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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata XII.: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen 1 . Third Sunday after Easter (Jubilate) (1724 or 1725) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata XII.: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen 1 . Third Sunday after Easter (“Jubilate”) (1724 or 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 XII.

Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen1 . Third Sunday after Easter (“Jubilate”) (1724 or 1725)

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Melody: “Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan”

Anon. 1690

The concluding Choral is set to the melody, “Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan,” published in the Nurnbergisches Gesang-Buch (Nürnberg, 1690), which contains eight melodies not found in the first (1676) edition of the book. Four of them (“Was Gott thut” being one) are anonymous.

The authorship of the tune has been attributed to Severus Gastorius of Jena, for whom the Hymn was written. With greater probability it has been assigned to Johann Pachelbel, who was born in 1653 at Nürnberg, and held important positions as organist at Eisenach, Erfurt (1678-90), Stuttgart, Gotha and Nürnberg. He died in 1706. The tune certainly is associated with Pachelbel, who set it in Motett form during his residence at Erfurt, c. 1680.

On the other hand, the first line of the melody is set to the Hymn, “Frisch auf, mein Geist, sei wohlgemuth,” in E. C. Homburg’s Geistlicher Lieder, Erster Theil, mit zweystimmigen Melodeyen geziehret von Wernero Fabricio (Naumburg, 1659 [1658]). Werner Fabricius, born in 1633, was Music Director at St Paul’s Church, and Organist of St Nicolas’ Church, Leipzig. He died in 1679.

The tune is referred to in the 1693 (Frankfort) edition of the Praxis Pietatis Melica as “bekannte Melodie,” a statement which disposes of Gastorius’, and perhaps of Pachelbel’s, claim to it.

Bach uses the melody also in Cantatas 69, 75, 98, 99, 100, 144, and in the “Drei Chorale zu Trauungen” (Choralgesänge, No. 339).

The words of the Choral are the sixth stanza of Samuel Rodigast’s Hymn, “Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan,” founded on Deuteronomy xxxii. 4.

Rodigast was born at Groben near Jena in 1649. He became Co-rector (1680) and Rector (1698) of the Greyfriars Gymnasium at Berlin. He died in 1708. The Hymn is said to have been written in 1675 at Jena for his sick friend, Severus Gastorius, Cantor there. It was published in Das Hannoverische ordentliche Vollständige Gesangbuch (Gottingen, 1676):

  • Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgethan,
  • Dabei will ich verbleiben,
  • Es mag mich auf die rauhe Bahn
  • Noth, Tod und Elend treiben,
  • So wird Gott mich ganz vaterlich
  • In seinen Armen halten:
  • Drum lass’ ich ihn nur walten.

  • B.G. ii. 78.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 972.

Form. Embellished (“Oboe o Tromba,” Fagotto, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesänge, No. 340.

[1 ] English versions of the Cantata are published by Novello & Co., “Wailing, crying, mourning, sighing,” and by Breitkopf & Haertel, “Weeping, wailing, mourning, fearing.”