Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata XLVII.: Wer sich selbst erhohet, der soll erniedriget werden. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity ( c. 1720) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

Return to Title Page for Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata XLVII.: Wer sich selbst erhohet, der soll erniedriget werden. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity ( c. 1720) - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Cantata XLVII.

Wer sich selbst erhohet, der soll erniedriget werden. Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (c. 1720)

lf1393-02_figure_121

Melody:Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz

Anon. 1565

The words and melody of the concluding Choral are those of the Hymn “Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz.” The melody is found in association with the Hymn in a ms. (1565) of Bartholomaus Monoetius of Crailsheim, among the “cantiones quae pro ratione temporis tum in schola tum etiam in ecclesia Creilsheimensi solent cantari.” In B.G. xxxiii. p. 28 it is conjectured that the tune descends from the old Meistersinger.

The melody occurs also in Cantata 138 and in Johann Christian Bach’s Motett, “Ich lasse dich nicht.” There are other harmonisations of the tune in the Choralgesange, Nos. 331, 332. Bach’s modification of the concluding phrase is found in 1588.

The words of the concluding Choral are the eleventh stanza of the Hymn, whose authorship has been attributed, apparently without foundation, to Hans Sachs (1494-1576)1 . It occurs in Zwey schone newe geistliche Lieder (Nurnberg, c. 1560) and is said to be found in a Polish Hymn book edited by Pastor Seklucyan at Konigsberg in 1559:

  • Der zeitlichen Ehr’ will ich gern entbehr’n,
  • Du woll’st mir2 nur das Ew’ge gewahr’n,
  • Das du erworben hast
  • Durch deinen herben, bittern Tod.
  • Das bitt’ ich dich, mein Herr und Gott!
  • B.G. x. 274.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, pp. 1234, 1724.

Form. Simple (2 Ob., Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 333.

[1 ] Wackernagel, iv. 128, prints the text under Georg Aemilius Oemler.

[2 ]c. 1560 mich.