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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Hilf Gott, dass mir’s gelinge. - 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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Hilf Gott, dass mir’s gelinge.

lf1393-03_figure_051

Melody: “Hilf Gott, dass mir’s gelinge”

Anon. 1545

    • i.

      Help, God, the formar of all thing,
    • That to Thy gloir may be my dyte;
    • Be baith at end and beginning,
    • That I may mak ane sang perfyte
    • Of Jesus Christis Passioun,
    • Sinnaris onlie Saluatioun,
    • As witnes is Thy word in write.
    • * * *

    • iii.

      Jesus, the Fatheris word allone,
    • Discendit in ane Virgin pure,
    • With meruellis greit and mony one,
    • And be Judas, that fals tratour,
    • That Lamb for sober summe was sauld,
    • And gaif His lyfe, for cause He wald
    • Redeme all sinfull Creature.
    • * * *

    • viii.

      That Prince on Croce thay lyftit on hicht
    • For our Redemptioun, that thocht sa lang:
    • He said, I thrist, with all my micht,
    • To saif mankynde fra panis strang.
    • He that all warldis was beforne
    • Come downe of Marie to be borne,
    • For our trespas on Croce He hang.

    • ix.

      Than He His heid culd inclyne,
    • As wrytis Johne, and gaif the Gaist,
    • And of the Croce taine was syne,
    • And laid in graue; bot sune in haist
    • Leuand He rais, on the thrid day,
    • And to His Apostillis did say,
    • To thame appeirand maist and leist.

    • x.

      And syne He did His Apostillis teiche
    • Throw all the warld for to pas,
    • And till all Creature for to preiche,
    • As thay of Him instructit was.
    • Quha bapteist is, and will beleue,
    • Eternall deide sall nocht thame greue,
    • Bot salbe sauit mair and les.
    • * * *

    • xii.

      Ane confortour to us He did send,
    • Quhilk from the Father did proceid,
    • To gyde us trewlie to the end,
    • In inwart thocht and outward deid.
    • Call on the Lord, our gyde and lycht,
    • To leide us in His Law full rycht,
    • And be our help in all our neid.

    • xiii.

      Pray for all men in generall,
    • Suppose thay wirk us richt or wrang:
    • Pray for zour Prince in speciall.
    • Thocht thay be Just or Tyranis strang,
    • Obey; for sa it aucht to be.
    • In presoun for the veritie,
    • Ane faithfull brother maid this sang1 .

    • Heinrich Müller (1527)     Tr. Gude and Godlie Ballatis2 .

This hymn or ballad of the Passion was written by Heinrich Müller—the initial letters of its thirteen stanzas spell “Heinrich Müler.” The last two lines of the last stanza repeat his name, and state that the hymn was written by him in prison . He appears to have been a Lutheran of Nürnberg, imprisoned, circa 1527, by the Duke of Saxony. Released in 1539, he conducted a school at Annaberg until about 1580. The ballad was published as a broadsheet in 1527 and was included in the Rostock Hymn-book of 1531. Luther thought so highly of it that he introduced it into Valentin Babst’s Geistliche Lieder (Leipzig, 1545), the last Hymn-book issued under his supervision. The first of the three melodies (supra) was attached to it there.

The author of the tune is not known. It is found in many forms in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Hymn-books and probably is of secular origin. The earliest approximation to the form in which Bach knew it is found in 1573 (supra). From 1601 the first half of the tune definitely took the form Bach uses. For the second part of the melody he is not consistent. In the Orgelbuchlein he follows the 1573 text (the F sharp that ends his sixth line is as old as 1609). In the Choralgesänge, No. 172, he prefers Crüger’s (1653) text (supra). Witt’s (No. 94) has peculiarities which Bach does not repeat.

[65]

N. xv. 76. The animation of this movement, one of the Passiontide Preludes in the Orgelbüchlein, is hardly congruous to the mood of Müller’s hymn. Influenced by the character of the melody, Bach would appear not to have looked beyond the words “ditty” and “perfect song” in the first stanza. The incessant stream of semiquaver triplets appears to be called into being by the word “frohlich”:

  • Dass ich mög fröhlich heben an
  • Von deinem Wort zu singen.

The low F sharp on the Pedal in the last bar is an emendation by Bach himself. In the Mendelssohn Autograph he wrote1

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[2 ] P. 42. The original hymn has thirteen stanzas, all of which are translated in the Ballatis. The translator interpolates a stanza between v and vi of the German.

[1 ] Spitta, i. 651.