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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot ’. - 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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Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’.

lf1393-03_figure_024

Melody: “Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’ ”

Anon. 1524

    • i.

      These are the holy ten commands,
    • Which came to us from God’s own hands,
    • By Moses, who obeyed His will,
    • On the top of Sinai’s hill.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • ii.

      I am the Lord thy God alone;
    • Of Gods besides thou shalt have none;
    • Thou shalt thyself trust all to Me,
    • And love Me right heartily.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • iii.

      Thou shalt not speak like idle word
    • The name of God Who is thy Lord;
    • As right or good thou shalt not praise
    • Except what God does or says.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • iv.

      Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day,
    • That rest thou and thy household may;
    • From thine own work thou must be free,
    • That God have His work in thee.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • v.

      Honour thou shalt and shalt obey
    • Thy father and thy mother alway;
    • To serve them ready be thy hand,
    • That thou live long in the land.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • vi.

      In wrathfulness thou shalt not kill,
    • Nor hate, nor take revenge for ill,
    • But patience keep and gentle mood,
    • And ev’n to thy foe do good.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • vii.

      Thy marriage-bond thou shalt keep clean,
    • That even thy heart no other mean;
    • Thy life thou must keep pure and free,
    • Temperate, with fine chastity.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • viii.

      Money or goods steal not, nor yet
    • Grow rich by others’ blood and sweat;
    • Open thou wide thy kindly hand
    • To the poor man in thy land.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • ix.

      Thou shalt not lying stories bear,
    • Nor ’gainst thy neighbour falsely swear;
    • His innocence thou shalt rescue,
    • And hide his shame from man’s view.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • x.

      Thy neighbour’s wife or house to win
    • Thou shalt not seek, or ought within;
    • But wish all good to him may be,
    • As thy own heart doth to thee.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • xi.

      To us come these commands, that so
    • Thou, son of man, thy sins mayst know,
    • And with this lesson thy heart fill,
    • That man must live for God’s will.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • xii.

      May Christ our Lord help us in this,
    • For He our mediator is;
    • Our own work is a hopeless thing,
    • Wrath alone all it can bring.
    • Kyrioleis.

    • Martin Luther (1483-1546)     Tr. George Macdonald1 .

Luther’s versification of the Ten Commandments was published first in 1524, with the tune (supra). The latter is an adaptation, probably by Johann Walther, of the melody of the pilgrim song “In Gottes Namen fahren wir2 .” Besides the three Organ movements in which it occurs, Bach uses the melody elsewhere in the accompaniment to the first Chorus of Cantata 77 (c. 1725) and Choralgesänge, No. 66. Bach’s text of the tune is invariable. It is noticeable that he writes G for F as the first note of the fourth line of the stanza (the ninth note of the second line supra). Therein he follows Witt (No. 222).

There are three Organ movements on the melody:

[37]

N. xv. 103. The movement is the first of the Catechism hymns in the Orgelbüchlein. It is one of three there—the others being N. xv. 39, 115—in which Bach evolves the figures of the counterpoint out of the first line of the tune3 . In the present instance the device assists his love of literalness. In the two inner parts that accompany the cantus and on the Pedal he introduces the first melodic period of the tune with constant iteration to suggest the rigidity of rule and dogma1 .

[38]

N. xvi. 42. This and the following movement belong to the Clavierübung, a work in which Bach tended to indulge in symbolism somewhat extravagantly. His purpose here is to illustrate and enforce the idea of law and of man’s bondage to it as a necessity of his moral being. To quote Schweitzer’s penetrating analysis2 : “In a lengthy fantasia each of the separate parts goes its own way, without rhythm, without plan, without theme, without regard for the others. This musical disorder depicts the moral state of the world before the law. Then the law is revealed. It is represented by a majestic canon upon the melody of the Choral, running through the whole movement.” Bach had the same idea before him when he introduced the melody into the opening Chorus of the Cantata, “Du sollst Gott, deinen Herren, lieben” (c. 1725)3 .

[39]

N. xvi. 47. The movement belongs to the shorter set of Clavierübung Preludes. It is a Fughetta, in which a counterpoint upon the first line of the melody is carefully stated ten times.

[1 ]Exotics, p. 84. The original hymn has twelve stanzas.

[2 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part II. 287, for the tune.

[3 ] Spitta, i. 600.

[1 ] I accept this interpretation from Mr Harvey Grace’s illuminating article on the Orgelbuchlein in the Musical Times for October 1, 1920. Schweitzer (ii. 59) speaks of the phrase being repeated ten times “in the Pedal,” once for each Commandment. This is inaccurate.

[2 ] Vol. ii. 59.

[3 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part II. 288.