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 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Cantata CLXII.: Ach, ich sehe, jetzt da ich zur Hochzeit gehe. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (1715) - Bach's Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts

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Subject Area: Religion

Cantata CLXII.: Ach, ich sehe, jetzt da ich zur Hochzeit gehe. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (1715) - 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 CLXII.

Ach, ich sehe, jetzt da ich zur Hochzeit gehe. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (1715)

lf1393-02_figure_194

Melody: “Alle Menschen mussen sterben”

Bach’s version 1715

lf1393-02_figure_195

Melody: “Jesu, der du meine Seele”

Johann Schop 1641

lf1393-02_figure_196

Melody: “Herr, ich habe missgehandelt”

Johann Cruger 1649

lf1393-02_figure_197

Melody: “Alle Menschen mussen sterben”

Johann Rosenmuller 1652

The melody of the concluding Choral is one of two which appear for the first time in Bach’s Church Cantatas1 . Erk2 , who prints it, describes it as Johann Schop’s “Jesu, der du meine Seele” (1641) “nachgebildet.” Spitta3 declares it to be “nothing more than a compound produced by the fusion of the melodies, ‘Herr, ich habe missgehandelt’ (1649) and ‘Jesu, der du meine Seele’ (1641).” He adds: “I am now thoroughly convinced of Bach being the author of this melody, which occurs nowhere else.” Spitta’s confidence is inadequately grounded. The Hymn, “Alle Menschen mussen sterben,” received in 1652 a five-part setting, by Johann Rosenmüller1 , of which the tune printed supra is the descant melody. It is clear that the tune is a derivative, and with great probability may be regarded as the Tenor of an original setting now lost. The German Hymn books between 1652 and 1715, the date of Bach’s Cantata, contain a large number of tunes to the Hymn. One of them, dated 16742 , is, as to the first half of it, certainly constructed upon the Bass of Rosenmüller’s setting. Whether Bach’s is an original variation or not, Spitta’s suggestion that he formed it by dissecting two other tunes by well known composers may be discarded. Konig prints in 1738 two versions of a tune closely related to Bach’s. All three probably are derived from a common source. It was not in accordance with Bach’s rule to set a Hymn to a tune not in customary use with it. It is therefore improbable that he should have gone out of his way to invent a tune for a Hymn which had its own melody, with one of which, too, he was familiar1 . The circumstances surrounding this case are, in fact, very similar to those attending the doubtful melody in Cantata 133. Of both tunes a large number of variations exist in the Hymn books, evidencing either their composite origin, or their derivation from some common original.

The melody does not occur elsewhere in the Cantatas, Oratorios, or Motetts. In the Orgelbuchlein, N. xv. 119, Bach treats a melody found first in the Darmstadt Das grosse Cantional (Darmstadt, 1687).

The words of the concluding Choral of the Cantata are the seventh stanza of Johann Georg Albinus’ funerary Hymn, “Alle Menschen müssen sterben.” It was written and published for the funeral of Paul von Henssberg, a burgher of Leipzig, and was sung to Rosenmuller’s setting on that occasion (June 1, 1652). The broadsheet states that both words and music were composed in Henssberg’s honour by Johann Rosenmuller. The statement would appear to be conclusive. On the other hand, Rosenmüller is not known as a Hymn writer, and hymnologists unhesitatingly ascribe the Hymn to Albinus, to whose other Hymn for the Dying, “Welt, ade!” Rosenmüller also wrote the music (see Cantata 27):

  • Ach, ich habe schon erblicket
  • Diese grosse1 Herrlichkeit!
  • Jetzund werd’ ich schon geschmucket
  • Mit dem weissen Himmelskleid,
  • Mit2 der guld’nen Ehrenkrone;
  • Steh’ ich da fur3 Gottes Throne,
  • Schaue solche Freude an,
  • Die kein Ende nehmen kann4 !

  • B.G. xxxiii. 46.

Translations of the Hymn into English are noted in the Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 36.

Form. Simple (Corno da tirarsi, Fagotto, Strings, Continuo). Choralgesange, No. 18.

[1 ] See Cantata 133.

[2 ] Vol. ii. No. 159.

[3 ] Vol. iii. 115.

[1 ] Another tune printed by Erk, No. 158, as Rosenmuller’s is in fact by Jakob Hintze (1622-1702).

[2 ] Zahn, iv. No. 6777.

[1 ]Orgelbuchlein, N. xv. 119.

[1 ] 1652 Alle diese.

[2 ] 1652 Und.

[3 ] 1652 Stehe da für.

[4 ] 1652 Die ich nicht beschreiben kan.