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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata CXII.: Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt 3 . Second Sunday after Easter (Misericordias Domini) ( c. 1731) - 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 CXII.: Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt 3 . Second Sunday after Easter (“Misericordias Domini”) ( c. 1731) - 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 CXII.

Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt3 . Second Sunday after Easter (“Misericordias Domini”) (c. 1731)

A Choral Cantata, on Wolfgang Meusel’s (Musculus) version of Psalm xxiii, “Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,” first published in the Augsburg Gesangbuch of 1530 or 1531, and again in the edition of 1533.

Meusel was born at Dieuze, in Lorraine, in 1497. In 1512 he entered the Benedictine monastery at Lixheim, near Saarburg. He embraced Lutheranism, and in 1537 became chief pastor of the Cathedral Church of Augsburg. In 1549 he settled at Bern as Professor of Theology, and died there in 1563.

The melody of the opening and concluding movements is Nicolaus Decius’ “Allein Gott in der Hoh’ sei Ehr’ ” (see Cantata 85), to which Meusel’s Hymn generally was sung.

(a)

The words of the opening movement are the first stanza of Meusel’s Hymn:

  • Der Herr ist mein getreuer1 Hirt,
  • Halt mich in seiner Hute,
  • Darin mir gar nichts mangeln wird
  • Irgend an einem Gute.
  • Er weidet mich ohn’ Unterlass,
  • Darauf wachst das wohlschmeckend’ Gras
  • Seines heilsamen Wortes.

  • B.G. xxiv. 31.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 732.

Form. Choral Fantasia (2 Cor., 2 Ob. d’amore, Strings, Continuo).

(b)

The words of the concluding Choral are the fifth stanza of Meusel’s Hymn:

  • Gutes und die Barmherzigkeit
  • Folgen1 mir nach im Leben,
  • Und ich werd’ bleiben allezeit
  • Im Haus des Herren eben:
  • Auf Erd’ in christlicher2 Gemein’
  • Und nach dem Tod da3 werd’ ich sein
  • Bei Christo, meinem Herren.

  • B.G. xxiv. 48.

Form. Embellished (2 Cor., 2 Ob. d’amore, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 14.

[3 ] An English version of the Cantata, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” is published by Novello & Co. Every movement of the Cantata is a stanza of the Hymn.

[1 ] 1533 Der Heire ist mein trewer.

[1 ] 1533 lauffen.

[2 ] 1533 der Christlichen.

[3 ] 1533 Tode.