Des heiligen Bernhardi Passions-salve

including
O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

with
HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN
(PASSION CHORALE)

translated as
O sacred head, now wounded
O sacred head, surrounded
O sacred head, sore wounded

I. Gerhardt’s Text

When German pastor and poet Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676) was pastor at Mittenwalde, he translated a series of seven Latin hymns known as the Membra Jesu Nostri. The series or cycle originally contained seven parts (feet, knees, hands, side, chest, heart, face) written by Arnulf of Leuven around 1240–1250. Part 5 (ad pectus/chest) was expanded from 10 to 40 lines by an unknown hand in the 15th century, then reached 50 lines in the 16th century. Part 7 (ad vultum), which originally began “Salve Jesu reverende,” was amended to include a spurious stanza beginning “Salve caput cruentatum” late in the 15th century, then in the 16th century, that added stanza became the beginning of the seventh hymn, whereas the original stanza “Salve Jesu reverende” was inserted into the hymn to the chest, and this has become the accepted structure. The hymns are often erroneously but popularly attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux.

The first four of Gerhardt’s metrical translations had been printed in the 1653 Berlin edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica (nos. 496–499), then all seven appeared in sequence in the Frankfurt edition of 1656 (1662 ed. shown at Fig. 1). Here, the set was headed “Des heiligen Bernhardi Passions-salve an die Gliedmassen Christi” (“St. Bernard’s passion-salute to the limbs of Christ”).

Fig. 1. Praxis Pietatis Melica (Frankfurt, 1662).

The seven hymns by Gerhardt are as follows:

1. Sei mir tausendmal gegrüsset (feet)

2. Gegrüsset seist du meine Kron (knees)

3. Sei wohl gegrüsset, guter Hirt (hands)

4. Ich grüsse dich, du frömmster Mann (side)

5. Gegrüsset seist du, Gott mein Heil (chest)

6. O Herz des Königs aller Welt (heart)

7. O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (face)

For a comparative chart with literal English translations of part 7 of the Latin, “Salve caput cruentatum,” and Gerhardt’s hymn “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” see George Faithful (2013), pp. 784–786.

II. Assessment of Gerhardt

Gerhardt’s translations generally followed the textual editions of the Latin available at the time, including editions of Bernard’s Opera Omnia in 1566 and 1609. Nonetheless, Gerhardt did not attempt to imitate strictly the meter and meaning of the Latin, word-for-word or line-for-line; rather, each hymn had a different meter and a varying number of stanzas; each was assigned to a different pre-existing tune.

George Faithful described how Gerhardt’s translations were informed by a different theological perspective and goal than the Latin original:

A poet in his own right, Gerhardt took significant liberties with the original text, adapting it to serve his own purposes. . . . While there is significant continuity between the parts of the Latin original and Gerhardt’s translations, the individual poems tend to sanitize the original, cleaning up a significant amount of its blood, gore, and expressions of intimacy. Moreover, Gerhardt often incorporates specifically theological terminology to describe Christ’s suffering and its effects, especially highlighting the dominant theme in Lutheran theology, justification by faith alone. In this doctrine, the believer, through no effort of his own, receives God’s forgiveness as the result of Christ’s work and this is the primary expression of God’s grace or undeserved favor toward humanity. While blood is abundant in Gerhardt’s translations, it is more significant as a means of salvation than as a physical substance. . . .

In Gerhardt’s version, Christ’s blood tastes and smells sweet, whereas in the original Christ’s blood tasted sweet but smelled both sweet and rank, and elicited not merely a desire to drink more but a desire to die for the sake of the one bleeding and his love for the narrator. Christ’s heart is the source of goodness and redemption, rather than the bodily organ pumping blood. In short, Gerhardt tells his readers that there is a great quantity of blood and outlines its effects, rather than describing its physical characteristics.[1]

Out of these seven metrical translations, the one most widely used has been the last, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” intended to be sung to the melody HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN (see Section V below). Gerhardt recasted the Latin into ten stanzas of eight lines, rather than the original five stanzas of ten lines (or ten half-stanzas of five lines). The hymn is sometimes described as a meditation on Matthew 27:29–44. Gerhardt’s language in the final stanza is reminiscent of the second stanza of “Valet will ich der geben” by Valerius Herberger, or Martin Luther’s words on the death of his daughter Magdalen, “Who thus dies, dies well.”

German hymn scholar Richard Lauxmann, writing in the 19th century, praised the hymn:

Bernard’s original is powerful and searching, but Gerhardt’s hymn is still more powerful and more profound, as redrawn from the deeper spring of evangelical, Lutheran, scriptural knowledge, and fervency of faith.[2]

Literary scholar Leland Ryken offered this summary of Gerhardt’s hymn (via the English translation by James Alexander):

The content of Gerhardt’s poem is free flowing and does not yield a topical stanza-by-stanza outline. To discern a unifying pattern, we need to look at the individual motifs that are intermingled throughout it. One of these is a series of pictures of Christ’s agony on the cross. . . . A second motif is the speaker’s intense response to Jesus’ suffering, which chiefly takes the form of statements of personal loyalty to Christ, of gratitude to him, and of the speaker’s longing to be united with him. The speaker thus describes calling Jesus mine, falling in homage before him, longing to never outlive his love for him, and having his eyes always fixed on Jesus. . . .

This poem follows a rhythm of rehearsing what Christ has done on behalf of believers and then resolving to claim the benefits of those acts. Psalm 116:12–13 follows a similar rhythm:

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will lift the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.[3]

Lutheran scholar Richard Kraemer wrote, “Throughout the hymn, a close relationship is fostered between the Savior and the saved. Faith looks up to the despised and suffering Christ and declares, ‘I joy to call Thee mine.’”[4]

III. HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN (PASSION CHORALE)

The famous German tune, nearly inseparable from this hymn, started its life as a love song, “Mein G’müt ist mir verwirret” (“My feelings are confused”), from Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Gesäng, Balletti, Galliarden vnd Intraden: mit 4, 5, 6 vnd 8 Stimmen (Nürnberg: Paul Kauffmann, 1601), composed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564–1612). Each voice part was issued in a separate partbook, the melody being in the cantus (soprano) part (Fig. 2A). The text of the song was structured as an acrostic on the name Maria.

Fig. 2A. Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Gesäng, Balletti, Galliarden vnd Intraden, Cantus (Nürnberg: Paul Kauffmann, 1601).

In the example above, notice the varied rhythmic values in the melody, which is different from the evened rhythms (isorhythmic form) often sung in churches. Music of this time period was not generally portioned out into bars, instead often conceived more broadly in phrases. The music is written on a G-clef (treble clef). The time indicator does not mean 2/2, but it is an indicator of a measured, duple-feel tempo, being roughly twice as quick (or employing notes at double value) as music marked with a C, or used even more generically as a standard sign for this type of mensural notation.

All five parts were combined in an edition by Friedrich Zelle in 1887 (Fig. 2B), for easier reference, except Zelle used a tenor clef for the upper parts rather than a treble clef (the notes are a line/space higher).

Fig. 2B. Friedrich Zelle, Lustgarten (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1887).

The tune was first used for sacred purposes in Harmoniæ Sacræ (Gorlici: Ioannes Rhambae, 1613 | Fig. 3), paired with the text “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” a hymn by Christoph Knoll (1563–1650) from Gesangbuch Darinnen 700 geistliche Lieder, Psalmen, Hymni und Gesänge (1611). The editor arranged the five parts on successive pages, using Hassler’s harmonization without credit. The clefs for the inner voices show the position of middle C.

Fig. 3. Harmoniæ Sacræ (Gorlici: Ioannes Rhambae, 1613).

Many hymnals use a harmonization of the tune by J.S. Bach (1685–1750). Bach used the melody several times in his works in combination with different texts:

1. It was used instrumentally in Cantata BWV 25 [“Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe”] (1723), mvt. 1.

2. “Ach Herr mich armen Sünder,” in Cantata BWV 135 (1724), mvts. 1 & 6, and in an organ prelude, BWV 742.

3. “Wie soll ich dich empfangen,” in Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248 (1734–35), pt. 1, mvt. 5.

4. “Ihr Christen, auserkoren” (“Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen”), in Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248 (1734–35), pt. 6, mvt. 11.

5. “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” in Cantata BWV 161 (1715), mvts. 1 & 6, and in an organ prelude, BWV 727.

6. “Befiehl du deine Wege,” in two chorale harmonizations, BWV 270–271; in Cantata BWV 153 (1724), mvt. 5; and in Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (1727), mvt. 44.

7. “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” in Cantata BWV 159 (1729), mvt. 2; in Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (1727), mvts. 15, 17, 54, and 62.

The harmonizations most often used in hymnals are from the Matthäus-Passion. This work was first performed on Good Friday, 11 April 1727, but it was not published until 1830. In this early edition, the movements were numbered differently than what eventually became standard. The first two arrangements of this tune are the same, then each successive appearance is scored differently. All five are shown below at Figure 4.

Fig. 4. J.S. Bach, Grosse Passionsmusik nach dem Evangelium Matthaei (Berlin: A.M. Schlesinger, 1830).

Bach biographer Philipp Spitta is sometimes quoted for his assessment of the use of this tune in the Matthäus-Passion:

As in the Passions according to St. Luke and St. John, so in that according to St. Matthew, Bach has distinguished one of the chorales introduced from the rest by frequent repetition, thus making it the centre of the church sentiment of the whole work. . . . It was a favourite melody with Bach, and there is no other that, throughout his long life, he used so frequently or more thoroughly exhausted as to its harmonic possibilities for every variety of purpose.

It comes in three times in the second part; first when Jesus silently bows to His fate at Pilate’s decision. . . . The second time the chorale is sung is in the second section, immediately before the progress to the Cross, when the soldiers have crowned the Saviour with thorns and mocked Him and smitten Him; and we here have the first two verses of the hymn addressed to the Head of Christ. Nothing more suitable could be found for this place, and the effect is consequently deeply touching.

The third time it is the last chorale in the work, and it comes in after the words “But Jesus cried with a loud voice and departed,” with the ninth verse of [Gerhardt’s “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” which says] “If I should e’er forsake Thee, forsake me not, O Lord.” This climax has always been justly regarded as one of the most thrilling of the whole work. The infinite significance of the sacrifice could not possibly be more simply, comprehensively, and convincingly expressed than in this marvellous prayer. Bach has chosen for it a particularly low pitch, and while he has in other places treated the mode as Ionic, as it was originally, he has here, certainly after full consideration, worked out the solemn and twilight effects of the Phrygian.[5]

Literary scholar Anthony Esolen felt the construction of the harmonies, as usually sung, reflected and magnified the sense of the text:

In other words, the music with its crisscrossing patterns [of major and minor harmonies] throws into high relief the paradox of the beauty of Christ crucified, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah [53:1–3]. But it is this very Savior, bleeding and dying, in whom we see the glory of God revealed, the glory of love.[6]

Regarding the varying forms of the melody in circulation, both rhythmic and isorhythmic (or isometric), Lutheran scholar Paul Westermeyer wrote:

Later isometric versions of chorales usually lose something. In this exceptional case, the isometric version has more to commend it because of the weight of the text. The rhythmic interest still is gone, however. . . . J.S. Bach’s harmonizations substitute harmonic interest for the rhythmic absence. People without musical training often find harmonizations non-congregational, though they can still sing the melody. Others have learned to love and long for Bach’s harmonizations, such as [shown above], which employs the isometric form of the tune.[7]

Westermeyer also explained how the modality of the tune works and identified it as Phrygian, but it takes on a different feel depending on the harmonization.

When this was printed, Alexander was pastor of the Duane Street Presbyterian Church in New York City. This version included the full German and English in parallel columns for easy comparison. For the November 1849 issue, Alexander sent a revised version of stanza 9 (Fig. 7B). He had been named Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary in June of 1849.

Alexander died 31 July 1859. His translation appeared in a posthumous collection of his poems, The Breaking Crucible (NY: Randolph, 1861), without change, incorporating his revision of stanza 9. Theodore Hewitt, who had listed and examined several English translations of this hymn, felt Alexander’s was the best of them all.

Of the twenty or more forms in which this hymn is familiar to English and American readers that of Dr. Alexander has found most general acceptance for church use. The reason is not far to seek. The music to which the hymn is usually sung is the original melody for the hymn “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” and was, as has been stated, written for a secular song, though thoroughly suitable for the expression of the awfulness of Christ’s passion. Alexander’s version is without question the one which best suits the cadence of this melody. In the version, for example, of [Samuel M.] Jackson, [“O head, blood-stained and wounded,”] the stress would fall upon “tortured” in line 2, and as the music repeats for the third and fourth lines, also on “a” in line 4. This, then, would not be selected as a satisfactory version for church singing. Aside from this feature, however, the flow of Gerhardt’s language is more successfully imitated and the deep fervor of the German more effectively brought forth in Alexander’s hymn than in any of the other translations unless we except the earlier one of Miss Winkworth [“Ah wounded head! must thou,” 1855].[10]

Overall, George Faithful believed Alexander’s translation corresponded well with Gerhardt’s German, saying “By most measures, Alexander’s is one of the better poems among the translations,” but he also noted where Alexander had departed from Gerhardt, especially in his reduction of the gore and refinement of sensibilities:

Alexander’s translation is bloodless and vague in its depiction of Christ’s wounds. He describes Christ’s emotions and his suffering in abstract terms, rather than denoting physical objects and observable experiences. There are some notable features that Alexander retains from Gerhardt. Alexander includes colorful descriptions from Gerhardt’s text in his translation, but these possess no overt theological significance. Alexander, too, emphasizes that sinners deserve the wrath that Christ has suffered, though he describes this in terms of the benefit derived by sinners, rather than as an emotional burden. A few stanzas replicate, almost without exception, the material from Gerhardt’s hymn. At the same time, there are some significant elements from Gerhardt’s translation and the original which Alexander omits entirely, such as the narrator’s offer to die with Christ on the cross. In Alexander’s translation, the narrator loves Christ but is not his lover; he is his friend. This version is utterly devoid of the erotic overtones of the original, still present to some extent in Gerhardt. In short, Alexander’s tendency is toward abstraction and formality, particularly in the form of greater emotional distance toward Christ. . . .

By the standards of his day, especially in Presbyterian circles, Alexander offered a bold testimony to the unity of the Church in worship, borrowing eagerly from Lutheran and Catholic forebears, adapting their work, and making it his own. Though Alexander’s translation is less bloody and emotionally intimate than either of its antecedents, it was still significantly more vivid in its depiction of Christ’s suffering and more emotionally expressive than anything in the Psalm translations to which his congregants were accustomed. These features of the original text were so strong that even the most staid of translations could not efface them without ceasing to be a translation and starting to become something altogether different.[11]

V. Translation by Baker

Another translation in circulation is by Henry W. Baker (1821–1877), who was textual editor for Hymns Ancient & Modern and vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire, England. Baker’s text is brief, covering only three stanzas. He translated directly from the Latin but patterned the meter after the German in order to use the famed German tune. His text roughly represents the first three stanzas from the Latin. The harmonization here is mostly from mvt. 54 of Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, transposed down a fourth with some other accommodations, the biggest differences being in the last two bars.

In the ill-fated edition of 1904, Baker’s text was revised in several places, including a substitution of “So shamed” for “Reviled” at 1.4, “Turn Thou” for “O turn” at 2.8, and four new lines at 2.1–4:

Thy comeliness and vigour
Is wither’d up and gone,
And in Thy wasted figure
I see death drawing on.

All of these changes were reversed in the 1906 edition, then picked up again in the Revised Edition of 1950.

Theodore Hewitt (1918) observed these connections between Baker and the underlying Latin:

A short paraphrase by Sir H. W. Baker contains several ideas taken from the Latin which Gerhardt has omitted. Stanza 1, lines 7, 8: “Yet angel hosts adore thee / And tremble as they gaze” are evidently suggested by “Totus versus in pallorem / Quern coeli tremit curia” (lines 9, 10). And

O Love to sinners free !
Jesu all grace supplying,
Oh turn thy face to me. (stanza 2)

follows the idea in

Peccatori tam indigno
Cum amoris intersigno
Appare clara facie. (lines 18-20)

The same is true in the first quatrain of Baker’s stanza 3, with the idea of the word “indigno” above brought into these later lines:

In this thy bitter passion,
Good Shepherd, think of me,
With thy most sweet compassion,
Unworthy though I be.[12]

George Faithful explained why he felt Baker’s text has frequently been reprinted in Catholic hymnals:

Not derived from Alexander or Gerhardt’s, apart from the first line and title, the 1861 translation of this High Church Anglican has become the standard translation of “To the Face” in Catholic hymnals. Though short, with only three stanzas, Baker’s translation does not downplay the physical realities of the crucifixion. He describes Christ’s head not as sacred but as “surrounded by crown of piercing thorn” and as “bleeding.” The effects of death, with its “cruel rigor” are clear: “the glow of life decays” before Christ is dead. As they regard Christ crucified, angels “tremble.” With its gore and emotionalism, Baker’s translation provides much that Alexander’s lacks, highlighting some of the significant differences between Protestant and Catholic sensibilities in nineteenth-century English-language hymnody. It should also be no surprise that English-speaking Catholics would prefer a translation of a medieval text without going through a Lutheran intermediary.[13]

VI. Translation by Bridges

This paraphrased translation by British poet laureate Robert Bridges (1844–1930), “O sacred head, sore wounded,” was first printed in Part III of his Hymns in Four Parts (1898). The combined edition (1899) was known as the Yattendon Hymnal, named after the village in Berkshire where he lived at the time. Bridges’ main concern in producing the collection was for the furtherance and preservation of the tunes, thus his commentary was more concerned with the history of Hassler’s tune. His text spans five stanzas of eight lines, in reflection of the whole Latin poem, which is five stanzas of ten lines. Like Baker’s text, this version was translated from the Latin while imitating the meter of the German. Bridges used Bach’s arrangement from Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244 (1727), mvt. 44.

Some hymnals have used Bridges’ opening line as a substitute for composite versions based on Alexander, adding to the complicated web of composite English translations. As with Alexander’s text, George Faithful noticed the modesty of Bridges’ approach, avoiding the intense images of the original, and without further explanation, he seemed to question the theology of Bridges’ version and assert its value was mostly in its poetic prowess:

At the other end of the spectrum [from Baker’s version], Robert Bridges produced a translation devoid of blood. With strict rhyme and meter worthy of the English poet laureate Bridges was, it has tended to be the preferred translation of Episcopalians and Anglicans, perhaps for reasons having more to do with culture and aesthetics than with theology.[14]

VII. Composite in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941)

American Lutheran collections have often drawn from or consulted a composite translation printed in The Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1941 | Fig. 10), which contains pieces of several earlier translations.

This composite version is made up of several excerpts from previously published material, as follows:

1. James W. Alexander (1830).

2. Lines 1–4 are altered from John Kelly, “Oh! bleeding head, and wounded,” in Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs (1867); lines 5–8 are by Alexander.

3. Lines 1–4 are by John Kelly (1867); lines 5–8 are altered from August Crull, “O bleeding head, and wounded,” in the Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations (1879).

4. From the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1889), which is adapted from Catherine Winkworth, “Ah wounded head that bearest,” in the Chorale Book for England (1863).

5. From the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1889), which is adapted from Catherine Winkworth, “Ah wounded head that bearest,” in the Chorale Book for England (1863).

6. From the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1889); lines 1–4 are adapted from Samuel M. Jackson, “O head, blood-stained and wounded,” as in Philip Schaff and Arthur Gilman’s Library of Religious Poetry (1881); lines 5–8 are altered from August Crull (1879).

7. James W. Alexander (1830).

8. James W. Alexander (1830).

9. Lines 1–4 apparently newly rendered by a member of the committee for The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), printed in a preview in The Lutheran Witness, vol. 56, no. 22a (9 Nov. 1927), p. 378; lines 5 and 7 were in August Crull (1879); lines 5–8 were in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1889), evidently adapted from Crull.

10. Altered from August Crull (1879).

For additional English translations from Gerhardt, including his six other hymns on the subject, see Philip Schaff (1881, 1890), James Mearns (1892), and Theodore Hewitt (1918). Samuel M. Jackson’s rendering (printed in Schaff, 1881) is regarded as being faithful to Gerhardt, but it has not been accepted into common use.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
6 April 2021
rev. 9 May 2021

Footnotes:

1. George Faithful, “A more brotherly song, a less passionate Passion: Abstraction and ecumenism in the translation of the hymn ‘O sacred head now wounded’ from bloodier antecedents,” Church History, vol. 82, no. 4 (December 2013), pp. 789–791: Cambridge

2. Richard Lauxmann, Geschichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, vol. 8 (Stuttgart: Belser, 1876), p. 47: HathiTrust; translated by James Mearns, A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 835: HathiTrust. Theodore Hewitt (1918) repeated this assessment (“Gerhardt's hymn is more searching and profound than its Latin prototype”), p. 91: Archive.org

3. Leland Ryken, “O sacred head, now wounded,” 40 Favorite Hymns for the Christian Year (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2020), p. 42: Amazon

4. Richard Kraemer, “O sacred head, now wounded,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), p. 307.

5. Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750, translated by Clara Bell and J.A. Fuller-Maitland, vol. 2 (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1884), pp. 549–550: Archive.org

6. Anthony Esolen, Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2016), p. 116.

7. Paul Westermeyer, “Herzlich tut mich verlangen,” Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective (GIA: Chicago, 2005), p. 69; see also “HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 156–158.

8. “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” Kirchenfreund, vol. 2 (March 1849), pp. 90–91.

9. The copyright for The Christian Lyre was submitted 16 October 1830. In The Charleston Courier, this collection was advertised as being released in twelve parts, “to be published monthly,” the first part being available in December of 1830, the second and third parts in March 1831, then an edition “containing the first six numbers, bound in one volume” starting on 4 May 1831. “O sacred head” is toward the end of the book, so it seems to have not been in print by Leavitt until the early part of 1831.

10. Theodore Brown Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody (1918), pp. 90–91: Archive.org

11. George Faithful, “A more brotherly song,” Church History, vol. 82, no. 4 (December 2013), p. 801, 809–810: Cambridge

12. Theodore Brown Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody (1918), pp. 91–92: Archive.org

13. George Faithful, “A more brotherly song,” Church History, vol. 82, no. 4 (December 2013), p. 806: Cambridge

14. George Faithful, “A more brotherly song,” Church History, vol. 82, no. 4 (December 2013), p. 806: Cambridge

Related Resources:

Paul Gerhardt

“O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” Kirchenfreund, ed. Philipp Schaff, vol. 2 (March 1849), pp. 88–92: HathiTrust

Richard Lauxmann, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” Geschichte des Kirchenlieds und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, vol. 8 (Stuttgart: Belser, 1876), pp. 46–52: HathiTrust

James Mearns, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 835: HathiTrust

Theodore Brown Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and His Influence on English Hymnody (New Haven: Yale, 1918), pp. 40–41, 86–95: Archive.org

Albert Fischer & Wilhelm Tümpel, Das deutsche evangelische Kirchenlied des 17 Jahrhunderts, vol. 3 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1904), pp. 406–414: Archive.org

Marlies Lehnertz, “Vom hochmittelalterlichen katholischen Hymnus zum barocken evangelischen Kirchenlied: Paul Gerhardts ‘O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden’ und seine lateinische Vorlage, das ‘Salve caput cruentatum’ Arnulfs von Löwen,” Liturgie und Dichtung: Ein interdisziplinäres Kompendium, eds. Hansjakob Becker and Reiner Kaczynski (St. Ottilien Erzabei, Germany: EOS Verlag, 1983), 1:755–756.

Jörg Erb, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” Paul Gerhardt und seine Lieder (1974), translated by Nelda Roth, In the Shadow of His Wings (Monument, CO: Roth, 2001), pp. 89–92.

George Faithful, “A more brotherly song, a less passionate Passion: Abstraction and ecumenism in the translation of the hymn ‘O sacred head now wounded’ from bloodier antecedents,” Church History, vol. 82, no. 4 (December 2013), pp. 779–811: Cambridge

J.R. Watson, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/o/o-haupt-voll-blut-und-wunden

PASSION CHORALE

Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vol.3 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1890), no. 5385a: Archive.org

James Mearns, “Christophe Knoll,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892), pp. 628–629: HathiTrust

Albert Fischer & Wilhelm Tümpel, Das deutsche evangelische Kirchenlied des 17 Jahrhunderts, vol. 1 (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1904), pp. 100–102: Archive.org

Christoph Wolff & Walter Emery, “Johann Sebastian Bach,” Grove Music Online (20 Jan. 2001): https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.6002278195

Paul Westermeyer, “HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN,” Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective (GIA: Chicago, 2005), pp. 68–71.

Paul Westermeyer, “HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 156–158.

Thomas Braatz & Aryeh Oron, “Chorale Melodies used in Bach’s Vocal Works: Befiehl du deine Wege,” Bach Cantatas Website (2014): https://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Befiehl-du-deine-Wege.htm

“Herzlich thut mich verlangen (Johann Sebastian Bach),” Choral Public Domain Library (8 January 2021): CPDL

James Alexander

Guy McCutchan, “O sacred head, now wounded,” Our Hymnody: A Manual of the Methodist Hymnal, 2nd ed. (Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1942), pp. 175–178.

Richard Watson & Kenneth Trickett, “O sacred head, sore wounded,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Methodist Publishing, 1988), p. 131.

Edward Darling & Donald Davison, “O sacred head, sore wounded,” Companion to Church Hymnal (Dublin: Columba, 2005), pp. 341–343.

Paul Westermeyer, “O sacred head now wounded,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 156–158.

Carl P. Daw Jr., “O sacred head, now wounded,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 223–224.

Leland Ryken, “O sacred head, now wounded,” 40 Favorite Hymns for the Christian Year (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2020), pp. 40–43: Amazon

Henry Baker

Louis Coutier Biggs, “O sacred head, surrounded,” Hymns Ancient & Modern with Annotations (London: Novello, 1867), pp. 119–120: Archive.org

“O sacred head, surrounded,” Hymns Ancient & Modern, Historical Edition (London: William Clowes & Sons, 1909), pp. 173–175: HathiTrust

Maurice Frost, “O sacred head, surrounded,” Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient & Modern (London: William Clowes & Sons, 1962), pp. 198–199.

J.R. Watson, “O sacred head, surrounded,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/o/o-sacred-head,-surrounded

Robert Bridges

Morgan Simmons & Carl F. Schalk, “O sacred head, now wounded,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3A (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 339–343.

Lutheran Composites and Alternate Translations

August Crull, Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations (Decorah, Ia. : Lutheran Pub, 1879), pp. 24–27: Archive.org

Philip Schaff and Arthur Gilman, A Library of Religious Poetry (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1881), pp. 744–746: HathiTrust

Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (Baltimore: Lutheran Publication Board, 1893), pp. 73–75: Archive.org

Philip Schaff, Literature and Poetry (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890), pp. 245–255: HathiTrust

W.G. Polack, “O sacred head, now wounded,” Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia, 1942), pp. 135–137.

Fred L. Precht, “O sacred head, now wounded,” Lutheran Worship Hymnal Companion (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), pp. 121–123.

Richard Kraemer & Joe Herl, “O sacred head, now wounded,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 306–310.