"" ("A ship is coming, laden"), is an

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek '' parousia''. ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

chorale Chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale: * Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the th ...

and

Marian Hymn Marian hymns are Christian songs focused on Mary, mother of Jesus. They are used in both devotional and liturgical services, particularly by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. They are often used in the mont ...

. It is one of the oldest religious songs of German origin.

History

The oldest existing text source is a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

dated before 1450. It was found in the

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...

Dominican convent of St. Nikolaus in undis. Due to the fact that the mystic

Johannes Tauler Johannes Tauler OP ( – 16 June 1361) was a German mystic, a Roman Catholic priest and a theologian. A disciple of Meister Eckhart, he belonged to the Dominican order. Tauler was known as one of the most important Rhineland mystics. He pro ...

visited this convent frequently, the lyrics of this song are attributed to him. Reference is the word "enphohet" (received) which is characteristically used by Tauler very often. The lyrics are typical for the

allegory in the Middle Ages The four senses of Scripture is a four-level method of interpreting the Bible. This method originated in Judaism and was taken up in Christianity by the Church Fathers. In Kabbalah the four meanings of the biblical texts are literal, allusive, ...

as a vital element in the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions. Biblical motifs compare the pregnant

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

with a loaded entering ship. The ship is set in motion under

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

(correspondent to

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

) and

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mas ...

(correspondent to the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

).) The oldest source of the

melody A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combina ...

is included in ''Andernacher Hymns'' (1608). The song is found there in bilingual text under the title "" as well as the Latin "". Kieler Hansekogge 2007 hinten

Lyrics

Melody

\header \layout global = soprano = \relative c'' alto = \relative c' tenor = \relative c bass = \relative c verse = \lyricmode \score :''c.f.'' =

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tre ...

Musical setting

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor a ...

quotes the tune in his organ pieces ''Sieben Stücke'', Op. 145.

References

External links

"A ship is coming laden"
English translation by Alan and Enid Luff

* Michael Fischer:
Es kommt ein Schiff geladen. Ausführlicher Kommentar zur Liedgeschichte
' May 2005. (PDF, 1.11 MB)
Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen
text in old German and Latin, by lyrik-und-lied.de
"Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen"

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...

and

SWR2 SWR may refer to: Radio and television * Standing wave ratio, in radio-engineering a measure of impedance matching of loads Broadcasters * Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Virrat, Finland * South West Radio, former broadcaster, England * Südwestr ...

"Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen"
music in lieder-archiv.de * ,

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orche ...

, Cantamus Choir, Gießen * , Fantasia for Organ by C. Meise, Bielefeld, Germany {{Authority control, state=collapsed German-language Christmas carols Christmas in Germany Advent songs Hymn tunes Marian hymns German Christian hymns 15th-century hymns