Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her Sheet Music

Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her is a German Christmas carol that was written by Martin Luther. Born on 10. November 1483 in Eisleben in Thuringian Saxony, he was the main force behind the Protestant Reformation. Luther had joined the eremitical order of St. Augustine and after finishing advanced theological studies was chosen to present an appeal at Rome in 1510. He was shocked at the levity of the Roman clergy and the base behaviour in high places. His dispute with the Catholic Church finally lead to the Edict of Worms (1521) where he was declared to be an outlaw. But Luther had powerful friends; the electoral prince of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, arranged a pretence kidnapping and lodged him secretly at the romantic Wartburg castle near Eisenach. During his stay there M. Luther translated the Psalms and the New Testament from Greek into German. The story has it that while working late and hard one night he saw the devil and threw the ink-pot at him – the blotch is still visible today.
Luther wrote “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her” in 1831 for his five year old son Hans, but the song was not published until four years later. The hymn has altogether fifteen verses and proclaims the birth of Jesus, the news of which is brought down to earth by an angel who asks all Christians to rejoice in hearing this happy news. “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her” was sung at the annual Christmas Eve festival at the Luther home: a man dressed as an angel would sing the opening verses, then the children would greet him with the verse: ”Welcome to earth, thou noble guest.”