Media vita in morte sumus
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Background
Media in morte is now believed to date from around 1200, but is attributed to Notker by Winkworth, with an accompanying anecdote:
The hymn, "In the midst of life," is one of those founded on a more ancient hymn, the "Media in vita" of Notker, a learned Benedictine of St. Gall, who died in 912. He is said to have composed it while watching some workmen, who were building the bridge of Martinsbruck at the peril of their lives. It was soon set to music, and became universally known; indeed it was used as a battle song, until the custom was forbidden on account of its being supposed to exercise magical influences. In a German version it formed part of the service for the burial of the dead, as early as the thirteenth century, and is still preserved in an unmetrical form in the Burial Service of our own Church.
Settings of Media vita
- Media vita (Ambrosian chant)
- Media vita in morte sumus (Henri Dumont)
- Nicolas Gombert
- Media vita (Orlando di Lasso)
- Media vita a 6 (John Sheppard)
Settings of Luther's paraphrase
- Mitten wir im Leben sind (Arnold von Bruck)
- Mitten wir im Leben sind, Op. 23, No. 3 (Felix Mendelssohn)
Text and translations
Media vita
English translation (Book of Common Prayer)
In the midst of life we be in death:
Of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee,
O Lord, which for our sins justly art moved?
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts.
Shut not up thy merciful eyes to our prayers:
But spare us, Lord most holy,
O God most mighty,
O holy and merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy Judge eternal,
Suffer us not, at our last hour,
For any pains of death,
To fall from Thee.
Mitten wir im Leben sind
German text (Luther, 1543) 1. Mitten wir im Leben sind |
English translation (Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica (1862)) In the midst of life, behold |
External links
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- Winkworth translation in Lyra Germanica (1862)