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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott. - 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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Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.

lf1393-03_figure_026

Melody:Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott

Martin Luther 1535

    • i.

      A sure stronghold our God is He,
    • A trusty shield and weapon;
    • Our help He’ll be and set us free
    • From every ill can happen.
    • That old malicious foe
    • Means us deadly woe;
    • Armed with might from hell
    • And deepest craft as well,
    • On earth is not his fellow.
    • ii.

      Through our own force we nothing can,
    • Straight were we lost for ever;
    • But for us fights the proper Man,
    • By God sent to deliver.
    • Ask ye Who this may be?
    • Jesus Christ is He,
    • Of Sabaoth Lord,
    • Sole God to be adored—
    • ’Tis He must win the battle.
    • iii.

      And were the world with devils filled,
    • All eager to devour us,
    • Our souls to fear should little yield,
    • They cannot overpower us.
    • Their dreaded Prince no more
    • Harms us as of yore;
    • Look grim as he may,
    • Doomed is his ancient sway,
    • A word can overthrow him.
    • iv.

      Still shall they leave that Word His might,
    • And yet no thanks shall merit;
    • Still is He with us in the fight,
    • By His good gifts and Spirit.
    • E’en should they take our life,
    • Wealth, name, child, or wife—
    • Though all these be gone,
    • Yet nothing have they won,
    • God’s kingdom ours abideth.
    • Martin Luther (1483-1546)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Luther’s hymn is a free translation of Psalm 46 and probably was written for the Diet of Speyer in 1529. The tune was adapted by Luther, certainly from the Roman Gradual. Words and melody were published together in 1531 and again in Klug’s Wittenberg Hymn-book in 1535. Bach uses the tune in Cantata 80 (1730); Choralgesänge, Nos. 74-5; and the movement infra. Only in the Organ movement does he exactly follow the 1535 text in the fifth line of the melody (line 2 supra). Witt’s (No. 482) text shows the same fidelity to the original.

[42]

N. xviii. 30. Observe how triumphantly Bach brings out on the Pedal (p. 32, bars 2-9) two lines of stanza ii:

    • Er heist Jesu Christ,
    • Der Herr Sabaoth.
    • Jesus Christ is He,
    • Of Sabaoth Lord.

Copies of the movement are among the Kirnberger, Krebs, and Walther mss.

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 124. The original hymn has four stanzas.