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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit. - 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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Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit.

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Melody:Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit

1525

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Christe, aller Welt Trost

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Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist

    • i.

      O Lord the Father for evermore!
    • We Thy wondrous grace adore;
    • We confess Thy power, all worlds upholding.
    • Have mercy, Lord.
    • ii.

      O Christ, our Hope alone,
    • Who with Thy blood didst for us atone;
    • O Jesu! Son of God!
    • Our Redeemer! our Advocate on high!
    • Lord, to Thee alone in our need we cry,
    • Have mercy, Lord.
    • iii.

      Holy Lord, God the Holy Ghost!
    • Who of life and light the fountain art,
    • With faith sustain our heart,
    • That at the last we hence in peace depart.
    • Have mercy, Lord.
    • Anon.     Tr. Arthur T. Russell1 .

The Litany is a recast of the “Kyrie summum bonum: Kyrie fons bonitatis,” printed, apparently at Wittenberg, in 1541. The melody is a literal adaptation of the Latin plainsong. It is printed supra from the Teutsch Kirchenamt (Erfurt, 1525), where it is set to other words. Bach’s melodic text, in Choralgesänge, No. 225, and the Organ movements infra, is invariable and follows the original (1525), to which Witt (No. 187) also conforms.

[87] [88]

N. xvi. 28-38. The two sets of three movements, the one long (N. xvi. 28-35), the other short (N. xvi. 36-38), are in the Clavierübung. Schweitzer points out2 that the majority of the long movements in the Clavierübung are worked out to such excessive length as to diminish the impression they would otherwise make. The criticism does not apply to the “Kyrie.” The longer set is developed in the style of Pachelbel rather than that of the Choral Fantasia, with magnificent tonal effect. The shorter set is of a different texture, written for the manuals only, and in another mood.

[1 ]Psalms and Hymns, No. 14. The original hymn has three stanzas.

[2 ] Vol. ii. 67.