Kilian as Composer, Hymn
Writer, and Liturgist
Tangential to an analysis of Wendish Lutheran music in Texas has been Jan Kilian’s own background as a composer and hymn writer, vocations that were largely eclipsed by his leading a migration to Texas. Yet as the founder and first representative of the LCMS in Texas, his creative background deserves some review. In his little songbook of 1846, Spĕwarske wjesele (Joyful Singing), we encounter an orthodox Lutheran who is still influenced by the pietism of his time. We explore his hymn texts and tunes including this one, which is a tribute to the Wends’ new home:
Through the wind-driven waves our adventure sails, crossing seas to a new Fatherland. Tempests rage. Overwhelmed, courage drains away; then a calm still our vessel again. How we long for the end of the pilgrimage, for a land and home of our own. Where our worries and cares will be cast away, as we stand on a true, solid Stone. (Translation courtesy of Martin Doering as published by David Zersen.)
Kilian saw himself as a member of the Wendish literary and social intelligentsia, although his concern for uniting the Wendish language with the Lutheran faith would isolate him philosophically from his peers, and he was largely left “alone among his contemporaries, isolated and unique,” although he has been called “a religious hero” who “surpass[es] all of our hymn writers.” In his Choralbuch compiled in Serbin, he even tried his hand at writing out a four-part motet, a choral piece based on the first verses of Psalm 23:
Whether in Europe or in Texas, Kilian seemed always ready to depart this world for the next. In a rather tender and emotive poem written “At the Grave of a Dear Son,” Kilian bewails the death of eleven-month-old Nathanael Martin Kilian with a palatable sense of his own expectation for the eschaton:
Therefore I wish you a good night, my dear.
Oh I wish I would sleep soon too,
As you sleep here after a short suffering!
The whole world I would refuse
To join you in the house of God
And to receive you forever;
Have a good night.
This chapter continues by exploring the hymnwriters Kilian saw fit to include in the Serbin Choralbuch, giving us a glimpse into Kilian’s own mind and theology, and comparing him likewise to CFW Walther, whom Kilian knew or at least meant from their days at the University of Leipzig. Kilian placed a great importance on singing and hymnody, as he writes in the preface to his Joyful Singing:
Where the church of God stands in living strength, there the people are nowhere ashamed to sing spiritual hymns, be it in a city or village, at home or out-of-doors, on the mountains or in valleys, in solitude or in society. But where people are ashamed to sing spiritual hymns, there life is not worth living; there is the end of tranquil joy; there you can hear the sad sound of songs that were learned at godless spinning gatherings and baptismal feasts. This is the sound of the losers!
Seductive and destructive is the singing of secular songs, but
useful and constructive is the singing of spiritual hymns.
JoyfulSingingBook 