The featured chorale for this Palm/Passion Sunday is “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth.” The tune had another life before it was paired with this deeply moving text by Paul Gerhardt. It was written in 1525 by one of Luther’s classmates at Erfurt, Wolfgang Dachstein, as a setting of Psalm 137, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion,” hence the tune name An Wasserflüßen Babylon. This hymn was chosen by the remnant of the city of Magdeburg to commemorate the slaughter of more than 20,000 inhabitants when their city fell to the Catholic forces on May 10,1631: “The church sings the deeply melancholy Psalm 137 by Wolfgang Dachstein with its magnificent melody. A corresponding sermon closes [the service], and so this worship does not end without many ample tears, as with Israel.”
Lutheran Heritage Chorales – Apr. 9th
