Nun ruhen alle Wälder

Nun ruhen alle Wälder. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676). This very beautiful evening hymn was first published in Johann Crüger’s Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648). It had nine 6-line stanzas, all of which are found in EG in the Abend (evening) section (EG 477). From the opening image of the sleeping woods, it passes to a description of night and sleep, safe in the eye of the God who watches over Israel, and guarded by the host of angels. In Johann Georg Ebeling*’s Pauli Gerhardti Geistliche Andachten (1666-67) it was set to the tune  O WELT ICH MUSS DICH LASSEN, for ‘O Welt, ich muss dich lassen’*, which remains the melody in EG. In English-speaking countries it is famous for the translation by...