Descants

The hymn text, "The glory of these forty days," is from a 6th C. Latin hymn, referring to the temptation of Christ in the wilderness; the glory not being, of course, the temptation itself, but the victory over that temptation. The period of forty days - and this hymn - have for centuries since been embedded into the observance of Lent. The hymn tune Erhalt uns, Herr is the successor to a chant tune associated with the text "Veni Redemptor gentium." The first arrangement of this text and tune has been attributed to Martin Luther, first in a 1541 broadsheet in low German, then a high German version appearing two years later in Klug's Geistliche Lieder (1543). The hymnal version was harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach, and the tune forms the basis for Cantata 126, Erhalt' uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort ("Keep us, Lord, according to thy Word").

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Erhalt uns, 10.1.1

Organ Score
The glory of these forty days
(text, The Hymnal 1982)

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