Valet will ich dir geben

First emprint of Valet will ich dir gerben, with acrostic

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]

The hymn's first word, "Valet", is derived from the Latin valete (fare thee well) in the original imprint: Herberger arranged his own Christian name "Valerius" 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, for instance the chorale preludes BWV 735 and 736.[6][7] He used the first stanza of the hymn as movement 3 in his cantata Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95,[1][8] and the third stanza, "In meines Herzens Grunde" (Within my heart's foundation), in his St John Passion.[9]

Max Reger composed a chorale prelude as No. 38 of his 52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67 in 1902.[10] Naji Hakim composed in 2011 "Valet will ich dir geben / 5 Variations for Choir and Organ on a Choral by Melchior Teschner".[11] "Valet will ich dir geben" is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, under number EG 523.

Winkworth's translation was published as No. 137 in The Chorale Book for England in 1865, with a four-part harmonisation of the tune.[12]

The hymn tune is also known as "St. Theodulph" after Theodulf of Orléans who was the author of the Latin hymn which became, in John Mason Neale's 1845 English translation, "All Glory, Laud and Honour".[13]