“Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern.” No, that’s not something to do with Rhoda of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. It is the name of both the hymn and the tune of our Epiphany hymn “How Brightly Shines the Morning Star.” Philipp Nicolai penned this in 1597 and published it two years later with his adaptation of a preexisting tune. To say it was a hit in Lutheran circles is an understatement! We have his original arrangement as Hymn 396, but the J.S. Bach version at 397 is much more popular today. Immediately, Nicolai’s version took off with German composers in cantatas and other vocal forms, notably Dietrich Buxtehude and the Roman Catholic Praetorius.
Buxtehude, Bach, his brother, and two of his sons, among others used this tune in works for organ. It continues to be used in organ, vocal, and other instrumental settings. My favorite organ setting is by the late Romantic Bavarian Composer Mac Reger from 1899. By that time with all the chromatic harmonies and rhythmic language on can almost hear the European beginnings of jazz in this extensive Fantasia that clocks in a just under 20 minutes.
Besides Bach’s first cantata, my other two favorite choral settings are by Mendelssohn and Peter Cornelius. We alternated them and a couple of other anthems every year at the Feast of Lights at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Mendelssohn’s setting closes the chorus “There shall a star from Jacob come forth” and is from his incomplete oratorio, Christus. At least twice I’ve heard the Cornelius setting on the Lessons and Carols from Kings College, Cambridge. it is an intimate, gossamer like unaccompanied work for soloist over a four-part choir. The choir quietly sings the chorale as the accompaniment while the soloist weaves the story of the wise men. It is listed a “Three Kings” if you want to look it up on YouTube.