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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) Jesu, meine Freude. - Bach's Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works
Return to Title Page for Bach’s Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ WorksThe Online Library of LibertyA project of Liberty Fund, Inc.Jesu, meine Freude. - 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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Jesu, meine Freude. Melody: “Jesu, meine Freude” Johann Cruger 1653
Johann Franck’s hymn, “Jesu, meine Freude,” was published, to Johann Crüger’s melody (supra), in 1653. Bach uses it in Cantatas 12, 64, 81, 87 (c. 1723-35?), and a Motett (1723). A collation of his texts proves Bach to have used at different times three forms of the melody. In the Organ movements infra and, as far as it goes, in a fragment upon the melody in his son Friedemann’s Clavierbüchlein (P. v. 112) he follows Witt’s (No. 337) version of the 1653 text. In the Motett, Cantata 81, and Choralgesänge, No. 195, he prefers a version of the second and penultimate phrases of the tune not found in print, according to Zahn (No. 8032), before 1730. As the Motett and Cantata were composed in 1723-24, this version of the melody may be attributed to Bach himself, a deduction supported by the circumstance that it is printed for the first time in the Hymn-book (1730) of his Leipzig contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann. In Cantatas 64 and 87, the latter of which is assigned conjecturally to 1735, Bach employs a third form, whose source is not disclosed, the first part of which reverts to his earlier pre-Leipzig use. The melody is treated in two Organ movements: [74]N. xv. 31. The movement is among the Christmas pieces of the Orgelbüchlein, an act of personal devotion to the Child Saviour. Bach sets the melody in the significant rhythm which has been considered in the Preludes, “Alle Menschen” and “Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn.” [75]N. xviii. 64. The movement is a Fantasia, which Schweitzer1 regards as a youthful work. It does not seem to be related to any particular stanza of the hymn. There are resemblances, however, between the ⅜ section and Bach’s setting of stanza v in the Motett on the hymn. Seven mss. of it are extant in the Kirnberger, Voss, Fischhof, and other Collections. A variant reading is in B.G. xl. 155, from the Schelble-Gleichauf mss. [1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 151. The original hymn has six stanzas, of which iii is omitted in the translation. [1 ] Vol. i. 293. |
