Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata XLVIII.: Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlosen. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity ( c. 1740) - 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 XLVIII.: Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlosen. Nineteenth 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.

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 XLVIII.

Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlosen. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity (c. 1740)

lf1393-02_figure_122

Melody: “Ach Gott und Herr”

Anon. 1625

lf1393-02_figure_123

Reconstruction 1655

(a)

The words and melody of the third movement are those of the Lenten Hymn, “Ach Gott und Herr, Wie gross und schwer,” first published together in As hymnodus sacer (Leipzig, 1625). A reconstruction of the melody, in a major key1 , which Bach follows, first appeared in Christoph Peter’s (“Sangmeister” at Guben) Andachts Zymbeln Oder andachtige und geistreiche...Lieder (Freiberg, 1655).

There is another harmonisation of the tune in Choralgesange, No. 3. Organ Works, N. xviii. 1, 2, 3.

The words of the concluding Choral are the fourth stanza of the Hymn. The stanza was first published at Jena (broadsheet) in a sermon by Dr Johann Major (or Gross) in 1613. In a second edition of the broadsheet, printed at Erfurt in the same year, six stanzas of the Hymn were included. Its authorship is attributed to Johann Major (1564-1654), a Professor at Jena University, 1611-54, and to Martin Rutilius (1550-1618), deacon and archdeacon at Weimar, 1586-1618. It is placed by Fischer-Tümpel1 among the “Lieder von unbekannten Verfassern”2 :

  • Soll’s ja so sein,
  • Dass Straf’ und Pein
  • Auf Sunden folgen mussen:
  • So fahr’ hier fort
  • Und schone dort,
  • Und lass mich hier3 wohl bussen.

  • B.G. x. 288.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 983.

Form. Simple (Tromba, 2 Ob., Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 4.

lf1393-02_figure_124

Melody: “Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut”

Anon. 1593

(b)

The words and melody of the concluding Choral are those of the “Kreuz- und Trostlied,” “Herr Jesu Christ, ich schrei zu dir,” though the melody is more familiar in association with Bartholomaus Ringwaldt’s Lenten Hymn, “Herr Jesu Christ, du hochstes Gut.” It was published, to another Hymn, in the Dresden Gesangbuch of 1593. In Christopher Demantius’ Threnodiae (Freiberg, 1620) it occurs in association with “Herr Jesu Christ, ich schrei zu dir.” The melody is the Tenor (slightly altered) of a four-part setting of “Wenn mein Stundlein vorhanden ist.” Its derivation from the latter is patent (see Cantata 15).

The melody occurs also in Cantatas 113, 131, 166, 168. There is another harmonisation of it in the Choralgesange, No. 141.

The words of the concluding Choral are the twelfth stanza of the Hymn “Herr Jesu Christ, ich schrei zu dir,” whose author is not identified. Hymn and melody appear together in Demantius’ Threnodiae (supra):

  • Herr Jesu Christ, einiger Trost,
  • Zu dir will ich mich wenden;
  • Mein Herzleid ist dir wohl bewusst,
  • Du kannst und wirst es enden
  • In deinen Willen sei’s gestellt,
  • Mach’s, lieber1 Gott, wie dir’s gefallt:
  • Dein bin und will ich bleiben.

  • B.G. x. 298.

Form. Simple (Tromba, 2 Ob., Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 144.

In the opening movement Bach introduces the melody in canon in the accompaniment (Tromba, Oboi).

[1 ] Closely follows Cruger’s version of the minor.

[1 ] Vol. i. No. 52.

[2 ] See the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 982.

[3 ] 1613 ja.

[1 ] 1620 liebster.