O Herr, mache mich zum Werkzeug deines Friedens (Hessenberg)

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"O Herr, mache mich zum Werkzeug deines Friedens" (O lord, make me an instrument of your peace), Op. 37/1, is a motet by Kurt Hessenberg for a six-part mixed choir a cappella, composed in 1946. It is a setting of a prayer which the composer took for a work by Francis of Assisi at the time of the composition, therefore it was subtitled "Motette nach Worten des Franz von Assisi“ (Motet after words by Francis of Assisi). He understood later that the famous prayer is much younger.

In musical composition, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's production. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles; the word is abbreviated as "Op." for a single work, or "Opp." when referring to more than one work.

In western music, a motet is a mainly vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from the late medieval era to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margaret Bent, "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. The late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".

Kurt Hessenberg was a German composer and professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main.

The motet was first performed in Essen-Werden in 1948. It was published by Schott. [1]

Schott Music music publisher

Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest, and is the second oldest, music publishing houses in Europe. The company headquarters of Schott Music were founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany, in 1770.

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