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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata LXV.: Sie werden aus Saba Alle kommen 2 . Feast of the Epiphany (1724) - 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 LXV.

Sie werden aus Saba Alle kommen2 . Feast of the Epiphany (1724)

lf1393-02_figure_135

Melody: “Puer natus in Bethlehem”

Anon. 1543

lf1393-02_figure_136

Melody: “Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem”

(a)

The words and melody of the second movement are those of the Christmas Hymn, “Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem,” a translation of the Latin Hymn, “Puer natus in Bethlehem,” which is as old as the fourteenth century. The earlier melody occurs in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder zu Wittemberg, Anno 1543 (Wittenberg, 1543), where it is set to both the Latin and German words. Another melody is found in Lucas Lossius’ Psalmodia, hoc est, Cantica sacra veteris ecclesiae selecta (Nürnberg, 1553 [1550]. Bach uses the later melody here. With alterations the 1543 tune is that of Luther’s “Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar.” The 1553 melody is the descant to the 1543 canto fermo, the latter becoming the Tenor in early settings.

Neither melody occurs elsewhere in the Cantatas or Oratorios. Organ Works, N. xv. 13, 22 (“Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar”).

The words of the second movement are the fourth stanza of the Christmas Hymn, “Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem,” published, with the melody, by Joseph Klug in 1543 (supra):

  • Die Kön’ge aus Saba kamen dar,
  • Gold, Weihrauch, Myrrhen brachten sie dar,
  • Alleluja, Alleluja!

  • B.G. xvi. 152.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 941.

Form. Embellished (2 Fl., 2 Ob. da caccia, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 302.

lf1393-02_figure_137

Melody: “Was mein Gott will”

Anon. 1572 [1571]

(b)

The melody of the concluding Choral, “Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh’ allzeit,” is of French origin, and appears first in Pierre Attaignant’s Trente et quatre chansons musicales (Paris, [1529]) as the melody of a secular song, “Il me souffit de tous mes maulx1 .” It was attached to the Hymn, “Was mein Gott will,” in Joachim Magdeburg’s Christliche und Trostliche Tischgesenge, mit Vier Stimmen (Erfurt, 1572 [1571]).

The melody occurs also in Cantatas 72, 92, 103, 111, 144, and in the “St Matthew Passion,” No. 31. Bach follows the Dresden (1597) form.

The words of the concluding Choral are the tenth stanza of Paul Gerhardt’s “Ich hab’ in Gottes Herz und Sinn,” first published, to the melody “Was mein Gott,” in the 1647 (Berlin) edition of Crüger’s Praxis Pietatis Melica:

  • Ei nun, mein Gott, so fall’ ich dir
  • Getrost in deine Hande.
  • Nimm mich, und mach’ es so2 mit mir
  • Bis an mein letztes Ende,
  • Wie du wohl weisst,
  • Dass meinem Geist
  • Dadurch sein Weg3 entstehe,
  • Und deine Ehr’
  • Je mehr und mehr
  • Sich in mir4 selbst erhohe.

  • B.G. xvi. 166.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 412.

Form. Simple (Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 346.

[2 ] An English version of the Cantata, “The sages of Sheba,” is published by Novello & Co.

[1 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part I, p. 11.

[2 ] 1647 du.

[3 ] 1647 and Bach’s ms. Nutz.

[4 ] 1647 ihr.