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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Alle Menschen mussen sterben. - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works [1921]

Edition used:

Bach’s Chorals. Part III: The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works, by Charles Sanford Terry (Cambridge University Press, 1915-1921). 3 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: Bach’s Chorals, 3 vols.

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Alle Menschen mussen sterben.

lf1393-03_figure_006

Melody: “Alle Menschen mussen sterben”

Anon. 1687

    • i.

      Hark! a voice saith, All are mortal,
    • Yea, all flesh must fade as grass,
    • Only through Death’s gloomy portal
    • To a better life ye pass,
    • And this body, formed of clay,
    • Here must languish and decay,
    • Ere it rise in glorious might,
    • Fit to dwell with saints in light.

    • ii.

      Therefore, since my God doth choose it,
    • Willingly I yield my life,
    • Nor I grieve that I should lose it,
    • For with sorrows it was rife;
    • And my Saviour suffered here
    • That I might not faint nor fear,
    • Since for me He bore my load
    • And hath trod the same dark road.

    • iii.

      For my sake He went before me,
    • And His death is now my gain;
    • Peace and hope He conquered for me;
    • So without regret or pain
    • To His lovely home I go,
    • From this land of toil and woe,
    • Glad to reach that blest abode
    • Where I shall behold my God.

    • iv.

      There is joy beyond our telling
    • Where so many saints are gone;
    • Thousand thousands there are dwelling,
    • Worshipping before the throne;
    • There the Seraphim on high
    • Brightly shine, and ever cry
    • “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord!
    • Three in One for aye adored!”
    • * * *

    • vi.

      O Jerusalem, how clearly
    • Dost thou shine, thou city fair!
    • Lo! I hear the tones more nearly
    • Ever sweetly sounding there!
    • Oh what peace and joy hast thou!
    • Lo the sun is rising now,
    • And the breaking day I see
    • That shall never end for me!

    • vii.

      Yea, I see what here was told me,
    • See that wondrous glory shine,
    • Feel the spotless robes enfold me,
    • Know a golden crown is mine;
    • So before the throne I stand,
    • One amid that glorious band,
    • Gazing on that joy for aye
    • That shall never pass away!

    • Johann Georg Albinus (1624-79)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Johann Georg Albinus’ hymn, “Alle Menschen müssen sterben,” written in 1652 for the funeral of Paul von Henssberg, a Leipzig merchant, was published in that year as a broadsheet, with a five-part setting by Johann Rosenmüller. The written movement (alio modo) in the Orgelbüchlein treats a tune (supra) first published, with the hymn, in Das grosse Cantional: oder Kirchen-Gesangbuch (Darmstadt, 1687). Its author is not identified. Bach’s variation of its second line is found in 1692, of the sixth in 1710, and of the last line in 1711. Witt (No. 660) uses another melody for the hymn (Choralgesange, No. 17), and Bach a third in Cantata 162 (1715)1 .

There is a single Organ movement on the melody.

[6]

N. xv. 119. The 1687 melody is treated in the “Death and the Grave” section of the Orgelbuchlein. The rhythm image is used by Bach invariably to suggest blissful joy, here as in the Preludes “Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn” (N. xv. 9), “O Gott, du frommer Gott” (N. xix. 52; Partita 9), “Gelobet seist du” (N. xv. 15), “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (N. xv. 105), “Jesu, meine Freude” (N. xv. 31), and “Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott” (N. xv. 11). That Bach should introduce the rhythm into a hymn on Death is due to his disregard of the sinister message of the first stanza. He concentrates upon stanza iv’s “joy beyond our telling” and the vision of “wondrous glory” unfolded in stanza vii. The movement is a song of triumph over death, not a dirge for the dead and dying, nor merely instinct with the “tender melancholy” Spitta finds in it.

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 196. The original hymn has eight stanzas. Stanzas v and viii are omitted in the translation.

[1 ] It is printed in Bach’s Chorals, Part II. 434.