Meter: 5.5. 5.5. 10. 5.6. 5.6. 10.
Composer: Johann Georg Ebeling, 1666
Source: Johann Georg Ebeling, Pauli Gerhardi Geistliche Andachten, Berlin/Frankfurt an der Oder, 1666/1667, No. 25
Proper Text: The Golden Morning (Die güldne Sonne)
Johann Ebeling’s collection of tunes composed for Paul Gerhardt’s poems appeared in a ten-volume work entitled Pauli Gerhardi Geistliche Andachten, printed 1666–1667 in Berlin by Christoph Runge. Some volumes were also printed in Frankfurt an der Oder by Erasmus Rösner. Johann Ebeling’s tune “Die güldne Sonne” appeared as No. 25 in the third volume of that work, and can be found in its original four-part setting in a scan of the Frankfurt printing, available here. Though Ebeling’s tune did not appear with Gerhardt’s text in Praxis pietatis melica, it was widely used in other hymnals, including the first three editions of Freylinghausen’s Songbook.
Die güldne Sonne (Jacob Hintze)
Meter: 5.5. 5.5. 10. 5.6. 5.6. 10.
Composer: Jacob Hintze, 1670
Source: Jacob Hintze, Neuvermehrte geistliche Wasserquelle, Berlin, 1670
Proper Text: The Golden Morning (Die güldne Sonne)
When Paul Gerhardt’s text “The Golden Morning (Die güldne Sonne)” began in 1671 to be included in edition’s of Johann Crüger’s Praxis pietatis melica, it was joined not to Johann Ebeling’s tune, but to a new composition by Jacob Hintze, which had appeared in Neuvermehrte geistliche Wasserquelle, Berlin, 1670, p. 409. It was this tune that would accompany Gerhardt’s text through all subsequent editions of Praxis pietatis melica, though it was not used outside that hymnal.