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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata XI.: Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen 1 . Ascension Day (1735 2 ) - 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 XI.

Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen1 . Ascension Day (17352 )

lf1393-02_figure_079

Melody: “Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist”

Johann Schop 1641

(a)

The sixth movement of the Cantata is a Choral upon Johann Schop’s melody, “Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist,” first published in Part I of Johann Rist’s Himlischer Lieder mit...Melodeien (Luneburg, 1641).

Bach uses the melody also in Cantata 43, and in the “Christmas Oratorio,” No. 12. There is another treatment of it (melody and figured Bass) in Schemelli’s Hymn book (1736), No. 187. Invariably Bach follows Johann Cruger’s remodelling of the tune in the 1648 edition of the Praxis Pietatis Melica (Berlin).

The words of the Choral are the fourth stanza of Johann Rist’s Ascension Hymn, “Du Lebensfurst, Herr Jesu Christ,” first published in Part I of his Himlischer Lieder (see supra), to its own melody. It is set to Schop’s tune in Wagner (1697):

  • Nun lieget alles unter dir,
  • Dich selbst nur ausgenommen;
  • Die Engel mussen für und fur
  • Dir aufzuwarten kommen.
  • Die Fursten stehn auch auf der Bahn,
  • Und sind dir willig unterthan;
  • Luft, Wasser, Feu’r und Erden
  • Muss dir zu Dienste werden.

  • B.G. ii. 32.

*Form. Simple (2 Fl., 2 Ob., Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 82.

lf1393-02_figure_080

Melody: “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen”

Anon. 1572 [1571]

lf1393-02_figure_081

Melody. “Helft mir Gott’s Gute preisen”

Wolfgang Figulus 1575 [1569]1

(b)

The melody of the concluding movement is known as “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen,” from its association with Ludwig Helmbold’s Hymn, or “Helft mir Gott’s Güte preisen,” from its association with Paul Eber’s Hymn. Its source is the tune of a secular song, “Ich ging einmal spazieren,” which was extant in 1569. As a Hymn tune the melody was first published by Joachim Magdeburg in his Christliche und Trostliche Tischgesange (Erfurt, 1572 [1571]) and by Wolfgang Figulus (two melodies) in his Weynacht Liedlein (Frankfort a. Oder, 1575 [1569])2 .

Bach uses the melody “Von Gott” with variations which have earlier sanction. It appears in Cantatas 73, 107. It also occurs in Cantata D 4, “Lobt ihn mit Herz und Munde,” attributed to Bach, and there are harmonisations of the tune in the Choralgesange, Nos. 324, 325, 326. Organ Works, N. xvii. 43.

Figulus’ second melody (supra) belongs exclusively to Eber’s Hymn. It appears to originate as a Tenor melody of the first melody, to which its own Tenor bears a clear relation. In spite of its derivation, its individuality permits the tune to be regarded as a separate melody. It occurs in Cantatas 16, 28, 183. Organ Works, N. xv. 39.

The words of the Choral are the seventh stanza of Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer’s Ascension Hymn, “Gott fahret auf gen Himmel,” published in his Geistliche, liebliche Lieder (Gotha, 1714), to the melody, “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen”:

  • Wann soll es doch geschehen,
  • Wann kömmt die liebe Zeit,
  • Dass ich ihn werde1 sehen
  • In seiner Herrlichkeit?
  • Du Tag, wann wirst du sein,
  • Dass wir den Heiland grussen,
  • Dass wir den Heiland kussen?
  • Komm, stelle dich doch ein!

  • B.G. ii. 40.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 984.

Form. Choral Fantasia (3 Trombe, Timpani, 2 Fl., 2 Ob., Strings, Continuo).

[1 ] English versions of the Cantata are published by Novello & Co., “Praise our God Who reigns in Heaven,” and Breitkopf & Haertel, “Praise Jehovah in His splendour.”

[2 ] The date is approximate. The Cantata is held to have been composed at the same time as the Christmas and Easter Oratorios. The former was first performed in 1734 and the latter in 1736.

[* ] A syllable is wanting in the third period of the melody.

[1 ] For Figulus’ first melody, see Bach’s Chorals, Part I, p. 63.

[2 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part I, p. 63.

[1 ] 1714 wir ihn werden.