2023-12-24 16:00:00
400 years ago, a pastor in Königsberg wrote the song “Power up the door” to mark the consecration of a new church. Since then it has become an integral part of Christmas songs.
Music.
Georg Weissel (1590 – 1635) had no idea 400 years ago that he would create one of the most popular Advent songs: On the second Advent in 1623, the newly built Altroßgärter Church was inaugurated in Königsberg, East Prussia. And the 33-year-old Lutheran pastor and hymn writer Weissel, who began his ministry there, wrote a song especially for this: “Open the door, the gate opens wide”. It calls people to joyfully let God enter their homes and hearts.
A moment of calm
The text of the popular chant is based on the shout of joy from the biblical Psalm 24: “Open the gates wide and the doors of the world high, so that the King of honor may enter!” It fits particularly well during Advent: Christians await the arrival of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in the world. Over the centuries, “Open the Door” has become an ecumenical classic. The song is number one in the Evangelical Hymnal and marks the beginning of the new church year and the Advent season. It also found its way into the Catholic prayer and hymn book “God’s Praise”.
At the end of the year, the song in the swaying triple time hits a special nerve with many people – whether pious or less pious. It grabs the emotions, creates a healing moment of calm in a restless, crisis-ridden world. It expresses the desire for peace – and the hope for a Savior who can make everything okay without violence. Anyone can sing, hum or hum the song, it creates community: in church during congregational singing or during Christmas family singing under the Christmas tree. It is part of the regular program in many choirs and instrumental groups.
Direct approach
The psalm text that the songwriter Weissel chose is based on the Gate liturgy in ancient Israel, explains Jeffrey Myers, the former Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Protestant city church pastor. Accordingly, the Jews imagined God’s symbolic entry into the Jerusalem Temple like the triumphal procession of a general. The reformer Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) translated the Psalm text into a powerful German language. In it he makes it clear that Christ can only come to people if they open everything that they had closed. The Königsberg cantor Johann Stobäus wrote a five-part choral movement for Weissel’s text.
The song, which was first printed in 1642, also documents the religious practices of the Baroque period. The individual, the “I”, now takes center stage compared to the church community: people address themselves directly to God, permeated by faith in him. “Come, O my Savior, Jesus Christ, the door of my heart is open to you,” says the fifth and final verse.
At the center: gentleness
It was only 70 years after Weissel’s death that his simple song, with its memorable rhyming couplets, became popular: the pietistic theologian, song writer and collector Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (1670 – 1739) included it in his “Geistreiches Lieder-Buch” in 1704. He added a melody by an unknown author, which soon made the first setting forgotten. It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that “Power Up the Door” was included in other Protestant hymn books. Translations were initially into English and Danish.
It is particularly important that the song overturns the usual idea of ”above” and “below”, explains Johann Hinrich Claussen, the cultural representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). “For the king who is received here does not rule with power and violence,” says Claussen: “meekness is his vehicle.”
New topic: How open are our doors and hearts?
“Open the door” is also very topical in view of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, says the Frankfurt theologian Myers. It is a request to the democratic society “which doors of hope and mercy and which gates of humanitarian aid and reconciliation” should be made high and wide on the way to God.
For the Palatinate regional church music director Jochen Steuerwald, it is no wonder that “Macht hoch die Tür” is an “all-time hit”. The song conveys hope and comfort in the dark times like almost no other, says the church musician. And it is indestructible: “Sung, fluted, blown, jazzed up, even in a sweet Christmas kitsch arrangement, it finds its way into hearts. Definitely also in 2023.”
More reading comfort even when you’re on the go E-paper and news in one app Push notifications throughout the day
No thanks. Continue in this view.
#Advent #song #power #violence