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Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott BWV 101 / BC A 118
Tenth Sunday after Trinity, August 13, 1724
This cantata, Nimm von uns Herr, du treuer Gott BWV 101 (Take from us, Lord, you faithful God), belongs to Johann Sebastian Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas, largely produced during his second year at Leipzig. This composition is assigned to the tenth Sunday after Trinity and was performed for the first time on August 13, 1724. The Gospel reading for the day, in Luke 19, gives the account of how Jesus drove the moneylenders from the Temple and predicted the destruction of Jerusalem.However, the cantata’s text is based only in small part upon the Sunday Gospel reading; instead, as is typical for Bach’s chorale cantatas, it is drawn from a main hymn for the Sunday in question: the chorale Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, written by Martin Moller during an epidemic of the plague in 1584. The seven movements of the cantata correspond to the seven strophes of the chorale. As seen so often in Bach’s chorale cantatas, the opening and closing strophes of the chorale are adopted literally, while the internal strophes are revised to become recitatives and arias, retaining some or all of the original chorale text interleaved with freely versified lines. Who it was who undertook this revision, whether a single author alone or with a team of assistants, remains unknown. Moreover, the term “free poetry” can be used only qualifiedly; recent scholarship has led to the insight that the basic statements and significant vocabulary in what appears to be free poetry in fact are drawn from the Bible or the hymnary.1
The opening strophe of Moller’s chorale makes reference to actual events in 1584, although so generalized that the chorale is found beneath the rubric “Im allgemeiner Not” (In general distress) in hymn collections of the era:
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott,
Die schwere Straf und große Not,
Die wir mit Sünden ohne Zahl
Verdienet haben allzumal.
Behüt für Krieg und teurer Zeit,
Für Seuche, Feu’r und großem Leid.
Take from us, Lord, you faithful God,
The severe punishment and great distress
That we, with sins without number,
Have altogether deserved.
Protect us from war and times of famine,
From pestilence, fire, and great suffering.
Sin as the root of all evil is also the theme of the second movement, an aria that freely takes up ideas from the second chorale strophe as well as the Sunday Gospel reading. In Moller it reads:
Erbarm dich deiner bösen Knecht,
Wir bitten Gnad und nicht das Recht;
Denn so du, Herr, den rechten Lohn
Uns geben wollst nach unserm Tun,
So müßt die ganze Welt vergehen,
Und könnt kein Mensch vor dir bestehn.
Have mercy upon your evil servants,
We pray for grace and not for justice;
For if you, Lord, wanted to give us
The just reward for our deeds,
Then the entire world would have to perish,
And no person could stand before you.
From this, the cantata aria becomes:
Handle nicht nach deine Rechten
Mit uns bösen Sündenknechten,
Laß das Schwert der Feinde ruhn.
Höchster, höre unser Flehen,
Daß wir nicht durch sündlich Tun
Wie Jerusalem vergehen.
Do not deal according to your rights
With us evil servants of sin,
Let the sword of our enemies rest.
Highest, hear our plea
That we not, by sinful action,
Perish like Jerusalem.
The fourth movement, again an aria, hews more closely to the chorale’s original wording. “Warum willst du so zornig sein / Über uns arme Würmelein?” (Why will you be so wrathful / Against us poor little worms?) begins the chorale strophe, and it ends, “Es ist ja vor dein’m Angesicht / Unsre Schwachheit verborgen nicht” (Before your countenance / Our weakness is not hidden). The libretto reads as follows:
Warum willst du so zornig sein?
Es schlagen deines Eifers Flammen
Schon über unserm Haupt zusammen.
Ach stelle doch die Strafen ein
Und trag aus väterlicher Huld
Mit unserm schwachen Fleisch Geduld.
Why will you be so wrathful?
Already the flames of your zeal strike
Together upon our heads.
Ah, put punishment aside
And have, out of fatherly indulgence,
Patience with our weak flesh.
The two movements that frame this aria (movements 3 and 5) are recitatives; they take the form that prevails throughout the chorale cantata annual cycle. All lines of text in the chorale strophes are adopted, but they are expanded with interpolated lines of free poetry. With regard to the third movement, Moller’s strophe begins with the lines:
Ach Herr Gott, durch die Treue dein
Mit Trost und Rettung uns erschein.
Beweis an uns dein’ große Gnad
Und straf uns nicht auf frischer Tat.
Ah, Lord God, through your faithfulness
Appear to us with comfort and deliverance.
Reveal to us your great grace,
And do not punish us in the very act.
The cantata text here reads:
Ach Herr Gott, durch die Treue dein
Wird unser Land in Fried und Ruhe sein.
Wenn uns ein Unglückswetter droht,
So rufen wir,
Barmherziger Gott, zu dir,
In solcher Not:
Mit Trost und Rettung uns erschein.
Du kannst dem feindlichen Zerstören
Durch deine Macht und Hilfe wehren.
Beweis an uns deine große Gnad
Und straf uns nicht auf frischer Tat.
Ah, Lord God, through your faithfulness
Our land will enjoy peace and repose.
Should a tempest of misfortune threaten us,
Then we will call,
Merciful God, to you
In such need:
Appear to us with comfort and deliverance.
You can repel the enemy’s destruction
Through your might and assistance.
Reveal to us your great grace,
And do not punish us in the very act.
In a similar fashion, the fifth movement, whose text begins “Die Sünd hat uns verderbet sehr” (Sin has greatly corrupted us), is reshaped to its new purpose as a recitative. In the sixth movement, an aria whose text begins “Gedenk an Jesu bittern Tod” (Think upon Jesus’s bitter death), only a few lines were taken from the chorale strophe, as in the fourth movement. As usual, the seventh and concluding movement is the unchanged final chorale strophe, “Leit uns mit deiner rechten Hand” (Lead us with your righteous hand).
What is particularly striking about Bach’s composition of this rather conventional libretto are the unusual proportions of the opening movement. The cantus firmus Vater unser im Himmelreich in the soprano in long note values; motet-like counterpoint in the alto, tenor, and bass; and an independent concerted orchestral part with three each of strings and oboes: all this requires more than 260 measures, which cannot be performed particularly quickly despite the prescribed alla breve meter. It is hardly surprising that Bach’s oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, copied out this impressive movement in which the motet-like element predominates and probably performed it in Halle.
The second movement, “Handle nicht nach deinen Rechten,” is set as a tenor aria with obbligato violin or flute. There is a remarkable opposition between the gestures of supplication in the text and the defiant self-confidence of the distinctive instrumental part. The third movement—the first recitative, for soprano and basso continuo—sharply distinguishes the original chorale verses, accompanied by an ostinato figure in the continuo, from the interpolated, freely versified lines of recitative. The chorale verses are performed strictly in
4 meter, while the recitative lines, notated in
4 , are performed more freely, following the rhythms of speech.
Rage and agitation on the one hand, clemency and patience on the other characterize the multifarious musical trajectory of the bass aria “Warum willst du so zornig sein?” The tight instrumental ritornello for three oboes, to be performed Vivace, is clearly derived from the text “Es schlagen deines Eifers Flammen / Schon über unserm Haupt zusammen” (Already the flames of your zeal strike / Together upon our heads). Immediately upon the first entrance of the voice and again a short time later, the ritornello is interrupted by a calming figure marked Andante that intensifies concern of the “Warum willst du so zornig sein?” and highlights the chorale melody by the voice. A turn for the better seems to be at hand with the verse “Ach stelle doch die Strafen ein”: the chorale melody is heard polyphonically in the instruments, while the voice continues with its text urging mercy and patience. The return to the instrumental version of the beginning casts doubt on the plea’s success. The third movement’s contrast between a tempo performance of chorale lines and freer delivery of recitative interpolations is also heard in the fifth movement, where the composer does without the change in meter in the earlier movement.
The next to last movement, a duet for alto and soprano, features a delicate texture and intensive text interpretation. Obbligato parts for transverse flute, oboe da caccia, and continuo fill out the texture to a full five voices. Bach was unusually precise in designating the flute part as he did; this shows that he had arrived at a thoroughly exact implementation of musical components for this duet and regarded the textual statement “Gedenk an Jesu bittern Tod” to be the central concern of the entire cantata libretto. A rather simply harmonized four-part chorale, “Leit uns mit deiner rechten Hand,” leads out of the otherworldliness of the hovering
8 meter and back to reality. It is enlivened only by a brief harmonic outburst prompted by the mention of “des Teufels List” (the devil’s deceit).