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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

No. 42.: Jesus who didst ever guide me ( Jesus richte mein Beginnen ) - 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. 42.

Jesus who didst ever guide me (Jesus richte mein Beginnen)

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J. S. Bach 1734

As in Parts I, II, and III Bach rounds off Part IV by connecting its opening and closing movements (Nos. 36 and 42). He does so in this case by inventing a melody, an Aria rather than a hymn-tune (cf. the concluding Choral of the Motett “Komm, Jesu, komm”), clearly derived from the Chorus “Come and thank Him” (No. 36), and by repeating the orchestral colour of that number.

The words of the Choral are the fifteenth stanza of Johann Rist’s (see the “St Matthew Passion,” No. 48) New Year Hymn, “Hilf, Herr Jesu, lass gelingen,” first published in the third Part of Rist’s Himlischer Lieder, Luneburg, 1642:

  • Jesus richte mein Beginnen,
  • Jesus bleibe stets bei mir;
  • Jesus zaume mir die Sinnen,
  • Jesus sei nur mein’ Begier.
  • Jesus sei mir in Gedanken,
  • Jesu, lasse mich nicht1 wanken!
  • B.G. v. (2) 166.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 523.

Form. Extended (2 Corni, 2 Ob., Strings, Organ, and Continuo).