School hymn this week: "Jesus, priceless treasure"

Mr. Pipes turned back to the keyboard. "I'm reminded of another lovely hymn, also a passionate adoration of Jesus 'though the earth be shaking and every heart be quaking.' Remember, these were extremely difficult days. A lawyer, Johann Franck, wrote a hymn in 1655, full of tender resting in the arms of Jesus and at the same time a defiance of the Devil and a determination to find the purest pleasure--come wind, come weather--in Jesus. Follow along while I play the tune, then we will sing it together."--Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation, by Douglas Bond

This hymn is more difficult for us than many other we've learned; it's older, we don't usually sing it at our church (so it's not one we've just absorbed by hearing it), and it's in a minor key. We started practicing it this morning by talking about major and minor keys, and humming up and down the D minor scale, since that's what's in the Mennonite hymnal and because the last line of the song is more or less the descending scale. (The Mr. Pipes book shows the hymn in C minor--I might try that one instead since the hymnal version was a bit high.)

"I-I don't think I have ever heard anything more beautiful," said Annie at last. "Life must have been very hard in those days, but he sounds like he really did have peace within. I think I'd be scared."

Mr. Pipes blinked rapidly before speaking. "My dears, Mr. Franck made the very best use of his troubles....Whatever we here must bear, Annie and Drew, remember that Jesus is our purest pleasure--He, our priceless treasure."

I like this video of a family singing the hymn together. The music is by Johann [Johannes] Crüger, and was harmonized later by Bach.



I like this too: it's a Dutch choir singing Jesu Meine Freude as Bach harmonized it (in German), and the video is the four-part sheet music.