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Subject Area: Religion

Cantata LXX.: Wachet, betet, betet, wachet 2 . Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity 3 (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.

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Cantata LXX.

Wachet, betet, betet, wachet2 . Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity3 (1716)

(a)

For the melody of the closing Choral, Part I, Louis Bourgeois’ “Ainsi qu’on oit le cerf,” see Cantata 13.

The words of the Choral are the tenth stanza of the Hymn, “Freu’ dich sehr, O meine Seele” (see Cantata 19):

  • Freu’ dich sehr, O meine Seele,
  • Und vergiss all’ Noth und Qual,
  • Weil dich nun Christus, dein Herre,
  • Ruft aus diesem Jammerthal.
  • Seine Freud’ und Herrlichkeit
  • Sollst du sehn in Ewigkeit,
  • Mit den Engeln jubiliren,
  • In Ewigkeit triumphiren.

  • B.G. xvi. 354.

Form. Simple (Tromba, Oboe, Fagotto, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 98.

lf1393-02_figure_146

Melody: “Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht”

? Andreas Hammerschmidt 1659

lf1393-02_figure_147

(b)

The melody of the concluding Choral of Part II, “Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht,” was first published, with Christian Keimann’s Hymn, in Part IV of Andreas Hammerschmidt’s Fest- Bus- und Danck-Lieder, Mit 5 Vocal Stimmen (Zittau, 1659 [1658]). The melody appears there in an elongated form (eleven phrases) owing to the repetition of lines 3, 4, 5, 6, of the stanza, followed by another repetition of line 6. For use as a Hymn tune the melody has several forms.

The melody occurs also in Cantatas 124, 154, 157, 163. Bach used it also for the discarded closing Choral of Part I of the “St Matthew Passion” (Choralgesange, No. 247), and there is another harmonisation of it in the Choralgesänge, No. 242.

Bach’s version, which has not earlier sanction, is built up of phrases 1-4, 9, 11, of the original (1658) text. In Cantata 124 and in two other harmonisations of the tune in the Choralgesänge, Nos. 242, 247, he substitutes phrase 10 for phrase 9. There is another melody in the Choralgesänge, No. 241, to the same Hymn. It is by Peter Sohren (1676).

The words of the Choral are the fifth stanza of Christian Keimann’s Hymn, an acrostic upon the words of the dying Elector Johann Georg of Saxony (d. 1656): “Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht.” The first words of stanzas i-v supply these five words, while their last lines repeat the sentence in full. The initial letters of the first five lines of stanza vi stand for: J[ohann] G[eorg] C[hurfürst] Z[u] S[achsen], i.e. Johann Georg Elector of Saxony:

  • Nicht nach Welt, nach Himmel nicht
  • Meine Seele wunscht und sehnet1 :
  • Jesum wunsch’ ich2 und sein Licht:
  • Der mich hat mit Gott versöhnet,
  • Der mich frei macht3 vom Gericht,
  • Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht.

  • B.G. xvi. 368.

English translations of the Hymn are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 614.

Form. Embellished (Tromba, Oboe, Fagotto, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 243.

(c)

lf1393-02_figure_148

Melody: “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein”

Anon. 1535

In the second movement of Part II of the Cantata (B.G. xvi. 360), the Bass Recitativo, “Ach, soll nicht dieser grosse Tag,” the Tromba has the melody of Luther’s Advent Hymn, “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein,” generally known as “Luther’s Hymn,” and also, through its association with Bartholomäus Ringwaldt’s Advent Hymn, as “Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit1 .”

The melody, “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein,” was first published, with Luther’s Hymn, in Klug’s Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535 [1529]). It also occurs in the “Christmas Oratorio,” No. 59. There is another harmonisation of it in the Choralgesange, No. 262. Organ Works, N. xviii. 80. Bach’s text is invariable and is found in sixteenth century Hymn books.

[2 ] An English version of the Cantata, “Watch ye, pray ye,” is published by Novello & Co.

[3 ] Originally, for the Second Sunday in Advent (Spitta, i. 570). In its present form the Cantata’s date probably is 1723. The Recitativi represent Leipzig additions to the original Franck text (Wustmann, p. 293).

[1 ] 1658 stohnet.

[2 ] 1658 wunscht sie.

[3 ] 1658 freyet.

[1 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part I, 58.