Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Jesus, meine Zuversicht. - 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 Works

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Jesus, meine Zuversicht. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Jesus, meine Zuversicht.

lf1393-03_figure_067

Melody: “Jesus, meine Zuversicht”

? Johann Crüger 1653

    • i.

      Jesus Christ, my sure Defence
    • And my Saviour, ever liveth;
    • Knowing this, my confidence
    • Rests upon the hope it giveth,
    • Though the night of death be fraught
    • Still with many an anxious thought.

    • ii.

      Jesus, my Redeemer, lives!
    • I too unto life must waken;
    • He will have me where He is,
    • Shall my courage then be shaken?
    • Shall I fear? Or could the Head
    • Rise and leave its members dead?

    • iii.

      Nay, too closely am I bound
    • Unto Him by hope for ever;
    • Faith’s strong hand the Rock hath found,
    • Grasped it, and will leave it never;
    • Not the ban of death can part
    • From its Lord the trusting heart.
    • * * *

    • vii.

      What now sickens, mourns, and sighs,
    • Christ with Him in glory bringeth;
    • Earthly is the seed and dies,
    • Heavenly from the grave it springeth;
    • Natural is the death we die,
    • Spiritual our life on high.

    • viii.

      Then take comfort, nay, rejoice,
    • For His members Christ will cherish;
    • Fear not, they will know His voice,
    • Though awhile they seem to perish,
    • When the final trump is heard,
    • And the deaf, cold grave is stirred.

    • ix.

      Laugh to scorn the gloomy grave,
    • And at death no longer tremble;
    • For the Lord, who comes to save,
    • Round Him shall His saints assemble,
    • Raising them o’er all their foes,
    • Mortal weakness, fear, and woes.

    • x.

      Only draw away your heart
    • Now from pleasures base and hollow;
    • Would ye there with Christ have part,
    • Here His footsteps ye must follow;
    • Fix your heart beyond the skies,
    • Whither ye yourselves would rise!

    • ? Luise Henriette Electress of Brandenburg (1627-67).     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

The Easter hymn, “Jesus, meine Zuversicht,” attributed to Luise Henriette Electress of Brandenburg, was published, set to Johann Crüger’s (?) melody, in Christoph Runge’s Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653)2 . A reconstruction of the melody (supra) appeared in the Berlin Praxis pietatis melica of the same year. The melody was attributed posthumously to Crüger, though possibly only the reconstruction is by him. Bach uses the Praxis version invariably, in Cantata 145 (1729-30), Choralgesange, No. 208, and the movement infra. Invariably he substitutes G for A as the third note of the second bar of the melody (supra), an innovation found in Freylinghausen (1704). Bach’s treatment of the first bar of the second part of the tune (line 2, bar 1 supra) varies. Only in the Organ movement does he follow Crüger’s version. As his other readings differ in that passage, they may perhaps be regarded as his own. Witt (No. 712) sets the hymn to another tune.

Luise Henriette, to whom the hymn is attributed, was born at the Hague in 1627. She was a granddaughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, wife (1646) of Frederick William the “Great Elector” of Brandenburg, and great-grandmother of Frederick the Great. She died in 1667.

[81]

N. xviii. 69. The movement is in the Clavierbüchlein which Bach made for his wife Anna Magdalena in 1722. As Spitta points out1 , it is a three-part Clavier piece, included in the Clavierbüchlein in order to give practice in the fioriture, which, it may be remarked, are not accurately printed in the Peters and Novello Editions2 . Another ms. of the movement, a “gute alte Abschrift,” is in the Berlin Royal Library.

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 59. The original hymn has ten stanzas, of which iv-vi are omitted in the translation.

[2 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part II. 412, for the Runge form.

[1 ] Vol. i. 594 n.

[2 ] The second beat of the third bar should be marked [Editor: illegible character].