Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist

Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist. Martin Luther* (1483-1546), based on a 13th-century Leise*. Written 1524, and published in Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524). The first verse was a Leise, well known from the 13th century in Germany for use at Pentecost, following the Veni, sancte Spiritus. Luther added three further verses, each ending in ‘Kyrieleis’ (Jenny, Luthers geistliche Lieder, no. 19, pp. 223-5). It opens the ‘Pfingsten’ (‘Whitsun’) section of EG (EG 124), followed by ‘Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott’*, which has a similar origin in a pre-Reformation German text. The melody is also pre-Reformation, perhaps from an old folk music tradition (Zahn 2029). There is a...