Sonate e-moll - Es kommt ein Schiff geladen

Here now, after a longer break, my 4-movement sonata in E minor.

Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen is an Advent chorale that is one of the oldest German-language sacred songs. The melody to the text, which probably originated in Alsace and was recorded in the first half of the 15th century, was first recorded in 1608 in the Andernach hymnal.

Based on the oldest surviving text source, a manuscript of a Marian hymn written before 1450 in the Strasbourg Dominican convent of St. Nicolaus in Undis, the text of this hymn is often attributed to the mystic Johannes Tauler, who lived in that convent. Reference is made to Tauler's allegedly characteristic use of the word enphohet ('receives').

In typical medieval allegory, the pregnant (Mary) is compared to a laden ship, taking up biblical motifs. On the other hand, Tauler's thought shows that the ship functions as a symbol of the gemuete, the soul. The ship is set in motion by the sail (= love) and the mast (= Holy Spirit).

The oldest tradition of the melody is contained in the Andernach hymnal (1608). The song can be found there in two languages under the title Uns kompt ein Schiff gefahren as well as the Latin En navis institoris (compare Prov 31:14 VUL: Facta et quasi navis institoris, de longe portans panem suum.).

In Daniel Sudermann's (1550-1631) Strasbourg Hymnal (1626), the song was published under the title Es kompt ein Schiff geladen. The Lutheran Sudermann took it under the heading Ein uraltes Gesang, so unter deß Herrn Tauleri Schrifften funden, made somewhat more comprehensible: Im Thon, Es wolt ein Jäger jagen wol in des Himmels Thron in his collection and added the motifs Bethlehem and stable (v. 4).

In the middle of the 19th century it appears under the song number 24 in the Gesangbuch Lateinische Hymnen und Gesänge aus dem Mittelalter, German, retaining the verse measures. With printed Latin original text. The first verse has the following two text forms in Latin and German (see the 1st comment).