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Subject Area: Music
Subject Area: Religion

Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten. - 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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Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten.

lf1393-03_figure_102

Melody: “Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten”

Georg Neumark 1657

    • i.

      If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
    • And hope in Him through all thy ways,
    • He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
    • And bear thee through the evil days.
    • Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
    • Builds on the rock that nought can move.

    • ii.

      What can these anxious cares avail thee,
    • These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
    • What can it help, if thou bewail thee
    • O’er each dark moment as it flies?
    • Our cross and trials do but press
    • The heavier for our bitterness.

    • iii.

      Only be still and wait His leisure
    • In cheerful hope, with heart content
    • To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
    • And all-deserving love hath sent,
    • Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
    • To Him Who chose us for His own.

    • iv.

      He knows the time for joy, and truly
    • Will send it when He sees it meet,
    • When He hath tried and purged thee throughly
    • And finds thee free from all deceit;
    • He comes to thee all unaware
    • And makes thee own His loving care.

    • v.

      Nor think amid the heat of trial
    • That God hath cast thee off unheard,
    • That He whose hopes meet no denial
    • Must surely be of God preferred;
    • Time passes and much change doth bring,
    • And sets a bound to everything.

    • vi.

      All are alike before the Highest.
    • ’Tis easy to our God, we know,
    • To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
    • To make the rich man poor and low;
    • True wonders still by Him are wrought
    • Who setteth up and brings to nought.

    • vii.

      Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
    • So do thine own part faithfully,
    • And trust His word; though undeserving,
    • Thou yet shalt find it true for thee—
    • God never yet forsook at need
    • The soul that trusted Him indeed.

    • Georg Neumark (1621-81)     Tr. Catherine Winkworth1 .

Georg Neumark’s consolatory hymn, “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten,” was first published, words and melody (supra), in 1657. Bach uses the tune in Cantatas 21, 27, 84, 88, 93, 166, 179, 197 (1714-c. 1740); Choralgesänge, No. 367; and the movements infra. His text is invariable. The E flat for E natural as the third note of the second phrase dates from 1682. In the second half of the tune he invariably writes A for B flat as the first note, and C for B flat as the seventh note of the second line supra, while his closing phrase differs from the original. In all these details he follows Witt (No. 553).

There are four Organ movements on the melody:

[131]

N. xv. 117. The movement is the last of the “In Time of Trouble” section of the Orgelbüchlein, and is placed there by Bach in order to end upon a note of confidence. For that reason he introduces the rhythm of joy which the thought of God’s nearness and watchfulness ever roused in him (cf. “In dich hab’ ich gehoffet, Herr,” and “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen”). The movement particularly illustrates the first stanza:

  • Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
  • Builds on the rock that nought can move.

[132]

N. xvi. 6. The movement, No. 3 of the Schubler Chorals, is an arrangement of a setting of the fourth stanza of Neumark’s hymn in Cantata 93 (? 1728)1 . In the Cantata the cantus is played by Violins and Violas in unison, while the part allotted to the “dextra” manual is a Duetto for Soprano and Alto. The “sinistra” manual plays the original Continuo. As in the Orgelbüchlein movement Bach uses the rhythm of joy:

  • He knows the time for joy, and truly
  • Will send it when He sees it meet.

[133]

N. xix. 21. The movement stands in contrast to the others upon the melody, not in mood, but in the means by which Bach expresses it. The animated semiquaver passages accompanying the cantus express whole-hearted joy. In the B.G. Edition the movement ends with a simple four-part setting of the melody. It is not reproduced in the Novello Edition, but will be found in P. v. 57. Copies are among Kirnberger’s, Voss’, Westphal’s, Fischhof’s, and Forkel’s mss.

[134]

N. xix. 22. This short, intimate movement is found in Wilhelm Friedemann’s (1720) and Anna Magdalena’s (1722) Clavierbuchlein. It is also among the Kirnberger, Oley, and Schelble mss. Bach probably gave it to his son and wife as an exercise in playing fioriture. But, as in “Wenn wir in hochsten Nöthen sein,” his reflective treatment of the cantus reveals the intimacy of its appeal to his religious feelings.

The movement is extracted from a longer one, printed in P. v. 111. The latter includes the cantus, as in N. xix. 22, with a prelude of nine bars; an interlude of two bars between lines } and } of the melody; an interlude of five bars before the second part of the tune; and a postlude of four bars to conclude it. No doubt the movement was written for Church use, and Spitta1 attributes it to the early years of the Arnstadt period, in view of its evidence of Bohm’s influence. There are two mss. of the movement, one in Schelble’s hand, the other in a collection of Organ Chorals attributed to Bach, in the Berlin Royal Library.

[1 ]Chorale Book for England, No. 134. The original hymn has seven stanzas.

[1 ] See Bach’s Chorals, Part II. 321.

[1 ] Vol. i. 313.