We plough the fields, and scatter

Representative Text

1 We plow the fields and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God’s almighty hand.
God sends the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes, and the sunshine,
and soft refreshing rain.

Refrain:
All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above.
We thank you, God, we thank you, God, for all your love.

2 You only are the Maker
of all things near and far.
You paint the wayside flower,
you light the evening star.
The winds and waves obey you,
by you the birds are fed;
much more to us, your children,
you give our daily bread. [Refrain]

3 We thank you, then, Creator,
for all things bright and good,
the seed-time, and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
for all your love imparts,
and what you most would welcome:
our humble, thankful hearts. [Refrain]

Source: Voices Together #747

Translator: Jane M. Campbell

Campbell, Jane Montgomery, daughter of the Rev. A. Montgomery Campbell, born in London, 1817, died at Bovey Tracey, Nov. 15, 1878. Miss Campbell contributed in 1861, a number of translations from the German to the Rev. C. S. Bere's Garland of Songs; or, an English Liederkranz, 1862; and also to his Children’s Choral Book, 1869. The best known and most widely used of these translations is a portion of "Im Anfang war's auf Erden," as the harvest hymn, "We plough the fields and scatter.” Miss Campbell also published A Handbook for Singers, Lond., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, n.d. This small work contains the musical exercises which she taught in her father's parish school. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)  Go to person page >

Author: Matthias Claudius

Claudius, Matthias, son of Matthias Claudius, Lutheran pastor at Reinfeld in Holstein (near Lübeck), was born at Reinfeld, Aug. 15, 1740. An ancestor, who died as a Lutheran pastor in 1586, had Latinized his name, Claus Paulsen, to Claudius Pauli, and his descendants had adopted Claudius as their surname. Claudius entered the University of Jena, in 1759, as a student of theology, but being troubled with an affection of the chest, and finding little attraction in the Rationalism of Jena, he turned his attention to law and languages. After a short visit to Copenhagen, as private secretary to a Danish count, he joined in 1768 the staff of the Hamburg News Agency (Adress-Comptoirnachrichten). Removing to Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, he undertook i… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: We plough the fields, and scatter
German Title: Wir pflügen und wir streuen
Author: Matthias Claudius (1782)
Translator: Jane M. Campbell
Meter: 7.6.7.6 D with refrain
Language: English
Refrain First Line: All good gifts around us
Notes: Spanish translation: See "Aramos nuestros campos" by Ernesto Barocio
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Ps. 145:16, Ezek. 34:26-27
st. 2 = Ps. 104, Acts 14:17
st. 3 = Gen. 8:22

Matthias Claudius (b. Reinfeld, Holstein, Germany, 1740; d. Hamburg, Germany, 1815) grew up in the home of a Lutheran pastor and studied briefly for the ministry at the University of Jena. During his twenties and thirties he seems to have forsaken the faith, influenced by the rationalistic thought of the time. He became seriously ill in 1777, and this crisis was instrumental in returning him to his childhood faith. He worked briefly as commissioner of agriculture and manufacture of Hesse-Darmstadt (1776-1777) and in 1778 was appointed an auditor of the Schleswig-Holstein Bank in Altona. Most of his life was spent as a journalist, editor, and writer on general culture, much of it as editor of Der Wansbecker Bote (The Wansbeck Messenger).

Claudius also wrote many devotional poems, of which this is the only one in common use as hymn text. Originally a poem in seventeen stanzas with a refrain that began "Im Anfang war's auf Erden," the poem was the peasants' song in Claudius's sketch "Paul Erdmann's Feast," published in Asinus omnia sua secum portans (1782). It was popularized in various nineteenth-century German hymnals where it appeared with fewer stanzas, often beginning with Claudius's third stanza "Wir pflugen und wir streuen.”

The English text is based on Jane Montgomery-Campbell's free translation of his original stanzas 3, 5, 7,9, 10, and 13, first published in Charles S. Bere's A Garland of Songs (1861). Campbell (b. Paddington, London, England, 1817; d. Bovey Tracey, South Devon, England, 1878) was proficient in both music and German. She translated a number of German hymns into English, which were first published in Charles Bere's Garland of Songs, or an English Liederkranz (1862) and his Children's Chorale Book (1869). The writer of A Handbook for Singers (undated), Campbell also taught singing to the children in her parish school, St. James in Paddington, where her father was rector.

The text affirms that, while we need to plow the land and sow the seed, it is God who provides the increase; he sends the rain and the sunshine to produce a harvest. God also sustains his creation, for "all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above." Thus praise bursts from our "humble, thankful hearts."

Liturgical Use:
Harvest thanksgiving; as a hymn of creation; the final stanza as an offertory hymn.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune

WIR PFLÜGEN

WIR PFLÜGEN (named after the incipit of Schulz’s original third stanza) was published anonymously in the Hanover collection Lieder für Volksschulen (1800). But it was credited to Johann A. P. Schulz in Lindner’s Berlin songbook Jungenfreund (1812). The harmonization by John B. Dykes (PHH 147)…

Go to tune page >


Timeline

Media

You have access to this FlexScore.
Download:
Are parts of this score outside of your desired range? Try transposing this FlexScore.
General Settings
Stanza Selection
Voice Selection
Text size:
Music size:
Transpose (Half Steps):
Capo:
Contacting server...
Contacting server...
Questions? Check out the FAQ

A separate copy of this score must be purchased for each choir member. If this score will be projected or included in a bulletin, usage must be reported to a licensing agent (e.g. CCLI, OneLicense, etc).

This is a preview of your FlexScore.
The Cyber Hymnal #7227
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)
Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #456
  • Bulletin Score (PDF)
  • Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)
  • Full Score (PDF, XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 100 of 448)

A Church of England Hymn Book #575

Page Scan

A First Book in Hymns and Worship #18

A Hundred Songs of God and His Kingdom #d93

A Hymnal for Friends #149

Page Scan

A Manual of Worship #228

A Treasury of Hymns, the Best-Loved Hymns, Carols ... #d261

A. M. E. C. Hymnal #196

TextPage Scan

African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #579

Page Scan

Alleluia #286

Ambassador Hymnal #147

American Church and Church School Hymnal #d341

American Church and Church School Hymnal #d338

American Junior Church School Hymnal #d187

American Student Hymnal #d356

Text

Ancient and Modern #290

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #801

At Worship, a hymnal for young churchmen #d289

Ausgewahlte Lieder des Evangeliums (Selected Gospel Songs) #d98

Australian Hymn Book #59

Baptist Hymnal #493

Page Scan

Book of Worship #84

Text

Breaking Bread (Vol. 39) #597

Brooklyn Sunday School Union, Hymns and Music, 54th Anniversary #d6

Page Scan

Brotherhood Hymns #40

Cân a Mawl #253b

Carmina for Social Worship #d272

Page Scan

Carmina for the Sunday School and Social Worship #257

Carmina Sacra #d221

Page Scan

Carols Old and Carols New #596

Text

Children's Hymnal #151

Children's Hymnal #69

Page Scan

Children's Hymns with Tunes #83

Children's Praise and Worship #d183

TextPage Scan

Christ in Song #629

Christian Hymnal #d523

Page Scan

Christian Hymns #188

Christian Hymnways #d178

Christian Praise #d372

Page Scan

Christian Praise #648

Page Scan

Christian Song #68

Christian Worship and Praise #d466

Christian Worship #594

Christian Youth Hymnal #172

Church Family Worship #509

Church Hymnal, Fifth Edition #47

Church Hymnal, Fourth Edition #308

Page Scan

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #577

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #577

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #d583

Church Hymnal, Third Edition #330

TextPage Scan

Church Hymnary (4th ed.) #229

Church Hymns and Services, Published under License of the Church Pension Fund #d261

Page Scan

Church Hymns and Tunes #623

Church Hymns with Tunes #282

Page Scan

Church Hymns #309

Church School Hymnal for Children, Grades 3 to 6 #d135

Page Scan

Church Service Hymns #405

Text

Common Praise (1998) #258

TextPage Scan

Common Praise #275

Page Scan

Common Praise #645

TextPage Scan

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church #486

TextPage Scan

Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New #719

Complete Mission Praise #732

TextPage Scan

Concordia #101

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #725

Page Scan

Devotion and Praise #33

Divine Service Book for the Armed Forces #d232

Page Scan

Elmhurst Hymnal #296

Page Scan

Evangelical Hymnal #562

Text

Evangelical Lutheran Worship #680

TextAudio

Evangelical Lutheran Worship #681

Exalt His Name #152

Page Scan

Free Methodist Hymnal #704

Page Scan

Garnered Gems #50

Page Scan

Glad Tidings #20

Gloria in Excelsis #d735

Gloria in Excelsis #d456

Page Scan

Gloria #274

Text

Glory and Praise (3rd. ed.) #703

Gospel Hymnal #d366

Heart and Voice #d285

Page Scan

Heart and Voice #188

Page Scan

Hymn Book of the United Evangelical Church #562

Hymn Stories #d11

Page Scan

Hymn Tunes #85

Page Scan

Hymn-Book of the Evangelical Association #780

Page Scan

Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church #575

Page Scan

Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church #869

Page Scan

Hymnal for American Youth #284

Hymnal for Christian Worship #d294

Hymnal for Church and Home. 4th ed. #d135

Hymnal for Church, School and Home #d163

Hymnal for Evangelical Sunday Schools #d64

Hymnal of the Evangelical Church. Word ed. #d817

Page Scan

Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church #1086

Page Scan

Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church #1086

Page Scan

Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada #313

Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada with Accompanying Tunes #d316

Hymnal, a Teacher's Manual. Vol. 1 #d119

Pages

Exclude 391 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us