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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata III.: Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid 1 . Second Sunday after the Epiphany ( c. 1740) - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts [1917]

Edition used:

Bach’s Chorals. Part I: 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts, by Charles Sanford Terry (Cambridge University Press, 1915-1921). 3 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

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Cantata III.

Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid1 . Second Sunday after the Epiphany (c. 1740)

lf1393-02_figure_067

Melody: “O Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht”

Anon. 1625

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Melody: “Hilf mir, Herr Jesu, weil ich leb’ ”

MS. 1602

A Choral Cantata, on the Hymn, “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid,” first published in Martin Moller’s Meditationes Sanctorum Patrum (Görlitz, 1587, 2nd ed.). The Hymn is a free paraphrase of Bernard of Clairvaulx’ “Jesu dulcis memoria,” attributed to Martin Moller.

Moller was born at Kropstädt, near Wittenberg, in 1547, became Cantor at Lowenberg in Silesia and eventually deacon there. In 1600 he became chief pastor at Gorlitz, and died there in 1606.

The Hymn is attributed also to Conrad Hojer, Sub-Prior at Mollenbeck, near Rinteln on the Weser.

In the first, second, and last movements of the Cantata Bach uses the melody generally known as “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid.” By prescriptive right it should bear the name of Martin Behm’s finest Hymn, “O [Herr] Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht,” first published in 1610. The earliest version of the tune is set to Behm’s Hymn in As hymnodus sacer (Leipzig, 1625). It bears, however, so close a resemblance to a Konigsberg ms. melody of 16021 that it must be considered a derivative of that tune or of some common source. The proper, and quite distinct, melody of “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid” probably was composed by Bartholomäus Gesius and appeared first in his Ein ander new Opus Geistlicher Deutscher Lieder (Frankfort a. Oder, 1605).

Bach uses the melody also in Cantatas Nos. 44, 58, 118, and 153. Invariably he prefers the form of lines 1-3 in Joseph Clauder’s Psalmodia nova (Leipzig, 1630).

(a)

The words of the opening movement are part of the first stanza of the Hymn:

  • Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid
  • Begegnet mir zu dieser Zeit.
  • Der schmale Weg ist trubsalvoll,
  • Den ich zum Himmel wandern soll.

  • B.G. i. 75.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 10.

Form. Choral Fantasia (2 Ob. d’amore, Trombone (col Basso), Strings, Continuo). The cantus is with the Basses.

(b)

The Choral of the second movement (Recitativo) is part of the first and second stanzas of the Hymn:

  • Wie schwerlich lasst sich Fleisch und Blut
  • Zwingen zu dem ewigen Gut!
  • Wo soll ich mich denn wenden hin?
  • Zu dir, O1 Jesu, steht mein Sinn.

  • B.G. i. 84.

Form. The Chorus (S.A.T.B.) is intersected by Recitativo passages for all the four voices, which take the place of the orchestral ritornelli usual in this Extended form (Continuo2 ).

(c)

The words of the concluding Choral are part of the twelfth stanza of the Hymn:

  • Erhalt’ mein Herz im Glauben rein,
  • So leb’ und sterb’ ich dir allein.
  • Jesu, mein Trost, hor’ mein Begier’:
  • O mein Heiland, war’ ich bei dir!

  • B.G. i. 94.

Form. Simple (2 Ob. d’amore, Corno, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 8.

[1 ] An English version of the Cantata, “O God, how many pains of heart,” is published by Breitkopf & Haertel.

[1 ] Zahn, vol. i. No. 532.

[1 ] 1587 Herr.

[2 ] See p. 44 supra.