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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata VIII.: Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben 3 ? Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity ( c. 1725) - 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 VIII.

Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben3 ? Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (c. 1725)

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Melody: “Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben?”

Daniel Vetter 1713

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A Choral Cantata1 , on Caspar Neumann’s Hymn, “Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben?” published in the ninth edition of the Breslau Vollstandige Kirchen- und Haus-Music (Breslau, n.d. c. 1700).

Neumann was a native of Breslau, where he was born in 1648. He became pastor of St Elizabeth’s Church there, and died in 1715.

The melody of Neumann’s Hymn, which Bach uses in the first and last movements of the Cantata, was composed by Daniel Vetter, and was first published in the second Part (first Part 1709) of his Musicalische Kirch- und Hauss-Ergotzlichkeit (Leipzig, 1713). Vetter wrote the tune for Neumann’s Hymn at the suggestion of Jakob Wilisius, Cantor of St Bernhardin’s Church at Breslau, at whose funeral, at his express wish, the Hymn was sung in 1695.

Vetter, a native of Breslau, succeeded his master Werner Fabricius as Organist of the Church of St Nicolas, Leipzig, in 1679. He died in 1721.

Bach has not used the melody elsewhere. But another version of it (melody and figured Bass), from Georg Christian Schemelli’s Musicalisches Gesang-Buch (Leipzig, 1736), is in B.G. xxxix. “Arien und Lieder,” No. 47.

(a)

The words of the opening movement are the first stanza of Neumann’s Hymn:

  • * Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben?
  • Meine Zeit läuft immer hin,
  • Und des alten Adams Erben,
  • Unter denen ich auch bin,
  • Haben dies zum Vatertheil,
  • Dass sie eine kleine Weil
  • Arm und elend sein auf Erden.
  • Und dann selber Erde werden.

  • B.G. i. 213.

Form. Choral Fantasia (Corno (con Soprano), Flauto, 2 Ob. d’amore, Strings, Continuo).

(b)

The words of the concluding Choral are the fifth stanza of Neumann’s Hymn:

  • * Herrscher uber Tod und Leben,
  • Mach’ einmal mein Ende gut,
  • Lehre mich den Geist aufgeben
  • Mit recht wohlgefasstem Muth.
  • Hilf, dass ich ein ehrlich Grab
  • Neben frommen Christen hab’
  • Und auch endlich in der Erde
  • Nimmermehr zu Schanden werde.

  • B.G. i. 241.

Form. Simple (Corno, Flauto, 2 Ob. d’amore, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesänge, No. 227.

[3 ] An English version of the Cantata, “When will God recall my spirit?” is published by Novello & Co.

[1 ] See p. 32 supra.