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Commentaries on the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: An Interactive Companion

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort BWV 126 / BC A 46

Sexagesima Sunday

The cantata Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort BWV 126 (Uphold us, Lord, by your word) is for Sexagesima Sunday and originated in early 1725. It is one of the last works in Bach’s chorale cantata annual cycle. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the chorale on which the cantata is based belonged to the principal hymns for this Sunday preceding Easter, although it was also frequently assigned to other holidays, the Feast of the Reformation in particular. This ambivalence of purpose of chorale and cantata is reflected in the fact that in 1755, five years after the composer’s death, the cantata was performed again on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg. In late September 1555 at the Diet of Augsburg, an agreement regulating ecclesiastical and legal relations between Protestant and Catholic principalities was struck between King Ferdinand, the brother of Emperor Karl, and the Protestant imperial estates. The bicentennial of this event was celebrated in Leipzig on Michaelmas, September 29, 1755. The Bach cantata, performed in the afternoon in the main churches, St. Nicholas and St. Thomas, must have been directed by a prefect from St. Thomas, since, according to a contemporary notice, “the cantor had died.” Gottlob Harrer, Bach’s successor at St. Thomas, had just died in July 1755, and a new cantor had not yet been appointed. 

Martin Luther’s hymn, which probably originated in the early 1540s, appears in a hymnal of 1545 beneath the heading “Ein Kinderlied / zu singen wider die zween Ertzfeinde Christi und seiner heiligen Kirchen / den Bapst und Türken, etc.” (A children’s song / to be sung against the two archenemies of Christ and his holy churches / the pope and Turks, etc.). This, the oldest version, includes only three strophes; in the hymnals of Bach’s day, it generally appears with seven strophes, all ascribed to Martin Luther. In reality, it was Justus Jonas who extended the hymn Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort from three to five strophes a few years after it originated. To this version, now five strophes long, was added Martin Luther’s German version of the ancient hymn Da pacem Domine (Give peace, Lord), whose text begins “Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich” (Grant us peace with grace). This hymn, which originally contained only one strophe and was sung to a different melody, was extended by a single strophe in 1566 by Johann Walter, a strophe that included an intercession for “Fürsten und alle Obrigkeit” (princes and all authorities). What we have, then, is a structure with seven strophes: the first three by Luther, then two by Justus Jonas, another by Luther, and the last by Johann Walter.

Using the procedure common to most of Bach’s chorale cantatas, an unknown arranger transformed the seven-strophe source text into a six-movement cantata libretto. In the usual manner, the opening strophe of Luther’s “Kinderlied . . . wider die zween Ertzfeinde Christi” was retained word for word:

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort,
Und steur des Papsts und Türken Mord,
Die Jesum Christum, deinen Sohn,
Stürzen wollen von seinem Thron.

Keep us, Lord, by your word,
And thwart the murderousness of pope and Turk,
Who would cast Jesus Christ, your son,
From his throne.


Luther’s second strophe was paraphrased:

Beweis dein Macht, Herr Jesu Christ,
Der du Herr aller Herren bist,
Beschirm dein arme Christenheit,
Daß sie dich lob in Ewigkeit.

Prove your might, Lord Jesus Christ,
You who are lord of all lords,
Protect your poor Christian flock
That they may praise you for eternity.


From this, the unknown librettist fashioned the aria text:

Sende deine Macht von oben, 
Herr der Herren, starker Gott.
Deine Kirche zu erfreuen
Und der Feinde bittern Spott
Augenblicklich zu zerstreuen.

Send your might from above,
Lord of lords, mighty God.
Your church to cheer
And the enemies’ bitter mockery
Instantly to dispel.


Luther’s third strophe remained unchanged:

Gott Heilger Geist, du Tröster wert,
Gib dein’m Volk einerlei Sinn auf Erd,
Steh bei uns in der letzten Not,
G’leit uns ins Leben aus dem Tod.

God the Holy Spirit, you worthy consoler,
Grant your people one mind on earth,
Stand with us in our last agony,
Lead us out of death into life.


However, as is typical for many movements in Bach’s chorale cantatas, freely versified lines are interpolated so that modern recitative text and lines from Luther’s chorale strophe are interleaved, as at the beginning:

Der Menschen Gunst und Macht wird wenig nützen,
Wenn du nicht willt das arme Häuflein schützen,
Gott heilger Geist, du Tröster wert.

Man’s favor and might are of little use
If you will not protect the poor flock,
God, Holy Spirit, you worthy consoler.


The fourth cantata movement, an aria, goes back to the first additional strophe by Justus Jonas which without doubt is aimed at the “enemies” of Christianity named in the oldest hymnals, although it no longer contains this explicit reference in later prints:

Ihr Anschlag, Herr, zunichte mach,
Laß sie treffen die böse Sach,
Und stürz sie in die Grub hinein,
Die sie machen den Christen dein.

Their attack, Lord, make come to naught,
Let them meet an evil end,
And cast them into the graves
That they make for your Christians.

 
With powerful language, the cantata aria calls for the proud to be cast down and to be thrown into the abyss:

Stürze zu Boden schwülstige Stolze,
Mache zunichte, was sie erdacht.
Laß sie den Abgrund plötzlich verschlingen,
Wehre dem Toben feindlicher Macht,
Laß ihr Verlangen nimmer gelingen!

Cast to the ground the pompous proud,
Make come to naught what they intend.
Let the abyss suddenly swallow them,
Fend off the raging of enemy might,
Let their desire never succeed!


Justus Jonas’s second chorale strophe, whose text begins “So werden sie erkennen doch, / Daß du, uns’r Herr Gott, lebest noch” (Thus they will recognize / That you, our Lord God, still live), is the source of the next-to-last movement, a recitative, but only with difficulty can traces of the chorale be found in the cantata. Where Jonas’s strophe reads, “Und hilfst gewaltig deine Schar” (And powerfully help your flock), the cantata recitative has the following:

Und willst du dich als Helfer zu uns kehren,
So wird uns denn in Frieden 
Des Segens Überfluß beschieden.

And if you would turn to us as helper, 
Then to us in peace will
Blessing’s abundance be granted.


In any case, this creates a direct transition to Luther’s “Da pacem Domine” and its expansion by Johann Walter:

Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich,
Herr Gott, zu unsern Zeiten;
Est ist ja doch kein andrer nicht,
Der für uns könnte streiten,
Denn du, unser Gott, alleine. 

Gib unserm Fürst’n und aller Obrigkeit
Fried und gut Regiment,
Daß wir unter ihnen
Ein geruh’g und stilles Leben führen mögen
In aller Gottseligkeit und Ehrbarkeit.
Amen.

Grant us peace with grace,
Lord God, in our times;
There is indeed none other 
Who could fight for us
Than you, our God, alone.

Grant our princes and authorities
Peace and good government
That we, under them,
May lead a quiet and peaceful life
In all godliness and honor.
Amen.


In principle, Bach’s composition of this libretto follows the self-imposed rules for the annual cycle of chorale cantatas, but it exhibits several idiosyncrasies that lend the cantata an unmistakable individual profile. As usual, in the first movement, the chorale melody is presented phrase by phrase by the soprano in long note values, while the other voices provide counterpoint in the manner of a motet, and the vocal components are embedded in an independent, thematically unified orchestral texture. What is singular here is the participation of the demanding high trumpet part, which moves mostly in A minor in spite of the instrument’s predisposition for major keys. As a consequence, the usual heroic character of this instrument sounds strangely restrained and veiled. Even so, it signals a determination to battle in the sense of the text. 

The urgent plea “Sende deine Macht von oben” in the first aria is given to a quartet for tenor, two oboes, and basso continuo, whereby parallel voice leading, imitation, and insistent tone repetitions underscore the urgency of the concern. Even so, enough room to maneuver remains for the voice to provide extended coloratura passages on key words like “erfreuen” (cheer) and “zerstreuen” (destroy).

The third movement, a duet for alto and tenor whose text calls for a combination of recitative and chorale, presents these two components in regular succession. In the fourth movement, an “Aria mit heroischen Affekten” (aria with heroic affect), the impassioned plea for striking down the enemy is performed without conciliation by a Spartan setting of continuo and voice. The calm and pacifying tenor recitative leads to the simple four-part closing chorale, whose text was later connected to the core idea of the Lutheran “children’s song” but whose melody is emphatically different from that of the opening movement. In its use of two different chorale melodies as cornerstones, this cantata is set apart from the vast majority of its sister compositions.

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