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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit. - 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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Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit.

    • i.

      ’Tis sure that awful time will come,
    • When Christ, the Lord of glory,
    • Shall from His throne give men their doom,
    • And change things transitory:
    • This will strike dumb each impious jeer,
    • When all things are consumed by fire,
    • And heaven and earth dissolved.

    • ii.

      The wakening trumpet all shall hear,
    • The dead shall then be raised,
    • And ’fore the judgment-seat appear,
    • On the right and left hand placed:
    • Those in the body at that time
    • Shall, in a manner most sublime,
    • Endure a transmutation.
    • * * *

    • iv.

      Woe, then, to him that hath despised
    • God’s word and revelation,
    • And here done nothing but devised
    • His lust’s gratification;
    • Then, how confounded will he stand,
    • When he must go, at Christ’s command,
    • To everlasting torment.

    • v.

      When all with awe shall stand around
    • To hear their doom allotted,
    • O may my worthless name be found
    • In the Lamb’s book unblotted:
    • Grant me that firm, unshaken faith,
    • That Thou, my Saviour, by Thy death
    • Hast purchased my salvation.

    • vi.

      Before Thou shalt as Judge appear,
    • Plead as my Intercessor,
    • And on that awful day declare
    • That I am Thy confessor;
    • Then bring me to that blessed place,
    • Where I shall see with open face
    • The glory of Thy kingdom.

    • vii.

      O Jesus, shorten the delay,
    • And hasten Thy salvation,
    • That we may see that glorious day
    • Produce a new creation:
    • Lord Jesus, come, our Judge and King,
    • Come, change our mournful notes, to sing
    • Thy praise for ever: Amen.

    • Bartholomäus Ringwaldt (1532-c. 1600)     Tr. John Christian Jacobi1 .

The melody, “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein,” generally known as “Luther’s Hymn,” is said to have been written down by the Reformer after hearing a travelling artisan sing it. Its original is the secular song “Wach auf, wach auf, du schöne,” whose melody (supra) Valentin Triller in 1555 (Ein Schlesich singebüchlein aus Göttlicher schrifft) appropriated to his hymn “Merk auf, merk auf, du schöne.” Luther’s melody is also associated with Bartholomäus Ringwaldt’s Advent hymn, “Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit” (1582). In the Organ movement (infra) the names of both hymns are attached to the tune. It occurs also in the Christmas Oratorio (1734), No. 59, Cantata 70 (1716), and Choralgesange, No. 262.

Bach’s text of the melody is invariable and differs, as to the third and fourth phrases (line 2 of the 1535 melody supra), from the 1535 form. His variants are found in late sixteenth century texts and also in Witt (No. 293). The third phrase of the tune in Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 52, it may be noted, occurs in a 1598 text.

The melody is treated in a single Organ movement:

[102]

N. xviii. 80. The semiquaver subject suggests that Bach had before him particularly the first stanza of Luther’s hymn. But it cannot be stated positively that the addition of “Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit” to the title of the movement is without significance. Bach occasionally gives a festive treatment to the Advent tunes in anticipation of Christmas. Ringwaldt’s hymn has a particular relation to the Second Advent, and it is not improbable that Bach had in mind here its last stanza.

Four copies of the movement survive, in the Fischhof and Oley mss. P. vii. 91 prints a variant reading. Two mss. of it are extant, one of them in a volume of Organ Chorals attributed to Bach, in the Berlin Royal Library, another in Schelble’s hand.

[1 ]Moravian Hymn-book, ed. 1877, No. 1215. The original hymn has seven stanzas.