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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata LXIV.: Sehet, welch' eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget. Feast of St John the Evangelist (Christmas) (? 1723) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata LXIV.: Sehet, welch’ eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget. Feast of St John the Evangelist (Christmas) (? 1723) - 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 LXIV.

Sehet, welch’ eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget. Feast of St John the Evangelist (Christmas) (? 1723)

lf1393-02_figure_132

Melody: “Grates nunc omnes reddamus”

Anon. 1524

lf1393-02_figure_133

Melody: “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ”

Anon. 1524

(a)

The melody of the second movement, “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ,” was first published, with Luther’s Hymn, in Johann Walther’s Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524). The tune is a simplification, doubtless by Walther, of the melody of the Latin Sequence, “Grates nunc omnes reddamus,” the version of which printed above is found in Thomas Muntzer’s Deutsch Euangelisch Messze (Altstadt, 1524).

The melody occurs also in Cantata 91 and in the “Christmas Oratorio,” Nos. 7 and 28. A treatment of the melody, Simple in form and unaccompanied, is in B.G. xvi. 371 and another will be found there at p. xv. Another harmonisation of the tune is in the Choralgesänge, No. 107. An arrangement of it by Bach for accompanying the congregation is in N. xviii. 37. Organ Works, N. xv. 15; xviii. 38, 39.

The words of the second movement are the seventh stanza of Luther’s Christmas Hymn, an expansion of the Latin Sequence, “Grates nunc omnes reddamus,” first published as a broadsheet at Wittenberg in 1524, and, with the melody, in Walther’s Hymn book (supra):

  • Das hat er Alles uns gethan,
  • Sein’ gross’ Lieb’ zu zeigen an.
  • Dess freu’ sich alle Christenheit
  • Und dank’ ihm dess in Ewigkeit.
  • Kyrieleis!

  • B.G. xvi. 118.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 408.

Form. Simple (Cornetto, 3 Trombones, Strings, Organ, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 108.

(b)

The melody of the fourth movement is the 1679 tune, “O Gott, du frommer Gott,” or “Die Wollust dieser Welt” (see Cantata 45).

Another treatment of the melody, to the same words, is printed in B.G. xvi. 372 as an Appendix. It is No. 281 of the Choralgesange.

The words of the fourth movement are the first stanza of Georg Michael Pfefferkorn’s Hymn, “Was frag ich nach der Welt,” first published as a broadsheet at Altenburg in 1667. It has a distinctive melody of its own, by Jakob Hintze (1679).

Pfefferkorn was born at Ifta, near Creuzburg, in 1645. He became a private tutor and master in the Gymnasium at Altenburg, and, later, tutor to the children of Duke Ernst of Gotha. He was appointed in 1682 Superintendent at Grafen-Tonna, near Gotha, and died there in 1732.

  • * Was frag ich nach der Welt
  • Und allen ihren Schatzen,
  • Wenn ich mich nur an dir,
  • Mein Jesu, kann ergotzen?
  • Dich hab’ ich einzig mir
  • Zur Wollust vorgestellt:
  • Du, du bist mein Lust;
  • Was frag ich nach der Welt!

  • B.G. xvi. 120.

An English translation of the Hymn is noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 893.

Form. Embellished (Cornetto, 3 Trombones, Strings, Organ, Continuo). Choralgesänge, No. 280.

lf1393-02_figure_134

Melody: “Jesu, meine Freude”

Johann Cruger 1653

(c)

The melody of the concluding Choral is Johann Crüger’s “Jesu, meine Freude,” which first appeared, set to Johann Franck’s Hymn, in the 1653 (Berlin) edition of the Praxis Pietatis Melica.

The melody also occurs in Cantatas 81 and 87, and in Motett 3, “Jesu, meine Freude.” There is another harmonisation of it in the Choralgesänge, No. 195. Bach’s treatment of the second line varies. Only in Cantatas 64 and 87 and the Organ Preludes does he follow Crüger’s text (the C sharp at the fourth note dates from 1674). In the other Cantata and the Motett his version of that line, and also of the penultimate line, appears to be his own and to have been copied into later Hymn books. Organ Works, N. xv. 31; xviii. 64; P. v. 112.

The words of the concluding Choral are the fifth stanza of Johann Franck’s “Jesu, meine Freude,” first published, with the melody, in 1653 (supra). The Hymn was modelled upon a secular song, which had appeared in 1641, “Flora meine Freude; Meiner Seelenweide”:

  • Gute Nacht, O Wesen,
  • Das die Welt erlesen!
  • Mir gefallst du nicht
  • Gute Nacht, ihr Sunden,
  • Bleibet weit dahinten,
  • Kommt nicht mehr an’s Licht!
  • Gute Nacht,
  • Du Stolz und Pracht!
  • Dir sei ganz, O1 Lasterleben,
  • Gute Nacht gegeben!

  • B.G. xvi. 132.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, pp. 591, 1657.

Form. Simple (Cornetto, 3 Trombones, Strings, Organ, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 200.

[1 ] 1653 du.