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Catherine Winkworth's made a metrical translation to "Farewell I Gladly Bid Thee" which also appeared with the second tune as No. 137 in The Chorale Book for England in 1865.
Valet will ich dir geben
Herberger wrote the hymn in 1613 in response to the plague in Fraustadt, as a Sterbelied (hymn for the dying).[1][2] Its subtitle reads:[3]
Ein andächtiges Gebet, damit die evangelische Bürgerschaft zu Fraustadt Anno 1613 im Herbst Gott dem Herrn das Herz erweicht hat, daß er seine scharfe Zuchtrute, unter welcher bei zweitausend Menschen sind schlafen gegangen, in Gnaden hat niedergelegt. Sowohl ein tröstlicher Gesang, darinnen ein frommes Herz dieser Welt Valet gibt.
A devotional Prayer, by which in the Autumn of the Year 1613 the Reformed Citizens of Fraustadt softened the Heart of the Lord God, so that He mercifully laid down His sharp scourge, under which two thousand Men and Women had gone to sleep. Likewise a Song of Consolation, wherein a pious Heart sayeth Farewell to this World.
The hymn's first word, "Valet", is derived from the Latinvalete (fare thee well).[citation needed] Herberger arranged his own Christian name as an acrostic: the first letters of each of the five stanzas form his name, Vale R I V S.[3] The hymn text was first printed in Leipzig in 1614.[4]
Teschner composed two melodies for the hymn, Zahn 5403 and 5404a,[5] which he published in Ein andächtiges Gebet (a devotional prayer) in 1615, both in a five-part setting.[2]Johann Sebastian Bach used the second of these melodies in his compositions,[6] for instance the chorale preludes BWV 735 and 736. He used the first stanza of the hymn as movement 3 in his cantataChristus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95,[1][7] and the third stanza, "In meines Herzens Grunde" (Within my heart's foundation), in his St John Passion.[8]
Max Reger composed a chorale prelude as No. 38 of his 52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67 in 1902. Naji Hakim composed in 2011 "Valet will ich dir geben / 5 Variations for Choir and Organ on a Choral by Melchior Teschner".[9] "Valet will ich dir geben" is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, under number EG 523.
In English
In The Chorale Book for England, 1865
Winkworth's translation was published as No. 137 in The Chorale Book for England in 1865, with a four-part harmonisation of the tune.[10] "I want to bid you farewell" and "I shall say farewell to thee" are other translations of Herberger's text.[1][7]
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