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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele. - 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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Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele.

lf1393-03_figure_090

Melody: “Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele”

Johann Cruger 1649

    • i.

      Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness,
    • Leave the gloomy haunts of sadness,
    • Come into the daylight’s splendour,
    • There with joy thy praises render
    • Unto Him Whose grace unbounded
    • Hath this wondrous banquet founded.
    • High o’er all the heavens He reigneth,
    • Yet to dwell with thee He deigneth.

    • ii.

      Hasten as a bride to meet Him,
    • And with loving reverence greet Him,
    • For with words of life immortal
    • Now He knocketh at thy portal;
    • Haste to ope the gates before Him
    • Saying, while thou dost adore Him
    • “Suffer, Lord, that I receive Thee,
    • And I never more will leave Thee.”
    • * * *

    • iv.

      Ah how hungers all my spirit
    • For the love I do not merit!
    • Oft have I, with sighs fast thronging,
    • Thought upon this food with longing,
    • In the battle well-nigh worsted,
    • For this cup of life have thirsted,
    • For the Friend, who here invites us,
    • And to God Himself unites us.

    • v.

      Now I sink before Thee lowly,
    • Filled with joy most deep and holy,
    • As with trembling awe and wonder
    • On Thy mighty works I ponder,
    • How, by mystery surrounded,
    • Depths no man hath ever sounded
    • None may dare to pierce unbidden
    • Secrets that with Thee are hidden.
    • * * *

    • vii.

      Sun, who all my life dost brighten,
    • Light, who dost my soul enlighten,
    • Joy, the sweetest man e’er knoweth,
    • Fount, whence all my being floweth,
    • At Thy feet I cry, my Maker,
    • Let me be a fit partaker
    • Of this blessed food from heaven,
    • For our good, Thy glory, given.
    • * * *

    • ix.

      Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray Thee,
    • Let me gladly here obey Thee;
    • Never to my hurt invited,
    • Be Thy love with love requited;
    • From this banquet let me measure,
    • Lord, how vast and deep its treasure;
    • Through the gifts Thou here dost give me
    • As Thy guest in heaven receive me.

    • Johann Franck (1618-77)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Johann Franck’s Eucharistic hymn, “Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele,” was first published, with Johann Crüger’s melody (supra), in 1649. Bach uses the melody in Cantata 180 (c. 1740) and in the movement infra. His text of it is practically invariable. Of his variation of bars 4 and 5 (supra) Zahn does not reveal an earlier instance. Witt’s text (No. 308) did not guide him.

[113]

N. xvii. 22. The movement is the fourth of the Eighteen Chorals and, as is invariably the case when the words of the hymn stirred Bach to deep emotion, the cantus is treated very freely. He retards, embellishes, and emphasizes it as if to make it interpret the Holy of Holies of his thoughts. The intimacy which characterizes Bach’s treatment of the melody is inspired by the lines of the last stanza:

  • Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray Thee,
  • .............................................
  • Be Thy love with love requited.

Schumann once wrote to Mendelssohn, who had played the movement to him, that around the cantus “hung winding wreaths of golden leaves, and such blissfulness was breathed from within it, that you yourself [Mendelssohn] avowed that if life was bereft of all hope and faith, this one Choral would renew them for you. I was silent and went away dazed into God’s acre, feeling acutely pained that I could lay no flower on his urn1 .”

B.G. xl. 181 prints a movement on the melody whose genuineness is doubtful. The text of the second part of the tune differs conspicuously from that which Bach uses elsewhere. Five mss. of it are extant in the Schelble, Hauser, and other Collections. It is also attributed to Gottfried August Homilius (1714-85).

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 93. The original hymn has nine stanzas, of which iii, vi, viii are omitted in the translation.

[1 ] Quoted in Parry, Bach, p. 539.