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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata XXXIII.: Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity ( 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 XXXIII.

Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (c. 1740)

lf1393-02_figure_104

Melody: “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”

Anon. c. 1541

lf1393-02_figure_105

Melody: “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”

Anon. 1545*

A Choral Cantata, on Johannes Schneesing’s penitential Hymn, “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ,” which was published as a Nürnberg broadsheet c. 1541 and was included by Luther in Valentin Babst’s Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig, 1545), with the second version of the melody printed above.

Schneesing, a native of Frankfort a Main, was pastor of Friemar, near Gotha, where he died in 1567. He is said to have been much interested in teaching children the hymns and tunes which he composed.

The melody of Schneesing’s Hymn, which Bach uses in the opening and closing movements of the Cantata in its 1545 form, was first published, with the Hymn, in an undated broadsheet, probably at Wittenberg, c. 1541, and thence in Valentin Babst’s Hymn book (supra). The tune has been attributed to Schneesing.

Bach has not used the melody elsewhere in the Cantatas, Oratorios, or Motetts. There is another harmonisation of it in the Choralgesänge, No. 15.

(a)

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

  • Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ,
  • Mein’ Hoffnung steht auf Erden;
  • Ich weiss, dass du mein Tröster bist,
  • Kein Trost mag mir sonst werden.
  • Von Anbeginn ist nichts erkor’n,
  • Auf Erden war1 kein Mensch gebor’n,
  • Der mir aus Nöthen helfen kann,
  • Ich ruf’ dich an2 ,
  • Zu dem ich mein3 Vertrauen hab’.

  • B.G. vii. 83.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 1015.

Form. Choral Fantasia (2 Ob., Strings, Organ, Continuo).

(b)

The words of the concluding Choral are the fourth stanza of Schneesing’s Hymn:

  • Ehr’ sei Gott in dem hochsten Thron,
  • Dem Vater aller Güte,
  • Und Jesum Christ, sein’m liebsten4 Sohn,
  • Der uns allzeit behute5 ,
  • Und6 Gott, dem heiligen Geiste,
  • Der uns sein’ Hülf’ allzeit leiste,
  • Damit wir ihm gefällig sein,
  • Hier in dieser Zeit
  • Und folgends in der7 Ewigkeit.

  • B.G. vii. 114.

Form. Simple (2 Ob., Strings, Organ, Continuo). Choralgesänge, No. 16.

[* ]sic.

[1 ]c. 1541 ist.

[2 ]c. 1541 Dich ruff ich an.

[3 ]c. 1541 all mein.

[4 ]c. 1541 einigen.

[5 ]c. 1541 Der woll uns all behuten.

[6 ]c. 1541 Auch.

[7 ]c. 1541 im in.