Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata LIX.: Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten. Whit Sunday (1716) - 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 LIX.: Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten. Whit Sunday (1716) - 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 LIX.

Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten. Whit Sunday (1716)

lf1393-02_figure_129

Melody:Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott

Anon. 1535

lf1393-02_figure_130

The melody and words of the penultimate movement are from Luther’s Whitsuntide Hymn, “Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott,” an expansion of the Latin Antiphon, “Veni Sancte Spiritus.” The Hymn was first published, with the melody, in Walther’s Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524), and in both editions of the Erfurt Enchiridion (1524). An earlier form of the melody (supra) appears, with the Hymn, in Klug’s Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535 [1529]).

The melody is found also in Cantata 175 and, in a free form, in Cantata 172. It occurs also in Motett 2, “Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf.” Organ Works, N. xvii. 1, 10.

The words of the Choral are the first stanza of Luther’s Hymn:

  • Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott,
  • Erfull’ mit deiner Gnaden Gut
  • Deiner Glaubigen Herz, Muth und Sinn!
  • Dein’ brunstig’ Lieb’ entzund’ in ihn’n!
  • O Herr, durch deines Lichtes Glanz1
  • Zu dem Glauben versammelt hast
  • Das Volk aus aller Welt Zungen;
  • Das sie dir, Herr, zu Lob’ gesungen.
  • Alleluja! Alleluja!
  • B.G. xii. (ii) 164.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 631.

Form. Embellished (Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 220.

[1 ] 1524 glast.