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
Latin text Media vita in morte sumus |
English translation (Book of Common Prayer) In the midst of life we be in death: |
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)