Tochter Zion, freue dich

Friedrich Heinrich Ranke wrote the text, based on music by George Frideric Handel, for a musical salon of Karl Georg von Raumer around 1820.[1] He knew the music as "Seht, er kommt, mit Preis gekrönt", a chorus from Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.[1] Handel had first composed it in 1747 for the oratorio Joshua, and added it to Judas Maccabaeus in a revised version in 1751, as See, the Conquering Hero Comes.[1] In both works, the music reflects the triumphant entry of a victorious hero.[2]

The hymn was first published in Hamburg in 1826 in the collection Christliche, liebliche Lieder by Louise Reichardt, Raumer's sister-in-law, and assigned to the Entry into Jerusalem, which at the time had the same prescribed readings as the first Sunday of Advent.[3] It entered collections for schools and became popular.[1]

The hymn is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch as EG 13 and the 2013 Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 228, both four-part settings in the Advent section.[3]

Handel's original version, with English text, has a slightly different melody.

Handel's music is a chorus with short lines, sung in homophony.[2] It is written in march rhythm and harmonic simplicity. In Handel's works, the first of three stanzas is scored for three voices, two sopranos and an alto, accompanied by two horns and organ. A second stanza with different text is written for two sopranos, two flutes and organ. Finally, the third stanza, with the text of the first, is sung by four choral parts and a rich basso continuo in dramatic development. Ranke used only the four-part setting, which he modified slightly.[2]

• Media related to See, the conqu'ring hero comes at Wikimedia Commons