Poetry
Aandelige Siunge-Koors Første Part
Not translated into English
Thomas Kingo · 1674
Synopsis
Seven morning songs and seven evening songs, one of each for every day of the week, then the seven penitential psalms of King David put into Danish verse: twenty-one pieces for prayer in the home. The believer follows the course of a Christian day, from rising to bedtime, and from one piece to the next the same tension returns between the vanity of a passing world and the fixity of heaven.
Context
The volume, dedicated to King Christian V, appeared shortly before Christmas 1673 under the date of 1674, when its author was only a country priest. The preface explains the choice of tunes: they are those of secular songs, which he wants to make more heavenly, so that whoever listens willingly to a song about Sodom may also hear, to the same melody, a song about Zion. A later edition added to each day two short sighs, one for morning and one for evening, and a second part appeared in 1681. The collection won him the king's favour and led to his being chosen to compose a new psalter, published in 1699, which usage calls the book of Kingo.
Who it is for
Short pieces, made to be sung rather than read; the original, in the spelling of 1674, can be read in modern Danish editions, with the melodies. No French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a high point of Danish Baroque poetry, it is the book that made his reputation as a poet; several of its hymns are still sung in the Danish Church.
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