Es sind doch selig alle, die

Meter: 8.8.7. 8.8.7. 8.8.7. 8.8.7.
Source: Wolfgang Köpfel, Psalmen gebett und Kirchen uebug wie sie zu Straßburg gehalten werden, Strassburg, 1526
Associated Text: O Man, Thy Grievous Sin Bemoan (O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß)
Alternate Name: Old 113th

Zahn No. 8303.


Originally composed by (probably) Matthäus Greiter for the text “Es sind doch selig alle, die,” a metrical setting of the first two octaves of Psalm 119, this tune first appeared in the third part of the 1525 Strassburg Kirchenamt, the last exemplar of which was burned at Strassburg in 1870. The first extant appearance is in the 1526 Strassburg hymnal, Psalmen gebett und Kirchen uebug wie sie zu Straßburg gehalten werden, p. 38b. A scan of the tune as it appears in the 1530 printing of the same hymnal is available here. The tune was used by Sebald Heyden for his 1530 Passion hymn, O Man, Thy Grievous Sin Bemoan (O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß), with which it continues to be closely associated.