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Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 116 / BC A 164
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity, November 26, 1724
This cantata, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 116 (You prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ), was first performed at the end of November 1724, the twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Trinity and thus the end of the church year. Like its sibling works in Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas, it is based on a chorale of the same name that appears in hymnaries of the period under the heading “In allgemeiner Not” (In universal hardship) and with the special designation “Zur Zeit des Krieges um Frieden zu bitten” (In time of war to pray for peace). In older hymnals this poem is ascribed to Ludwig Helmbold. However, the author of this seven-strophe hymn, first documented in 1601, is Jakob Ebert, who was born in 1549 in Spottau, Silesia, and who died in 1615 at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he first was active as a professor of Hebrew and later taught ethics and, finally, theology.As is usually the case in Bach’s chorale cantata cycle, only the first and last strophes of Ebert’s chorale found their way into the cantata libretto in their original form. The internal strophes were more or less freely adapted by an unidentified librettist to become recitatives and arias. Accordingly, the first strophe remained unchanged:
Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ,
Wahr’ Mensch und wahrer Gott,
Ein starker Nothelfer du bist
Im Leben und im Tod.
Drum wir allein
Im Namen dein
Zu deinem Vater schreien.
You prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ,
True human and true God,
A strong helper in distress you are,
In life and in death.
Therefore do we,
In your name alone,
To your Father cry.
It is clear here—and more so in the strophes that follow—that hardship and the dangers of war are closely related to sin and punishment. Ebert’s second strophe indicates this at the end:
Recht große Not uns stößet an
Von Krieg und Ungemach,
Daraus uns niemand helfen kann,
Denn du; drum führ die Sach;
Dein’ Vater bitt,
Daß er ja nit
Im Zorn mit uns woll’ fahren.
Truly great distress oppresses us
From war and hardship,
Out of which no one can help us
But you; therefore, take charge of things;
Ask your Father
That he certainly not
Wish to deal with us in rage.
In the cantata’s first aria, derived from this, the text begins with the judge of the world, formulated severely and rather dogmatically:
Ach unaussprechlich ist die Not
Und des erzürnten Richters Dräuen!
Kaum, daß wir noch in dieser Angst,
Wie du, o Jesu, selbst verlangst,
Zu Gott in deinem Namen schreien.
Ah, unspeakable is the distress
And the enraged judge’s threats!
Scarcely in this anguish can we,
As you, O Jesus, yourself require,
Cry out to God in your name.
The meaning of Ebert’s third strophe is also changed. Its plea is simple:
Gedenk, Herr, itzund an dein Amt,
Daß du ein Friedfürst bist,
Und hilf uns gnädig allesamt
Itzund zu dieser Frist;
Laß uns hinfort
Dein göttlich Wort
Im Fried noch länger schallen.
Be mindful, Lord, now of your office,
That you are a prince of peace
And graciously help us every one
Now at this very time;
Grant that for us henceforth
Your divine word
May resound still longer in peace.
Here the cantata librettist sees fit once again to stray from his exemplar and introduce a note of crisis of faith into his recitative:
Gedenke doch,
O Jesu, daß du noch
Ein Fürst des Friedens heißest!
Aus Liebe wolltest du dein Wort uns senden.
Will sich dein Herz auf einmal von uns wenden,
Der du so große Hülfe sonst beweisest?
But remember,
O Jesus, that you still
Are called a prince of peace!
Out of love you wanted to send us your word.
Will you now at once turn your heart from us,
You who otherwise shows us such great help?
Ebert’s fourth strophe speaks of guilt and sin, as well as forgiveness born of love. The cantata text reflects this and connects it with ideas of incarnation from the ancient church:
Ach wir bekennen unsre Schuld
Und bitten nichts als um Geduld
Und um dein unermeßlich Lieben.
Es brach ja dein erbarmend Herz
Als der Gefallnen Schmerz
Dich zu uns in die Welt getrieben.
Ah, we confess our guilt
And plead for nothing more than patience
And for your immeasurable love.
Your merciful heart indeed broke
When the agony of the fallen
Drove you to us in the world.
Ebert’s fifth and sixth strophes lament the perils of war and uncertain justice. While their mode of expression is clear, their tone remains moderate; the author had no more experience of the Schmalkaldic War than he did of the devastating Thirty Years’ War.1 The 1724 cantata libretto is very different: the terrible experiences of that conflict resonate in the powerful language of the cantata’s last recitative, even if those events lay three-quarters of a century in the past:
Ach laß uns durch die scharfen Ruten
Nicht allzu heftig bluten!
O Gott, der du ein Gott der Ordnung bist,
Du weißt, was bei der Feinde Grimm
Vor Grausamkeit und Unrecht ist.
Wohlan, so strecke deine Hand
Auf ein erschreckt geplagtes Land,
Die kann der Feinde Macht bezwingen
Und uns beständig Friede bringen.
Ah, let us, from the sharp rods,
Not bleed too heavily!
O God, you who are a god of order,
You know, in the enemy’s fury,
What gruesomeness and injustice there is.
Well, then, so stretch out your hand
Upon a terrified, tormented land.
It can subdue the enemy’s might
And bring us lasting peace.
The concluding prayer is adopted without change from the 1601 chorale:
Erleucht auch unser Sinn und Herz
Durch den Geist deiner Gnad,
Daß wir nicht treiben draus ein’ Scherz,
Der unsrer Seelen schad.
O Jesu Christ,
Allein du bist,
Der solchs wohl kann ausrichten.
Illuminate also our minds and hearts
Through the spirit of your grace
That we do not make light of it
To the detriment of our souls.
O Jesus Christ,
Alone you are
Who indeed can do this.
Our cantata’s opening movement is designed as usual as an expansive chorale arrangement. But it surprises us with its warm timbre, provided by the two oboi d’amore in the key of A major, ideal for them, and through its self-confident concertizing, led by the solo violin. It would seem that the musical invention was more heavily influenced by the keyword “Friedefürst” (prince of peace) than the text passages on “Nothelfer” (helper in distress), “Tod” (death), and “schreien” (cry). All the more strongly differentiated from this nearly idyllic security is the powerfully expressive alto aria that follows, with its troubled chromaticism and lamenting dialogue with oboe d’amore on “unaussprechliche Not” (unspeakable distress). The allusion in the first recitative to the sobriquet “Friedefürst” is framed by two quotations of the chorale’s beginning in the continuo; the textual admonition “Gedenke doch” (But remember) is literally recast as a musical memory.
The confession of guilt in the second aria appears as an expressive vocal trio accompanied only by basso continuo. The setting for several voices is textually motivated. The text statement is intensified by the voice leading, partly imitative, partly led in parallel or dialogue, and the omission of accompanying, obbligato, or even concertante instrumentation is doubtless meant symbolically and enhances the undisguised sincerity of the prayer. For the powerful language in the last recitative, Bach employs expressive harmonic progressions in the voice and accompanying strings before the concluding plea for a lasting peace in a congenial A major prepares the way for the concluding chorale in the cantata’s home key.
Footnotes
- The Schmalkaldic War was a brief conflict (1546–47) between the Hapsburgs and the Schmalkaldic League, a defensive alliance among Protestant territories within the Holy Roman Empire.—Trans.↵