- Collections
Log in to make the most of Hymnary.org collections.
Jesu, Priceless Treasure
 | Jesu, priceless treasureAuthor: Catherine Winkworth; Author: Johann Franck (1653)Tune: JESU, MEINE FREUDE Scripture Songs Published in 95 hymnals Printable scores: PDF, SibeliusAudio files: MIDI |
Author: Catherine Winkworth
Catherine Winkworth is "the most gifted translator of any foreign sacred lyrics into our tongue, after Dr. Neale and John Wesley; and in practical services rendered, taking quality with quantity, the first of those who have laboured upon German hymns. Our knowledge of them is due to her more largely than to any or all other translators; and by her two series of Lyra Germanica, her Chorale Book, and her Christian Singers of Germany, she has laid all English-speaking Christians under lasting obligation."
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872… Go to person page >Author: Johann Franck
Franck, Johann, son of Johann Franck, advocate and councillor at Guben, Brandenburg, was born at Guben, June 1, 1618. After his father's death, in 1620, his uncle by marriage, the Town Judge, Adam Tielckau, adopted him and sent him for his education to the schools at Guben, Cottbus, Stettin and Thorn. On June 28, 1638, he matriculated as a student of law at the University of Königsberg, the only German university left undisturbed by the Thirty Years' War. Here his religious spirit, his love of nature, and his friendship with such men as Simon Dach and Heinrich Held, preserved him from sharing in the excesses of his fellow students. He returned to Guben at Easter, 1640, at the urgent request of his mother, who wished to have him near her in… Go to person page >For Leaders
Text:
This hymn was translated by Catherine Winkworth from a German text by Johann Franck. He patterned the meter and the first two lines of his text on an earlier, secular love song, “Flora, meine Freude, meine Seele Weide,” by Heinrich Albert. This song had only one stanza and was published in 1641 in Albert's Arien, part 4.
Franck's original text had six stanzas, and Winkworth translated all but the third in her Chorale Book for England, which appeared in 1863. Most hymnals include at least stanzas 1, 2, and 6 of the original, with a few including all six. There is a fair amount of variance between hymnals on the wording of various lines. Most of these alterations do not significantly affect the meaning of the text.
The theme of the text is a pietistic devotion to Jesus Christ. Different stanzas focus on the aspects of this theme, describing Jesus as the source of our greatest joy and love, as our refuge, and as a treasure of greater value than all the wealth and glory the world can offer. The suffering of life in a broken world is acknowledged, but Jesus is declared to be worth it all.
Tune:
Johann Crüger is the composer of this well-known chorale tune, JESU, MEINE FREUDE. It was composed for and named after Franck's text, and first appeared with it in Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica, published in Berlin in 1653.
J. S. Bach used this chorale in several of his works, including his famous motet for five singers (BWV 227). The text of the eleven movements of the motet was the six stanzas of this hymn plus selections from Romans 8. Many hymnals use Bach's harmonization from the first and last chorale movements of this motet as a setting for this hymn.
When/Why/How:
This hymn may have been inspired by the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Value in Matthew 13:44-46, and may be sung for services on this theme. Like other well-known German chorales, this tune is popular with organ arrangers. “Voluntaries for Worship” contains an organ setting of JESU, MEINE FREUDE based on Bach's setting of the fifth stanza from his motet, “Jesu, meine Freude.” Other ornamented settings of the tune for organ by well-known arrangers Michael Burkhardt and Paul Manz can be found in the collections “Thine the Glory” and “Improvisations on Classic Chorales.”
Tiffany Shomsky Hymnary.org
Arrangements
PowerPoint |  |
Piano/Organ
|  |
