I understood the whole Gloria Patri.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M_PnSDmVx0

I think I need to travel to Eastern Europe.

[Charles_Austin]

Brother Boris writes:
Here's a 19th century hymn from Finland sung by a lovely soprano accompanied by a reed organ. I love the tenderness and passion with which she sings.  Perhaps a Finnish Lutheran could translate it for us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xf3VctNP3k

I comment:
Don't know the Finnish words, but the tune is "Day by Day," a fine old Swedish hymn "Blott en Dag," now happily in ELW as #790. It would be one of my top ten favorite hymns, if I had to prepare such a list. Before the hymn was included in "With One Voice," an elderly Swede in my parish and I did a translation that we used for several years.