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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Christ, der du bist der helle Tag. - 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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Christ, der du bist der helle Tag.

lf1393-03_figure_010

Melody: “Christ, der du bist der helle Tag”

Anon. 1568

    • i.

      Lord Christ, Thou art the heavenly Light
    • Who dost disperse the shades of night.
    • All radiant, Thou, the Father’s Son,
    • Dost spread the brightness of His throne.

    • ii.

      O dearest Lord, e’er guard our sleep,
    • From foes’ assault our slumbers keep,
    • And let us find in Thee our rest,
    • Nor be by Satan’s wiles opprest.

    • iii.

      E’en though our weary eye-lids fall,
    • O keep our hearts true to Thy call.
    • Above us stretch Thy sheltering hand,
    • Lest Sin or Shame our dreams should brand.

    • iv.

      We pray Thee, Jesus, Christ and Lord,
    • ’Gainst Satan’s cunning help afford;
    • May he whose fell hosts camp around
    • Ne’er drag us with him to the ground.

    • v.

      Sure, ’tis Thy heart’s most precious Blood
    • Has won our souls Thy brotherhood;
    • And so indeed the Father meant
    • Ere to our world Thyself He sent.

    • vi.

      O set Thine angels round our bed,
    • And may our thoughts to Thee be led;
    • That guarded so, north, east, south, west,
    • From Satan’s lures we find sure rest.

    • vii.

      Safe in Thy care so shall we sleep,
    • While wakeful angels watch do keep.
    • O God Eternal, Three in One,
    • For ever may Thy praises run.

    • Erasmus Alberus (c. 1500-53)     Tr. C. S. T.1

[21]

N. xix. 36. These “Choralvariationen,” it is generally agreed, are a youthful work written while Bach was under the influence of Böhm. Spitta assigns their composition to circa 1701-2, when Bach was in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, resident at Lüneburg, and therefore in contact with Böhm, who was organist there1 . Schweitzer2 points out that the number of Variations corresponds to the number of stanzas in the hymn. But the inference that each Variation pictures the corresponding stanza does not survive examination. It is difficult to imagine Bach tempted to distinguish in seven pictures moods so placid and invariable as the hymn maintains. He is not even moved, as in maturer years he might have been, by references to Satan and the angels; though the convolutions of the accompanying figure in Variations II, IV, VI may have been prompted by the image of the Serpent. On the other hand, it need not follow that the numerical correspondence between the hymn stanzas and the Variations is fortuitous. The opening broad and simple treatment of the melody looks like a statement of the cantus as a preliminary to singing the first stanza. The remaining movements may have been designed as improvisations between the stanzas. They are not in the ordinary sense Variations at all, but movements in Fantasia form written for the two-manualed “Pedalflugel.” The Pedal is introduced only in the last (seventh) Variation and is marked “con Pedale se piace” (i.e. ad libitum).

The text of the Variations in Peters’ edition was printed from a ms. once the possession of Forkel. Copies also exist in the Hauser Collection. Naumann records (1893) that the Autograph was “formerly” in the possession of Capellmeister Guhr.

[1 ] The original hymn has seven stanzas.

[1 ] Vol. i. 213.

[2 ] Vol. i. 282.