"Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" (Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial) is a GermanLutheran hymn with lyrics byMichael Franck, who published it with his own melody and a four-part setting in 1652.Johann Crüger's reworked version of the hymn tune was published in 1661. Several Baroque composers used the hymn, includingJohann Sebastian Bach, who wrote achorale cantata. It is part of the currentProtestant hymnalEvangelisches Gesangbuch, and has also been used by 20th-century composers such asErnst Pepping andMauricio Kagel.
The lyrics of the hymn were written byMichael Franck after theThirty Years' War. Franck, who initially worked as a baker, before turning to teaching, poetry, and music, based it on the biblical "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1:2). His models werevanity poems byAndreas Gryphius, namely "Die Herrlichkeit der Erden / Muß Rauch und Aschen werden" ("The Splendour of the Earth / Will end in smoke and ashes"). He published it in Coburg in 1652, with his melody and a four-part setting. The title referred to "Vanity, Falsehood and Transitoriness of the World" ("Die Eitelkeit / Falschheit und Unbeständigkeit der WELT und Flüchtigkeit der Irrdischen Gütter / Hergegen Das rechte standhaffte GUT der Himmlischen Gemüther").[1][2] The hymn was the topic of sermons (Liedpredigten).[1]
The hymn originally consisted of 13stanzas of five lines each. All odd stanzas begin with "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig" ("Oh how fleeting, oh how vain"), and all even stanzas begin "Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig" ("Oh how vain, oh how fleeting"). The second line specifies what is fleeting, which is expanded by lines three to five, all of which rhyme. Eight of the stanzas are included in the current Protestant hymnalEvangelisches Gesangbuch as EG 528.[3]
Franck's original hymn tune,Zahn No. 1887a, was published together with the hymn text in 1652. According to Franck's preface of that publication, the hymn, text as well as melody, had already been printed before.Johann Crüger published his reworked version of the melody, Zahn No. 1887b, in the 1661 edition of his hymnalPraxis pietatis melica. Other tunes for the hymn were composed byAndreas Hammerschmidt (Zahn No. 1888, published 1658) andPeter Sohren [de] (Zahn No. 1889, published 1668).[1][4][5]
.jpg)
