Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow No. 37 1 .: Lord Jesus, thy dear Angel send ( Ach Herr, lass dein lieb' Engelein ) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Passions and Oratorios

Return to Title Page for Bach’s Chorals, vol. 1 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the “Passions” and Oratorios

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

No. 37 1 .: Lord Jesus, thy dear Angel send ( Ach Herr, lass dein lieb’ Engelein ) - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


No. 371 .

Lord Jesus, thy dear Angel send (Ach Herr, lass dein lieb’ Engelein)

lf1393-01_figure_017

Melody:Herzlich Lieb hab’ ich dich, O Herr

Anon. 1577.

The melody, “Herzlich Lieb hab’ ich dich, O Herr,” was first published in Bernhard Schmidt’s Zwey Bucher Einer Neuen Kunstlichen Tabulatur auf Orgel und Instrument, Strassburg, 1577. In Paschasius Reinigius’ Haus Kirchen Cantorei (Bautzen, 1587) it is associated with a Tenor, which moves almost uniformly in sixths below Schmidt’s treble, and is treated as the melody in Geistlich Kleinod (Leipzig, 1586).

The melody is used elsewhere by Bach in two of the Cantatas: “Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg” (No. 149), for Michaelmas; and “Ich liebe den Hochsten” (No. 174), for Whitsuntide. There is another harmonisation of the tune in the Choralgesange, No. 152.

The words of the Choral are the third stanza of Martin Schalling’s only known Hymn, “Herzlich Lieb hab’ ich dich, O Herr” (for the Dying). The Hymn was written circ. 1567 and was first published, with the germ of the melody, in Newe Symbola etlicher Fursten, Nurnberg, 1571. Schalling was born at Strassburg in 1532, educated at Wittenberg University, and in 1554 became deacon at Regensburg. Later he settled at Amberg in Bavaria, and was appointed General-Superintendent of the Bavarian Oberpfalz. In 1585 he became pastor of St Mary’s Church, Nurnberg. He died at Nurnberg in 1608:

  • Ach Herr, lass dein lieb’ Engelein
  • Am letzten End’ die Seele mein1
  • In Abrahams Schooss tragen;
  • Den Leib in sein’m Schlafkammerlein
  • Gar sanft, ohn ein’ge Qual und Pein,
  • Ruhn bis am jungsten Tage!
  • Alsdann vom Tod erwecke mich,
  • Dass meine Augen sehen dich
  • In aller Freud’, O Gottes Sohn,
  • Mein Heiland und2 Genadenthron!
  • Herr Jesu Christ, erhore mich,
  • Ich will dich preisen ewiglich!
  • B.G. xii. (1) 131.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, pp. 1004, 1648.

Form. Simple (2 Fl., 2 Ob., Strings, Organ, and Continuo)3 .

THE CHRISTMAS ORATORIO (1734)