This hymn began as a purely secular dance: Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi composed the tune around 1591 for an Italian balletto, "A lieta vita amor ci invita" ("To a happy life love invites us"). In 1598 the Lutheran cantor Johann Lindemann of Gotha took the upbeat Italian melody and set it to new German words, In dir ist Freude in allem Leide ("In Thee is joy amid all sorrow"), publishing it in a collection of sacred texts fitted to secular tunes. Where Gastoldi’s original celebrated the joys of human love, Lindemann’s text celebrates the unshakable joy of God’s love, a joy that holds through both life and death; the hymn confesses that even "amid all sadness," Christ remains the believer’s bright sunshine. As a piece of playful trivia, Lindemann hid his birth year on the title page, printing his name as "Ioannem LInDeMan" so the capitalized letters, read backward, spell the Roman numerals for 1549. Catherine Winkworth’s translation, published in 1858 and revised in 1863, remains the version sung today. As the closing hymn of a Sunday spent learning to trust God’s provision, it sends the congregation out rejoicing that the same God who fed the widow of Zarephath is our unfailing gladness in every season.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026