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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow No. 5 1 .: Thy will, O Lord, be done ( Dein Will' gescheh' ) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Passions and Oratorios

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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

No. 5 1 .: Thy will, O Lord, be done ( Dein Will’ gescheh’ ) - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios [1915]

Edition used:

Bach’s Chorals. Part I: The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios, by Charles Sanford Terry (Cambridge University Press, 1915-1921). 3 vols. Vol. 1.

Part of: Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

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No. 51 .

Thy will, O Lord, be done (Dein Will’ gescheh’)

lf1393-01_figure_012

Melody:Vater unser im Himmelreich

Anon. 1539

The melody, “Vater unser im Himmelreich,” by an unknown composer, appeared first in Valentin S. Schumann’s (d. 1545) Geistliche lieder auffs new gebessert, Leipzig, 1539. The tune has been attributed to Luther, but on inadequate evidence.

Bach uses the melody elsewhere in three of the Cantatas: “Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott” (No. 101), for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity; “Es reifet euch ein schrecklich Ende” (No. 90), for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity; and “Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben” (No. 102), for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity. There is another harmonisation of the tune in the Choralgesange, No. 316, which Bach used for the earlier performances of the “St John Passion.”

The words of the Choral are the fourth stanza of Luther’s versification of the Lord’s Prayer, which was first published, with the tune, in Valentin S. Schumann’s Geistliche lieder, Leipzig, 1539:

  • Dein Will’ gescheh’, Herr Gott, zugleich
  • Auf Erden wie im Himmelreich;
  • Gieb uns Geduld in Leidenszeit,
  • Gehorsamsein in Lieb’ und Leid,
  • Wehr’ und steur’ allem Fleisch und Blut,
  • Das wider deinen Willen thut.
  • B.G. xii. (1) 18.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1205.

Form. Simple (2 Fl., 2 Ob., Strings, Organ, and Continuo).