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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata XVI.: Herr Gott dich loben wir. Feast of the Circumcision (New Year’s Day) (? 1724) - 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 XVI.

Herr Gott dich loben wir. Feast of the Circumcision (New Year’s Day) (? 1724)

lf1393-02_figure_088

Melody: “Herr Gott dich loben wir”

Anon. 1535

(a)

In the opening movement Bach employs the melody, “Herr Gott dich loben wir,” a simplified form of the plainsong melody of the Ambrosian “Te Deum laudamus.” It was published in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535), with Luther’s version of the “Te Deum,” and no doubt had appeared in association with the latter in the first (1529) edition of that book. Only the first four lines of the melody are printed above. See the Choralgesange, No. 133, and Organ Works, N. xviii. 44, for the complete setting.

Bach uses the melody also in Cantatas 119, 120, 190.

The words of the opening movement are the first two clauses of Luther’s free version of the “Te Deum,” first published in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535 [1529]):

  • Herr Gott dich loben wir,
  • Herr Gott wir danken dir!
  • Dich, Gott Vater1 in Ewigkeit,
  • Ehret die Welt weit und breit.

  • B.G. ii. 175.

English translations of Luther’s version are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1134.

Form. Choral Fantasia (2 Ob., Corno da caccia, Strings, Continuo).

(b)

For the melody of the concluding Choral, “Helft mir Gott’s Güte preisen” (second version), see Cantata 11.

The words of the movement are the sixth stanza of Paul Eber’s Hymn for the New Year, “Helft mir Gott’s Gute preisen,” first published in Eichorn’s Geistliche Lieder (Frankfort a. Oder, c. 1580).

Eber was born at Kitzingen, Bavaria, in 1511. He entered the University of Wittenberg in 1532, and eventually held the Chairs of Latin and Hebrew there. He was a friend of Melanchthon and, next to Luther, is the best poet of the Wittenberg School. He died in 1569. The Hymn is an acrostic upon the name “Helena,” borne by his wife and daughter, spelt by the initial letters of the six stanzas:

  • All’ solch’ dein Gut’ wir preisen,
  • Vater in’s Himmels Thron,
  • Die du uns thust beweisen
  • Durch Jesum1 deinen Sohn,
  • Und bitten ferner2 dich,
  • Gieb uns ein friedlich3 Jahre,
  • Vor alles Leid bewahre
  • Und nahr’ uns mildiglich.

  • B.G. ii. 198.

An English translation is noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 319.

Form. Simple (2 Ob., Corno da caccia, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 125.

[1 ] 1535 Dich Vater.

[1 ]c. 1580 Christum.

[2 ]c. 1580 forder.

[3 ]c. 1580 frolich.