Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Merry Christmas to everybody out there!

For some reason, I’ve had a particular piece of music going through my mind for the past twenty-four hours or more.  It’s a German carol, first attested in 1622, entitled “Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel, kommt” (“From Heaven on high, O angels, come!”), but also known from its nonsense refrain as “Susani” or “Susani, Susani.”

In its original version, its first verse goes as follows:

Vom Himmel hoch, o Engel, kommt!
Eia, eia, susani, susani, susani,
kommt, singt und klingt, kommt, pfeift und trombt
Alleluja, alleluja.
Von Jesus singt und Maria.

My literal and not very poetic translation:

From Heaven on high, O angels, come!
Eia, eia, susani, susani, susani.
Come sing and ring!  Come pipe und trumpet!
Alleluja!  Alleluja!
Sing of Jesus and Mary!

In the oldest known version of the text, the angels are requested to come down from Heaven, bringing their musical instruments, and to play and sing of Jesus and Mary.

Here’s a fairly standard-issue version of the carol, with a then child-star soloist — the late Andrea Jürgens (1967-2017) — and with some slight variation in the words (beginning already with the title and first line):

Andrea Jürgens, “Vom Himmel hoch, ihr Englein, kommt” (“From Heaven on high, ye little angels, come!”)

There are multiple verses and multiple versions of the carol.  And, again for reasons that aren’t clear to me, the version that is stuck in my mind is one by the late Austrian actor and singer Peter Alexander.  At home, I have a recording of him that uses all three of the verses below.  In the video that I’ve found of him performing the song — a bit dated, I know, and arguably a bit kitschy — he sings the first and third of the verses:

Peter Alexander, “Susani, Susani”

Once more, I offer my literal and not very poetic translation:

If you wish, you can listen to a version of the song in a choral version with English lyrics, performed by the West Coast Mennonite Choir:

“Susani”

Posted from Richmond, Virginia