This page was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Angela Watters.
Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut BWV 113 / BC A 122
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, August 20, 1724
This cantata, Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut BWV 113 (Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good), was heard for the first time on August 20, 1724, in Leipzig. It is part of Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas; it originated a few weeks after he began work on the cycle. Like most of its companion works, it is based on a single chorale, in this case, Bartholomäus Ringwaldt’s 1588 poem. In hymnaries of the period it appears beneath the rubric “Von der Buße und Beichte” (Of penance and confession). Only occasionally does it show a connection with the twelfth Sunday after Trinity.The cantata libretto follows the chorale text fairly closely. As usual for the chorale cantata annual cycle, the first and last strophes were adopted without change, while most of the remaining strophes were reshaped, more or less freely, to become recitatives and arias. For the most part, the librettist holds to Ringwaldt’s sequence of strophes, so that the eight-strophe chorale becomes an eight-movement cantata. As just mentioned, the first strophe is unchanged:
Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut,
Du Brunnquell aller Gnaden,
Sieh doch, wie ich in meinem Mut
Mit Schmerzen bin beladen
Und in mir hab der Pfeile viel,
Die im Gewissen ohne Ziel
Mich armen Sünder drücken.
Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good,
You wellspring of all graces,
But see how I in my spirit
Am burdened with sorrows
And have many arrows in me
That in my conscience, without end,
Oppress me, poor sinner.
The libretto continues with the second strophe, also in its original wording, a highly unusual and in fact unique case in Bach's chorale cantatas:
Erbarm dich mein in solcher Last,
Nimm sie aus meinem Herzen,
Dieweil du sie gebüßet hast
Am Holz mit Todesschmerzen,
Auf daß ich nicht für großem Weh
In meinen Sünden untergeh,
Noch ewiglich verzage.
Have mercy upon me with such burden,
Take it from my heart,
Since you have atoned for it
On the tree with pains of death,
So that I do not in great pain
Perish in my sins
Nor despair in eternity.
In shaping the third movement, the unidentified librettist finally turns to free poetry. Yet even here he relies upon his model and begins his aria text with the first verse of the third chorale strophe:
Fürwahr, wenn mir das kömmet ein,
Daß ich nicht recht vor Gott gewandelt
Und täglich wider ihn mißhandelt,
So quält mich Zittern, Furcht und Pein.
Ich weiß, daß mir das Herze bräche,
Wenn mir dein Wort nicht Trost verspräche.
In truth, when it occurs to me
That I have not walked properly before God
And have daily trespassed against him,
Then trembling, fear, and pain torment me.
I know that my heart would break
If your word did not promise me comfort.
The fourth movement is a combination of chorale and recitative in which the chorale strophe of the sixteenth century is interleaved with free poetry of the eighteenth. In order to ensure iambic meter throughout, the first verse of Ringwaldt’s fourth strophe is slightly retouched: in place of the original “Aber dein heilsam Wort, das macht” (But your healing word that makes) there stands “Jedoch dein heilsam Wort, das macht” (However, your healing word that makes). The second aria is quite distant from the chorale text, with its rather generalized statement:
Jesus nimmt die Sünder an:
Süßes Wort voll Trost und Leben!
Er schenkt die wahre Seelenruh
Und rufet jedem tröstlich zu:
Dein Sünd ist dir vergeben.
Jesus receives the sinners:
Sweet word full of consolation and life!
He gives the true soul’s rest
And calls to each one gently,
Your sin is for you forgiven!
In contrast, the ensuing recitative displays a wealth of references and cross-connections, harking back to the beginning of the previous aria and building a link between the opening chorale strophe and the Gospel reading for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity, the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee. It begins:
Der Heiland nimmt die Sünder an:
Wie lieblich klingt das Wort in meinen Ohren!
Er ruft: Kommt her zu mir,
Die ihr mühselig und beladen,
Kommt her zum Brunnquell aller Gnaden,
Ich hab euch mir zu Freunden auserkoren!
Auf dieses Wort will ich zu dir
Wie der bußfertge Zöllner treten
Und mit demütgem Geist “Gott sei mir gnädig” beten.
The savior receives sinners:
How lovely sounds that word in my ears!
He calls: Come here to me
All you who labor and are burdened,
Come here to the wellspring of all graces,
I have selected you as my friends!
At this word I want to come to you
Like the penitent tax collector
And pray with humble spirit “God be gracious to me.”
The “Gott sei mir gnädig” echoes the close of the Sunday Gospel reading from Luke 18; the words of the Lord, “Kommet her zu mir alle die ihr mühselig und beladen seid; ich will euch erquicken” (Come here to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened; I will refresh you), is taken from Matthew 11:28. Near the end of the recitative, an allusion to David and Manasseh and the forgiveness of sins granted to them refers to accounts in Samuel and Chronicles; it is also a quote from the fifth strophe of Ringwaldt’s chorale. The last aria begins, like the first, with the first line of the associated chorale strophe and then continues with free poetry. The librettist replaces Ringwaldt’s humble lines
Ach Herr, mein Gott, vergib mirs doch
Um deines Namens willen,
Und tu in mir das schwere Joch
Der Übertretung stillen
Ah Lord, my God, but forgive me
For the sake of your name.
And let the heavy yoke of my
Transgressions be laid to rest
with disproportionate and severe vocabulary:
Ach Herr, mein Gott, vergib mirs doch,
Womit ich deinen Zorn erreget,
Zerbrich das schwere Sündenjoch,
Das mir der Satan auferleget.
Ah Lord, my God, but forgive me
For that with which I have aroused your anger,
Destroy the heavy yoke of sin
That Satan has laid upon me.
With the closing strophe of his chorale “Stärk mich mit deinem Freudengeist” (Strengthen me with your spirit of joy), the sixteenth-century poet has the last word, so to speak.
As usual in his chorale cantatas, Bach’s composition of this libretto is dominated by its opening movement. In principle it follows the model for most of the chorale cantata annual cycle: presentation of the chorale melody in the soprano; chordal or contrapuntal subordination of the other voices; and a motivically cohesive orchestral texture that serves as a unifying element. Rather strangely, this arrangement of one of the two sixteenth-century melodies for Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist (When the hour of my death is at hand) reduces the function of the lower voices to that of simple harmonization without contrapuntal or even motet-like ambitions, while it grants the soprano a modest ornamentation of the chorale melody. The instrumental component works on two different levels: the cohort of string instruments is led from the first to the last measure by the concertante first violin, while the second violin and viola are relegated to minor roles. Except for the choral sections, the two oboi d’amore sound a lamenting motive derived from the chorale melody; periodically, the basso continuo integrates the two with its solemn rhythm, and the duo expands to a trio. The last line, “Mich armen Sünder drücken” (Oppress me, a poor sinner), suggestively draws these disparate elements together for a brief time.
The second movement is presented as a strict chorale trio, in which the alto performs the chorale melody in large note values while the violins play in unison and the continuo bass provides figuration and imitative counterpoint. In the first aria, episodes full of tormenting chromaticism counteract the efforts of the bass voice and obbligato oboi d’amore to create a pastoral idyll. In the second aria, the obbligato transverse flute is permitted unimpeded virtuoso display; the imperiousness of its cascading tones is justified by the text “Süßes Wort voll Trost und Leben!” Against this background, the avoidance of any obbligato instruments in the duet “Ach Herr, mein Gott, vergib mirs doch” has an all the more vivid effect, as the voices’ urgent plea is lent emphasis and persuasive power through episodes of imitation and extended parallels. The simple, four-part chorale provides a calming conclusion to this work so unexpectedly rich in contrasts.