Himmel, Erde, Luft und Meer

Himmel, Erde, Luft und Meer. Joachim Neander* (1650-1680). First published in A und Ω. Joachimi Neandri Glaub- und Liebesübung: auffgemuntert durch einfältige Bundes Lieder und Danck-Psalmen (Bremen, 1680). It is found in EG in six 4-line stanzas in the ‘Natur und Jahreszeiten’ section (EG 504). It is a very beautiful hymn on the work of God as the creator of beauty in the natural world, which leads to the reflection ‘Drücke stets in meinen Sinn,/ was du bist und was ich bin’ (‘O grave it deeply on my heart/ What I am, Lord, and what Thou art!’). It was translated by Catherine Winkworth* in The Chorale Book for England (1863) as ‘Lo, heaven and earth, and sea and air’. The tune in EG is one...