O Fader wise

1. O Fader wise
tig vi allesamman
lofwe och prise
med frögd och gamman,
att tu tin skare,
tin tienare klare,
giör till eldzflammer.

2. Af tine klarhet
liust och klart de skina.
De altid påsehärligheten tina.
Tin röst the höra
och ifrån tig föra
all wishet sina.

3. Med tino orde,
tine helge änglar
aldrig tu giorde
at wara fåfänge,
i wädret wida til
leka och strida
med sina vingar.

4. Tu them beskedde
Christo til at tiena
wachta och leda
hans försambling klena
som med all gamman
hedra och anamma
hans ord thet rena.

5. Then draken lede
thetta aldrig lider.
Af hat och wrede
mot tin hop han strider.
Synden och nöden
förde han med döden
i werlden wida.

6. Then änglaskara
som tig Christe fölier
oss tå bewarar,
beskyddar och hölier
och nedertrycker
drakans wapn och tycker
med all hans bölior.

7. Thenne tin gåfwo
Gud wi alltid prise
och tig fast lofwe
med de änglar wise.
Tig skie lof äre,
O Skapare kiäre
oss frid och lise."

Music: Traditional Chorale from Älvdals-Åsen, Dalarna, Sweden

Lyrics: Jesper Svedberg

Arrangement: Anders Nyberg

"O Fader wise" is a wonderful and quite extraordinary choral from Älvdals-Åsen, Dalarna with lyrics by Johan Svedberg. The arrangement is challenging and demands a choir with a great vocal range as well as a good rhythmic sense. The hymn is about the angels, something Svedberg was a firm believer in and often preached about, surely influencing his son, Emanuel Swedenborg, who later would cover the topic extensively in his spiritual writings.

The hymn has a fascinating history. Johan Svedberg wrote it for the hymnbook of 1694 that he was commissioned to write. However it was seen by powerful people in the church hierarchy as heretical and the whole hymnbook was revoked and the copies were pulled back to Stockholm where they were kept to rot in a cellar on the island of Skeppsholmen. Some of the hymnbooks were sent to the colony New Sweden in Delaware. 1695 came a second edition out, where many of the hymns from the 1694 version were missing, including "O Fader wise".

But it seems that some copies of the 1694 hymnbook have been held on to in Dalarna, where Svedberg came from, because lyrics from the hymnbook are appearing in the popular folk-chorales of the region, like this one; O Fader Wise.

Sing it as lightly and as angelically innocent as possible, especially towards the end of the piece where the rhythmic challenges otherwise can make it quite laboured.