page_title: Übers Gebirg Maria geht
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Übers Gebirg Maria geht / Music
context_page_description: Übers Gebirg Maria geht is a sacred motet by the Renaissance composer and musician Johannes Eccard, who wrote it on a German text by Ludwig Helmbold in two stanzas. The first stanza is a rephrasing of the biblical story of the visit of Mary to Elisabeth, ending in Mary's song of praise known as the Magnificat. The second stanza speaks to present-day listeners, urging them to follow Mary's example and go over the mountains, be inspired, support each other, and sing the Magnificat.
  Eccard scored the piece in E-flat major for five vocal parts. Thirty-three years after Eccard's death, the motet was included in the collection Preußische Festlieder II, published in Berlin in 1644. Originally intended for the feast of the Visitation, it is now often performed during Advent.
context_section_description: Johannes Eccard was a student of Orlandus Lassus. Eccard was also "one of the principal Protestant composers of chorale motets" in his time—Übers Gebirg Maria geht was one of his chorale motets, and was published posthumously in Preußische Festlieder II, the second of two such collections published in 1642 and 1644, which featured works of Eccard and his student Johann Stobaeus for five to eight voices. These chorale motets are said to have demonstrated that Eccard "was a 'true disciple of the world-famous and celebrated Orlandi [Lassus]'", and those such as Übers Gebirg Maria geht "reflect the intrinsic warmth of Helmbold's verse".
  Eccard set the piece in E-flat major and scored it for five vocal parts (soprano 1 and 2, alto, tenor and bass. In the beginning, the lower four voices are mostly in homophony, while the top soprano enters later. The beginning of the chorus ("Mein Seel den Herrn erhebet") is sung by the sopranos and tenor, joined by the other voices for "mein Geist sich Gottes freuet" (my spirit rejoices in God). In the following "Er ist mein Heiland", all five voices are in homophony for the only time in the composition. The fear of God is expressed in low register, while a descending line, which the voices render in imitation, is an image for the concluding mercy.
  He composed the motet for the feast of the Visitation. It is now often performed during Advent and recorded in collections of Advent hymns and Christmas carols.
caption: Johannes Eccard, the composer
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