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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow No. 9.: Ah! dearest Jesus, holy Child ( Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein! ) - 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. 9.: Ah! dearest Jesus, holy Child ( Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein! ) - 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. 9.

Ah! dearest Jesus, holy Child (Ach, mein herzliebes Jesulein!)

lf1393-01_figure_019

Melody:Vom Himmel hoch

? Martin Luther 1539

The melody, “Vom Himmel hoch,” with probability attributed to Martin Luther, was first published (Leipzig, 1539) in the Geistliche lieder auffs new gebessert of the Leipzig bookseller, Valentin S. Schumann (d. 1545), with the Hymn.

The melody is used by Bach in the “Christmas Oratorio” three times (Nos. 9, 17, 23), and in two cases (Nos. 9 and 23) is ornamented by stately orchestral interludes. It will be noticed that Bach employs in No. 9 the same orchestral tone as in No. 1, while the brilliant trumpet and tympani interludes in both are similar in design. Thereby he imposes upon the First Part of the Oratorio a clear impression of unity. Bach wrote a four-part arrangement of the melody which was sung at Christmas (1723) after the Et exultavit spiritus meus in the five-part “Magnificat1 .”

The words of the Choral are the thirteenth stanza of Luther’s Christmas Hymn, “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her,” which first appeared in the Wittenberg printer Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder, published at Wittenberg in 1535, but to the melody of the riddle-song, “Aus fremden Landen komm ich her,” whose ribald associations compelled its abandonment for that of 1539:

  • Ach, mem herzliebes Jesulem!
  • Mach’ dir ein rein sanft Bettelein,
  • Zu ruh’n in meines Herzens Schrein,
  • Dass ich nimmer vergesse dein.
  • B.G. v. (2) 47.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, pp. 1227, 1722.

Form. Extended (3 Trombe, Timpani, 2 Fl., 2 Ob., 1 Fagotto, Strings, Organ, and Continuo).