Der Tag der ist so freudenreich
Aller Kreature;
Denn Gottes Sohn vom Himmelreich
Über die Nature
Von einer Jungfrau ist geborn.
Maria, du bist auserkorn,
Dass du Mutter wärest.
Was geschah so wundergleich?
Gottes Sohn vom Himmelreich,
Der ist Mensch geboren.
The day is so joyous, All Creatures; Then God's Son from Heaven over Nature, From a Virgin was born. Mary, you were chosen to be his mother, What miracle is this? God's son from heaven is born a Person.
That's my translation, all of the English ones I found excluded all of our fellow Creatures except human beings and that's not what it says. I think the German adaptation from the original 14th century Latin hymn Dies est lætitiæ that became a Lutheran Chorale is closer to my preferred Creation theology.
It's good to be reminded every once in a while of just how marvelously Bach set the Chorale melodies for SATB, some of his most modest compositions. I never checked to see what the provenance of the legend is that when Beethoven was talking about the harmonic language of Bach's chorale settings that he made a pun on the name Bach (a little brook, in German) and said, "Not a brook but an ocean." I don't know if the story is true or not but what it says is true. Even not expanded into a Chorale prelude or larger composition, these are worth continued practice, study and performance. A good thing to spend a year of your life doing. Maybe over Zoom with friends till it's safe to do it together.
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