"An Wasserflüssen Babylon" (By the rivers of Babylon) is a Lutheran hymn by Wolfgang Dachstein, which was first published in Strasbourg in 1525. The text of the hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 137. Its singing tune, which is the best known part of the hymn and Dachstein's best known melody, was popularised as the chorale tune of Paul Gerhardt's 17th-century Passion hymn "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld". With this hymn text, Dachstein's tune is included in the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch.
Several vocal and organ settings of the hymn "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" have been composed in the 17th and 18th centuries, including short four-part harmonisations by Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach. In the second half of the 17th century, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Adam Reincken and Bach's cousin, Johann Christoph, arranged settings for chorale preludes. Reincken's setting of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" was elaborate and of great length; with one of Pachelbel's shorter settings as a chorale prelude, it forms the earliest extant transcriptions of Bach, copied on a 1700 organ tablature in Lüneburg when he was still a youth; remarkably, they were only unearthed in Weimar in 2005.
In 1720, at a celebrated organ concert in Hamburg, Bach extemporised a chorale setting of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" in the presence of Reincken, two years before his death; earlier, during his second period in Weimar, Bach had already composed two organ settings of the chorale prelude. Finally, during his maturity in Leipzig, Bach reworked the chorale prelude as BWV 653, part of his Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, written in 1739–1742.
History and context
"An Wasserflüssen Babylon" is a Lutheran hymn written in 1525 and attributed to Wolfgang Dachstein, organist at St Thomas' Church, Strasbourg. The hymn is a closely paraphrased versification of Psalm 137, "By the rivers of Babylon", a lamentation for Jerusalem, exiled in Babylon. Its text and melody, Zahn No. 7663, first appeared in Strasbourg in 1525 in Wolf Köpphel's Das dritt theil Straßburger kirchenampt. This Strasbourg tract, which comprised the third part of the Lutheran service, is now lost. Despite the lost tract from 1525, the Strasbourg hymn appeared in print in 1526 in Psalmen, Gebett und Kirchenordnung wie sie zu Straßburg gehalten werden and later.
Wolfgang Egeloph Dachstein was born in 1487 in Offenburg in the Black Forest. In 1503 he became a fellow student with Martin Luther at the University of Erfurt. He entered the Dominican monastic order in around 1520 in Strasbourg, where he started a collaboration with Matthias Greiter, a friend and contemporary. Greiter was born in 1495 in Aichach, near Augsburg in Bavaria, where he attended a Latin school, before enrolling in theology at the University of Freiburg in 1510 and becoming a monk in Strasbourg in 1520.
During the Reformation, Protestantism was adopted in Strasbourg in 1524. The reforms involved the introduction of the German vernacular, the use of Lutheran liturgy ("Gottesdienstordnung") and congregational singing. Both Greiter and Dachstein renounced their monastic vows and married in Alsace. Their association continued, with Greiter becoming a cantor in the Cathedral and Dachstein an organist at St Thomas. Both played an important role in the musical life of Strasbourg, with many contributions to Lutheran hymns and psalms. Daniel Specklin, a 16th-century architect from Alsace, where the region Dachstein takes its name, described in detail how the pair engaged in "das evangelium" and "vil gute psalmen". A costly edition of the Straßburger Gesangbuch was published by Köpphel in 1541, with a preface by the Lutheran reformer Martin Bucer: the title, text and psalm were printed in characteristic red and black with woodcuts by Hans Baldung. During the Counter-Reformation, however, the Augsburg Interim resulted in Strasbourg reinstating Catholicism in October 1549: both Dachstein and Greiter renounced Protestantism and Bucer was sent into exile in England, where under Edward VI he became Regius Professor of Divinity.
Dachstein's hymn "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" was rapidly distributed—it was printed in Luther's 1545 Babstsches Gesangbuch—and spread to most Lutheran hymnbooks by central Germany. The hymn tune is Dachstein's best known composition. The melody of the hymn became better known than its text, through the association of that melody with Paul Gerhardt's 17th-century Passion hymn "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld". With that hymn text, the hymn tune of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" was adopted as EG 83 in the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch. After the Sack of Magdeburg in 1631, during the Thirty Years' War, it was decreed that Dachstein's 137th Psalm would be sung every year as part of the ceremonies to commemorate the destruction of Magdeburg—"O Magdeburg, du schoene Stadt verbrunnen verstoert."; and, amongst Ashkenazi culture, there was also a Hebrew version of Dachstein's composition in the same period.
Text
The Lutheran text of Dachstein first appeared in 1525. Miles Coverdale provided an early English translation in the Tudor Protestant Hymnal "Ghostly Psalms and Spiritual Songs," 1539. These Lutheran versifications were written in continental Europe while Coverdale was in exile from England.
German text English translation1. An Wasserflüssen Babylon, Da saßen wir mit Schmerzen; Als wir gedachten an Sion, Da weinten wir von Herzen; Wir hingen auf mit schwerem Mut Die Orgeln und die Harfen gut An ihre Bäum der Weiden, Die drinnen sind in ihrem Land, Da mussten wir viel Schmach und Schand Täglich von ihnen leiden. At the ryvers of Babilon, There sat we downe ryght hevely; Even whan we thought upon Sion, We wepte together sorofully. For we were in soch hevynes, That we forgat al our merynes, And lefte of all oure sporte and playe: On the willye trees that were thereby We hanged up oure harpes truly, And morned sore both nyght and daye.2. Die uns gefangen hielten lang So hart an selben Orten Begehrten von uns ein Gesang Mit gar spöttlichen Worten Und suchten in der Traurigkeit Ein fröhlichn Gsang in unserm Leid Ach lieber tut uns singen Ein Lobgesang, ein Liedlein schon Von den Gedichten aus Zion, Das fröhlich tut erklingen. They that toke us so cruelly, And led us bounde into pryson, Requyred of us some melody. With wordes full of derision. When we had hanged oure harpes alwaye, This cruell folke to us coulde saye: Now let us heare some mery songe, Synge us a songe of some swete toyne, As ye were wont to synge at Sion, Where ye have lerned to synge so longe.3. Wie sollen wir in solchem Zwang Und Elend, jetzt vorhanden, Dem Herren singen ein Gesang Sogar in fremden Landen? Jerusalem, vergiss ich dein, So wolle Gott, der G'rechte, mein Vergessen in meim Leben, Wenn ich nicht dein bleib eingedenk Mein Zunge sich oben ane häng Und bleib am Rachen kleben. To whome we answered soberly: Beholde now are we in youre honde: How shulde we under captivite Synge to the Lorde in a straunge londe? Hierusalem, I say to the, Yf I remember the not truly, My honde playe on the harpe no more: Yf I thynke not on the alwaye, Let my tonge cleve to my mouth for aye, And let me loose my speache therfore.4. Ja, wenn ich nicht mit ganzem Fleiss, Jerusalem, dich ehre, Im Anfang meiner Freude Preis Von jetzt und immermehre, Gedenk der Kinder Edom sehr, Am Tag Jerusalem, o Herr, Die in der Bosheit sprechen: Reiss ab, reiss ab zu aller Stund, Vertilg sie gar bis auf den Grund, Den Boden wolln wir brechen! Yee, above all myrth and pastaunce, Hierusalem, I preferre the. Lorde, call to thy remembraunce The sonnes of Edom ryght strately, In the daye of the destruction, Which at Hierusalem was done; For they sayd in theyr cruelnes, Downe with it, downe with it, destroye it all; Downe with it soone, that it may fall, Laye it to the grounde all that there is.5. Die schnöde Tochter Babylon, Zerbrochen und zerstöret, Wohl dem, der wird dir gebn den Lohn Und dir, das wiederkehret, Dein Übermut und Schalkheit gross, Und misst dir auch mit solchem Mass, Wie du uns hast gemessen; Wohl dem, der deine Kinder klein Erfasst und schlägt sie an ein Stein, Damit dein wird vergessen!Modernised orthography, while the original wording is found in Philipp Wackernagel: Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. III. Teubner, 1870, No. 135 (p. 98) O thou cite of Babilon, Thou thy selfe shalt be destroyed. Truly blessed shall be that man Which, even as thou hast deserved, Shall rewarde the with soch kyndnesse As thou hast shewed to us gyltlesse, Which never had offended the. Blessed shall he be that for the nones Shall throwe thy chyldren agaynst the stones, To brynge the out of memorie.
Hymn tune Below is the 1525 hymn tune by Wolfgang Dachstein.
Musical settings
16th century
Lupus Hellinck's four-part setting of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" was published in 1544. The treatment is motet-like: the first part of the hymn tune is presented by the soprano voice, however adorned with inserted supplemental melodies, after which the tenor voice presents the rest of the hymn tune, with similar embellishments. Another four-part setting of the hymn, likewise first published in Georg Rhau's Newe Deudsche Geistliche Gesenge, is by . A three-part setting by this composer had already been published in 1541. The 115 Guter newer Liedlein collection, published in 1544, contains an extended choral setting by : in this version, each stanza of the hymn is set for a different group of singers, from three to six voices. Wannenmacher's two-part setting (bicinium) of the hymn was published in 1553.
Sigmund Hemmel used the text in the 1550s in his four-part setting, with the cantus firmus in the tenor: Der gantz Psalter Davids, wie derselbig in teutsche Gesang verfasse was printed in 1569.
17th century
A native of Nuremberg, Hans Leo Hassler was taught by Andrea Gabrieli in Venice, where he excelled as a keyboard player and consorted with his younger uncle, Giovanni Gabrieli. Hassler's 4-part setting of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" was composed in 1608.
Johann Hermann Schein composed a setting of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" for two sopranos and instrumental accompaniment, which he published in 1617. His 1627 Cantional contained a four-part setting of the hymn, a setting which was republished by Vopelius's Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (1682).Gottfried Vopelius (1682). Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. Leipzig: Christoph Klinger, pp.706–709 In 1628 Heinrich Schütz published a four-part harmonisation of "An Wasserflüssen Babylon", SWV 242, in the Psalmen Davids, hiebevorn in teutzsche Reimen gebracht, durch D. Cornelium Beckern, und an jetzo mit ein hundert und drey eigenen Melodeyen ... gestellet, the Becker Psalter, Op. 5. Samuel Scheidt, composed two settings of the hymn, SSWV 505 and 570, for soprano and organ in the Tabulatur-Buch hundert geistlicher Lieder und Psalmen of 1650.
Franz Tunder composed a setting of the hymn for soprano, strings and continuo. Organist at the Marienkirche, Lübeck from 1646 to 1668, Tunder initiated his Abendmusik there. Buxtehude later married Tunder's daughter and succeeded him as organist at Lübeck.
The hymn also inspired organ compositions in Northern Germany. Organ chorale preludes and free works by Johann Christoph Bach (Johann Sebastian's first cousin once removed), Johann Adam Reincken, Johann Pachelbel and Johann Sebastian Bach have been based on "An Wasserflüssen Babylon".