My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files
Planning worship?
Check out our sister site, ZeteoSearch.org,
for 20+ additional resources related to your search.
- |
User Links
Person Results
Catherine Winkworth
1827 - 1878 Translator of "Ye sons of men, in earnest" in Evangelical Lutheran hymnal Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used in many modern hymnals. Her work was published in two series of Lyra Germanica (1855, 1858) and in The Chorale Book for England (1863), which included the appropriate German tune with each text as provided by Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. Winkworth also translated biographies of German Christians who promoted ministries to the poor and sick and compiled a handbook of biographies of German hymn authors, Christian Singers of Germany (1869).
Bert Polman
========================
Winkworth, Catherine, daughter of Henry Winkworth, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was born in London, Sep. 13, 1829. Most of her early life was spent in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Subsequently she removed with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. She died suddenly of heart disease, at Monnetier, in Savoy, in July, 1878. Miss Winkworth published:—
Translations from the German of the Life of Pastor Fliedner, the Founder of the Sisterhood of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, 1861; and of the Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863.
Her sympathy with practical efforts for the benefit of women, and with a pure devotional life, as seen in these translations, received from her the most practical illustration possible in the deep and active interest which she took in educational work in connection with the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women, and kindred societies there and elsewhere. Our interest, however, is mainly centred in her hymnological work as embodied in her:—
(1) Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855. (2) Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. (3) The Chorale Book for England (containing translations from the German, together with music), 1863; and (4) her charming biographical work, the Christian Singers of Germany, 1869.
In a sympathetic article on Miss Winkworth in the Inquirer of July 20, 1878, Dr. Martineau says:—
"The translations contained in these volumes are invariably faithful, and for the most part both terse and delicate; and an admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult versification. They have not quite the fire of John Wesley's versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful fusion and reproduction of thought which may be found in Coleridge. But if less flowing they are more conscientious than either, and attain a result as poetical as severe exactitude admits, being only a little short of ‘native music'"
Dr. Percival, then Principal of Clifton College, also wrote concerning her (in the Bristol Times and Mirror), in July, 1878:—
"She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what specially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitutes the special charm of the true womanly character."
Dr. Martineau (as above) says her religious life afforded "a happy example of the piety which the Church of England discipline may implant.....The fast hold she retained of her discipleship of Christ was no example of ‘feminine simplicity,' carrying on the childish mind into maturer years, but the clear allegiance of a firm mind, familiar with the pretensions of non-Christian schools, well able to test them, and undiverted by them from her first love."
Miss Winkworth, although not the earliest of modern translators from the German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the versions of any other writer.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
============================
See also in:
Hymn Writers of the Church
Catherine Winkworth
Valentin Thilo
1607 - 1662 Person Name: Valentine Thilo Author of "Ye sons of men, in earnest" in Evangelical Lutheran hymnal Thilo, Valentin, son of Valentin Thiel or Thilo [born Jan. 2, 1579, at Zinten, became diaconus of the Altstadt Church in 1603, and died of the pestilence at Königsberg in 1620], diaconus of the Altstadt Church in Königsberg, was born at Königsberg, April 19, 1607. He matriculated in 1624 at the University of Königsberg as a student of theology, but devoted himself more especially to the study of rhetoric. When the Professor of Rhetoric, Samuel Fuchs, retired in 1632, he recommended Thilo as his successor. The post was, at Thilo's desire, kept open for two years, during which he pursued his studies at the University of Leyden. On returning to Königsberg, he graduated M.A. there on April 20, 1634, and was thereafter installed as Professor of Rhetoric. During his 28 years’ tenure of office he was five times elected as dean of the Philosophical Faculty, and twice as Rector of the University. He died at Königsberg, July 27,1662. (Koch, iii 202; K. Goedeke's Grundriss, vol. iii., 1887, p. 135, &c.)
Thilo was a great friend of Heinrich Albert and of Simon Dach, and was with them a member of the Königsberg Poetical Union. He was the author of two text books on Rhetoric, published in 1635 and 1647. Some of his separately printed occasional poems are noted by Goedeke as above. His hymns were almost all written for various Festivals of the Christian Year. They are as a rule short and vigorous, and are somewhat akin to those of Dach. They appeared principally in the Preussische Fest-Lieder, Elbing, 1642-44 [Berlin Library], and in the New Preussisches vollständiges Gesang-Buch, Königsberg, 1650 [Hamburg Library]. A list of their first lines is printed in the Altpreussische Monats-schrift, Königsberg, 1889, p. 308, where evidence is given to show that they are by the younger Thilo, and not, as has sometimes been said, by the father.
The only hymn by Thilo translated into English is:—
Mit Ernst, o Menschenkinder. Advent. This is a fine hymn founded on St. Luke iii. 4, 5, and was first published in pt. i., Elbing, 1642, of the Preussische Fest-Lieder, as No. 8, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, entitled "On the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Parate viam Domino," and marked as by "Valentinus Thilo." Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 8, considers st. iii. the finest, and thinks that it may have been suggested by the remembrance of his beloved sister (wife of Pastor Kuhn, of the Rossgart Church in Königsberg), who died of the pestilence on Aug. 16, 1639, and as a picture of her character. Translated as:—
1. 0 sons of men, your spirit. This is a good translation of st. i.-iii., by A. T. Russell, as No. 35 in his Psalms & Hymns 1851.
2. Ye sons of men, in earnest. This is a good translation of the original form, by Miss Winkworth, as No. 84 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. It is repeated, omitting st. iii., in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal 1880, No. 121. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Valentin Thilo
