Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata LVIII.: Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid. Sunday after the Circumcision (1733) - 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 LVIII.: Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid. Sunday after the Circumcision (1733) - 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 LVIII.

Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid. Sunday after the Circumcision (1733)

(a)

The melody of the opening movement is that of Martin Moller’s (?) Hymn, “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid” (see Cantata 3). The words of the Choral are part of the first stanza of the Hymn:

  • Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid
  • Begegnet mir zu dieser Zeit!
  • Der schmale Weg ist trubsalsvoll,
  • Den ich zum Himmel wandern soll.

  • B.G. xii. (ii) 135.

Form. A Dialogus between Soprano and Bass, the Soprano having the melody (2 Ob., Taille, Strings, Continuo).

(b)

For the melody of the fifth movement, “Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid,” or “Herr Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht,” see Cantata 3.

The words of the Choral are the second stanza of Martin Behm’s funerary Hymn, “O [Herr] Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht,” first published in a collection entitled Christliche Gebet (1610), and thence in his Zehen Sterbegebet Reimweise zugerichtet (Wittenberg, 1611).

Behm was born at Lauban, in Silesia, in 1557. He was assistant in the Town school, deacon, and eventually chief pastor there. He died in 1622. He was one of the best and most prolific hymn writers of his period:

  • Ich hab’ vor mir ein’ schwere Reis’
  • Zu dir in’s Himmels Paradeis;
  • Da ist mein rechtes Vaterland,
  • Daran1 du dein Blut hast2 gewandt.

  • B.G. xii. (ii) 146.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 127.

Form. A Dialogus between Soprano and Bass, the Soprano having the melody (2 Ob., Taille, Strings, Continuo).

[1 ] 1611 Darauff.

[2 ] 1611 hast dein Blut.