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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow No. 15 1 .: O mighty King ( Ach, grosser Konig ) - 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. 15 1 .: O mighty King ( Ach, grosser Konig ) - 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. 151 .

O mighty King (Ach, grosser Konig)

For Johann Crüger’s melody, “Herzliebster Jesu,” see the “St Matthew Passion,” No. 3.

The words of the Choral are the eighth and ninth stanzas of Johann Heermann’s Passiontide Hymn, “Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen” (see the “St Matthew Passion,” No. 3):

    • Ach, grosser Konig, gross zu allen Zeiten,
    • Wie kann ich g’nugsam diese Treu’ ausbreiten?
    • Kein’s Menschen Herze mag indess ausdenken2 ,
    • Was dir zu schenken.
    • Ich kann’s mit meinen Sinnen nicht erreichen,
    • Womit doch dein Erbarmen zu vergleichen.
    • Wie kann ich dir denn deine Liebesthaten
    • Im Werk erstatten?
    • B.G. xii. (1) 52.

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