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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Cantata LXXXV.: Ich bin ein guter Hirt 1 . Second Sunday after Easter (“Misericordias Domini”) (1735) - 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 LXXXV.

Ich bin ein guter Hirt1 . Second Sunday after Easter (“Misericordias Domini”) (1735)

lf1393-02_figure_159

Melody: “Allein Gott in der Hoh’ sei Ehr’ ”

Nicolaus Decius 1539

lf1393-02_figure_160

Melody: “Gloria in excelsis Deo”

15452

(a)

The melody of the third movement is Nicolaus Decius’ (or Hovesch) “Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr’,” first published, with Decius’ rendering of the “Gloria in excelsis,” in Valentin Schumann’s Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert und gemehrt (Leipzig, 1539). The melody was formed by putting together phrases 3-4, 7-8, 11 of the “Gloria paschalis.” Its association with Becker’s Hymn (infra) is very general.

The melody occurs also in Cantatas 104, 112, and 128. There is a harmonisation of it in the Choralgesänge, No. 12. Bach’s version shows slight variations of the original. For the second and third notes following the middle double bar there is early (1545) authority. For his version of the final phrase of the tune in the concluding Choral of Cantata 112 there appears to be none. Organ Works, N. xvi. 39, 40*, 41; xvii. 56, 60, 66; xviii. 4, 5, 7, 11.

The words of the third movement are the first stanza of Cornelius Becker’s “Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,” a translation of Psalm xxiii, which appeared first in Seth Calvisius’ Harmonia Cantionum ecclesiasticarum (Leipzig, 1598), and thence in Becker’s Der Psalter Dauids Gesangweis (Leipzig, 1602).

Becker was born at Leipzig in 1561 and became one of the masters in St Thomas’ School there. In 1594 he was appointed pastor of St Nicolas’ Church, Leipzig, and subsequently Professor of Theology in the University. He died in 1604:

  • Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,
  • Dem ich mich ganz vertraue:
  • Zur Weid’ er mich, sein Schafflein, fuhrt,
  • Auf schöner, grüner Aue.
  • Zum frischen Wasser leit’t er mich,
  • Mein’ Seel’ zu laben kräftiglich
  • Durch’s sel’ge Wort der Gnaden.

  • B.G. xx. (i) 110.

A translation of the Hymn is noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 121.

Form. Soprano Unison Choral, in the form of a Choral Prelude upon the melody (2 Ob., Continuo).

lf1393-02_figure_161

Melody: “Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann”

Anon. 1694

(b)

The melody of the concluding Choral, “Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann,” was published, with Homburg’s Hymn (infra), in Hundert ahnmuthig- und sonderbahr geistlicher Arien (Dresden, 1694), a collection from which few melodies have passed into common use.

The melody has been attributed incorrectly to Bach. He has not used it elsewhere and material is not available to enable the originality of his variations of the tune to be tested.

The words of the concluding Choral are the fourth stanza of Ernst Christoph Homburg’s “Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann,” or “Gott ist mein Schild und Helfersmann,” first published, with a different melody, in Part I of Homburg’s Geistlicher Lieder (Naumburg, 1659 [1658]).

Homburg was born near Eisenach in 1605. He practised as a lawyer at Naumburg, in Saxony, was regarded by his contemporaries as a poet of high rank, and was admitted a member of Rist’s Order of Elbe Swans. He died at Naumburg in 1681:

  • Ist Gott mein Schutz und treuer Hirt,
  • Kein Ungluck mich beruhren wird;
  • Weicht, alle meine Feinde,
  • Die ihr mir stiftet Angst und Pein,
  • Es wird zu eurem Schaden sein;
  • Ich habe Gott zum Freunde.

  • B.G. xx. (i) 118.

Form. Simple (2 Ob., Strings, Continuo). Choralgesänge, No. 216.

[1 ] A Score of this Cantata is also in the Neue Bachgesellschaft, ix. (i) 1908.

[2 ] Johann Spangenberg’s Kirchengesenge Deudtsch (Magdeburg).