Jesus Christus, Menschensohn

"Jesus Christus, Menschensohn" (Jesus Christus, Son of man) is a Christian hymn by Helmut Schlegel. It is a song of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied with a melody by Helmut Föller. The refrain is Kyrie eleison. The song is included in song books and the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob.

"Jesus Christus, Menschensohn"
Christian hymn
Helmut Schlegel OFM, in Frankfurt Cathedral 2017
Textby Helmut Schlegel
LanguageGerman
Melodyby Helmut Föller

History

The text of "Jesus Christus, Menschensohn" was written by the Franciscan Helmut Schlegel. It is in three similar stanzas, with a refrain of Kyrie eleison. It addresses Jesus as the Son of man.[1]

The text was set to music by Helmut Föller.[2] The hymn appears in the regional part of the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob of the Diocese of Limburg as GL 764.[2] It is also part of Junges Gotteslob, the hymnal for young people.[1] The choral songbook Die Träume hüten (Guarding the dreams), published by Dehm-Verlag, has two versions in the section Kyrie, one by Föller, another with a setting by Joachim Raabe.[3] Raabe's setting, for children's choir and piano, is contained in the Freiburger Kinderchorbuch, volume 2 with CD, published by Carus-Verlag commissioned by the Diocese of Freiburg.[4]

Text and theme

The text of "Jesus Christus, Menschensohn" is in three stanzas, like the liturgical Kyrie, but while in the liturgy, the first call "Kyrie" traditionally means God, the second, "Christe", means Jesus, followed by "Kyrie" again in the third. In Schlegel's version, all three calls address Jesus, the Son of Man, written in the first person plural.[5] They rhyme ABBA, "Menschensohn" rhyming with "eleison" in all stanzas. The first stanza requests enlightenment to see God face to face. The second stanza recalls that Jesus carried on the Cross what we suffer. The third stanza requests that Jesus, called ("gerufen") from grave and death, may be with us on life's steps ("Stufen").[5][1]

Melody

The melody by Föller is in D minor in 3/4 time. It follows a steady rhythm pattern, with a quarter note beginning every measure, prepared by an upbeat of two or three eighth notes. It rises from steadily from D up an octave within the first three measures, and returns in little "waves".[5]

References
  1. "Jesus Christus, Menschensohn". evangeliums.net (in German). Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  2. "Numerisches Verzeichnis der Gesänge im GL 2013 mit Hinweis auf enthaltene Gesänge des GL 1974" (PDF) (in German). Diocese of Limburg. 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  3. "Die Träume hüten" (PDF) (in German). Dehm-Verlag. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  4. "Neue Lieder für Gott und die Welt / Freiburger Kinderchorbuch Band 2 (+CD) / für Kinderchor und Klavier" (PDF). Carus-Verlag (in German). 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  5. Krüger, Horst (2017). "Werkhilfe zum Singheft 2017". cs-vsg.de (in German). Retrieved 25 April 2022.
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