Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 06 · Carols of the Middle Ages · Page 18 in print
In Dulci Jubilo
Bach’s chorale prelude on In Dulci Jubilo, BWV 608, is part of the Orgelbuchlein, the collection of chorale preludes he began at Weimar. Its melody sounds in the soprano and is repeated in the bass.
Jump to a word
The words
Breslau
The city of a fifteenth-century manuscript of the carol.
Chorale
A Lutheran hymn tune, like the one Bach’s prelude is built on.
Codex
Codex 1305 at Leipzig, which holds the oldest German words of the carol.
Dominican
The friars’ order of Heinrich Suso.
Hanover
The city of the 1646 hymnbook that printed an all-German recast.
Heinrich Suso
The German mystic linked with the carol by a medieval story.
Woodward, Piae Cantiones (opens a new tab) · Netherlands Bach Society (opens a new tab)
Klug
Klug’s Gesang-Buch, the Wittenberg hymnbook of 1529 that prints the carol.
Leipzig
The city whose university library holds the oldest German text.
Macaronic
Mixing Latin and a spoken language in one song.
Hymnary.org text record ‘In dulci jubilo (opens a new tab) · Woodward, Piae Cantiones (opens a new tab)
Mainz
Where the Psaltes Ecclesiasticus of 1550 printed the carol.
Martin Luther
Who altered one of the carol’s stanzas, first printed in 1545.
Orgelbuchlein
Bach’s ‘Little Organ Book’, which includes In Dulci Jubilo, BWV 608.
Pearsall
R. L. de Pearsall, who made an English version of the carol.
Weimar
Where Bach, as court organist, began the Orgelbüchlein.
Wittenberg
The town where Klug’s 1529 hymnbook was printed.
Sources
- Hymnary.org text record ‘In dulci jubilo, Nun singet und seid froh’, quoting John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (1907), article by James MearnsHymnary.org
- Netherlands Bach Society (Nederlandse Bachvereniging), All of Bach: In dulci jubilo, BWV 608bachvereniging.nl
- G. R. Woodward, ed., Piae Cantiones … originally published in 1582 by Theodoricus Petri of Nyland (Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society, 1910), preface and notes; archive.org scan piaecantiones0000revgInternet Archive