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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow No. 5.: How shall I fitly meet thee 1 ( Wie soll ich dich empfangen ) - 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.: How shall I fitly meet thee 1 ( Wie soll ich dich empfangen ) - 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. 5.

How shall I fitly meet thee1 (Wie soll ich dich empfangen)

For Hans Hassler’s melody, “Herzlich thut mich verlangen,” see the “St Matthew Passion,” No. 21 supra.

The words of the Choral are the first stanza of Paul Gerhardt’s (see “St Matthew Passion,” No. 16) Advent Hymn, “Wie soll ich dich empfangen,” founded on St Matthew xxi. 1-9, and presumably written during the Thirty Years’ War. It was first printed in Christoph Runge’s D. M. Luthers Und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Manner Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen Berlin, 1653, to which Johann Cruger contributed a melody for Gerhardt’s Hymn:

  • Wie soll ich dich empfangen,
  • Und wie begegn’ ich dir?
  • O allei Welt Verlangen,
  • O meiner Seelen Zier!
  • O Jesu, Jesu! setze
  • Mir selbst die Fackel bei,
  • Damit, was dich ergotze,
  • Mir kund und wissend sei.
  • B.G. v. (2) 36.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1280.

Form. Simple (1 Fl., 2 Ob., Strings, Organ, and Continuo).