This German Marienlied has always been a kind of holy grail for me. It seems to defy adequate rendering in English. Tell me what you think of this attempt:
"1. Beautiful, glorious, lofty, victorious, Heavenly Mother most splendid, most blest: So long as life is mine, my heart is ever thine, Body and soul in thy care I will rest; Life, goods, and family I offer willingly: All that I ever shall have or shall be, With joy I consecrate, Mary, to thee.
2. Sunlight shines all around thee, whom the stars have crowned, our light and comfort in darkness of night: Thou who wert well-prepared, Whom God's own Hand had spared, Saved from corruption by merciful might: Blest Gate through whom the Word, Jesus, thy Son, Our Lord, Passed when, forsaking His heavenly Throne, He brought salvation and grace to His own.
3. Sinless and chosen one, Worthy to bear the Son, Thou art God's Daughter and Mother and Bride Virgin of virgins best, Fairer than all the rest, God-fashioned Temple where He could reside: Thou heaven's perfect Rose, That no corruption knows, Crown of creation and glory above, Whom earth and heaven surround with their love."
There are different text versions of this 17th century hymn. See wikipedia for one by Johannes von Geissel (1842) and one by Heinrich Bone (1847), both with five stanzas.
Your source text seems to be: 1. Geissel (1) – 2. Bone (2) – 3. Geissel (2)
Gotta love the smiles at the camera around 2:30 and 3:30! Pity some of those 19th-century German Catholic hymns aren't better known and loved in the Anglosphere - they're great! Drischner wrote a set of organ variations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlh8JFF0gM
Here's the beginnings / trial balloon of the book of Marian hymns I'm making for my parish. Warning: engraving done by MS Paint with existing melodies, because time. This is hymn number 3.
Wow! Pfarrgemeinde Maria Hilfe der Christen Feeling home instantly...
A few minor things I foud: - in the table of contents "Wunderschön Prächtige" has one umlaut too many; - in no.5 5th staff, 1st bar, 2nd beat shouldnt that be a-natural? (rather than flat) - in no.6 if verse 5 "Immaculate Queen" has capitals, then so should "Virgin Mother" in verse 10.
I'm rather struck (confused? uncomfortable?) by the way the tune for "O Queen of the Holy Rosary" strays from ELLACOMBE at "While from our Father's garden," - which I've only found in one instance - all the other settings to ELLACOMBE give the more familiar (to me, and probably to most people) reading of the melody.
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