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Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder BWV 135 / BC A 100
Third Sunday after Trinity, June 25, 1724
This cantata originated in June 1724 as the fourth composition in Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas. Its text is based on the hymn of the same name by Cyriakus Schneegaß, which appeared in print for the first time in Erfurt in 1597, the year of its author’s death.Schneegaß, pastor at St. Blasius in Friedrichroda since 1573, had included the poem in his Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen, für einfeltige, fromme Herzen zugerichtet (Spiritual hymns and psalms prepared for simple, pious hearts), a collection meant to serve God-fearing young maidens in their practice of godliness, according to an inscription to the four daughters of the pastor. Among the seventy-two hymns are seventeen psalm paraphrases, and among these are all seven psalms of atonement. The source for Ach Herr, mich armer Sünder BWV 135 (Ah, Lord, poor sinner that I am) is the first of the psalms of atonement, Psalm 6:
Ah, Lord, do not punish me in your anger, and do not chastise me in your rage! Lord, be gracious to me, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are terrified, and my soul is very terrified. Ah, you, Lord, how long! Return, Lord, and rescue my soul; help me for the sake of your goodness! For in death there is no thought of you. Who will thank you among the dead? I am so tired of sighing, I swim in my bed all night and soak my couch with my tears. My form is wracked with sorrow and has become old, for I am everywhere fearful. Go from me, all doers of evil, for the Lord hears my weeping, the Lord hears my pleading, the Lord receives my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and very terrified, let them return and be suddenly ashamed. (1–10)
The connection of this psalm of atonement and its poetic rendering to the third Sunday after Trinity is seen in the Gospel reading for that Sunday, found in Luke 15, containing the parable of the lost sheep and of the lost penny and the words of Jesus: “Thus there will also be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety-nine just persons who do not need to repent” (7).
The six-strophe chorale by Schneegaß was fashioned in the usual way by an unknown poet to become a cantata libretto. Here the opening and concluding strophes were adopted without change, while the other strophes were reshaped to become recitatives and arias. Thus the opening strophe of Schneegaß’s hymn stands at the libretto’s beginning:
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder
Straf nicht in deinem Zorn,
Dein’ ernsten Grimm doch linder,
Sonst ists mit mir verlorn,
Ach Herr wollst mir vergeben
Mein Sünd und gnädig sein,
Daß ich mag ewig leben,
Entfliehn der Höllenpein.
Ah, Lord, poor sinner that I am,
Do not punish me in your anger,
Soften your earnest rage,
Otherwise, I am lost.
Ah, Lord would you forgive me
My sins and be gracious,
That I may eternally live
And escape the torment of hell.
As mentioned above, strophes 2 through 5 are reshaped, although the librettist took care to leave at least one verse in each cantata movement in its original wording. In the first recitative, it is the question with which the second strophe concludes, taken almost literally from the psalm text: “Ach du, Herr, wie so lange?” (Ah, you, Lord, why so long?). A powerful lament precedes this question, using the keywords of the chorale—“krank und schwach” (sick and weak), “betrübt” (despairing), “erschrocken” (terrified), “angst und bang” (anxious and frightened)—and broadens them to a vivid depiction of illness:
Ach heile mich, du Artzt der Seelen,
Ich bin sehr krank und schwach;
Man möchte die Gebeine zählen,
So jämmerlich hat mich mein Ungemach,
Mein Kreuz und Leiden zugericht;
Das Angesicht
Ist ganz von Tränen aufgeschwollen,
Die, schnellen Fluten gleich, von Wangen abwärts rollen.
Der Seele ist von Schrecken angst und bange;
Ach du, Herr, wie so lange?
Ah, heal me, you physician of souls,
I am very sick and weak;
One might count my bones,
So sorrowfully has my adversity,
My cross and suffering, damaged me.
The countenance
Is quite swollen from tears,
Which, like swift floods, roll down the cheeks.
The soul is anxious and alarmed from terror;
Ah, you, Lord, why so long?
If this recitative leaves open the question of whom it addresses—God the Lord, as prescribed by the psalm and the chorale, or Jesus, as suggested by the formulation “Artzt der Seelen” (physician of souls)—then the associated aria, a paraphrase of the third chorale strophe, clearly deviates from the chorale source text. These lines: “Herr, tröst mir mein Gemüte, / Mein Seel rett, lieber Gott” (Lord, console for me my mind; / Save my soul, dear God) become
Tröste mir, Jesu, mein Gemüte,
Sonst versink ich in den Tod,
Hilf mir, hilf mir durch deine Güte
Aus der großen Seelennot.
Denn im Tod ist alles stille,
Da gedenkt man deiner nicht.
Liebster Jesu, ists dein Wille,
So erfreu mein Angesicht.
Console for me, Jesus, my mind,
Lest I sink into death.
Help me, help me through your goodness
Out of my great spiritual need,
For in death all is silent,
There one thinks of you not.
Dear Jesus, if it is your will,
So delight my countenance.
In the second recitative-aria pair, the unknown poet places the original line at the beginning of each. Thus the recitative begins with “Ich bin von seufzen müde” (I am weary of sighing) and, as a kind of continuation of the depiction of illness in the first recitative, uses the words “Angst” (anxiety), “Gram” (grief), “Trauer” (mourning), and “fehlenden Seelenfrieden” (missing peace of the soul). In the aria, the release from this burden finally occurs:
Weicht, all ihr Übeltäter,
Mein Jesus tröstet mich.
Er läßt nach Tränen und nach Weinen
Die Freudensonne wieder scheinen,
Das Trübsalswetter ändert sich,
Die Feinde müßen plötzlich fallen
Und ihre Pfeile rückwärts prallen.
Go, all you doers of evil,
My Jesus consoles me.
After tears and weeping, he lets
The sun of joy shine again,
The storm of affliction changes,
The enemies suddenly fall,
And their arrows crash back upon them.
The chorale’s unchanged final strophe, praising the Trinity, concludes the libretto.
Bach begins his composition with a characteristically elaborate chorale arrangement in which the cantus firmus is performed line by line by one of the voices while the others provide counterpoint in the manner of a motet. The entire movement is made to cohere by a motivically unified instrumental component. A remarkable feature of our cantata is that the chorale melody is performed by the bass voices. In order to enable this compositional method to achieve its desired effect, Bach deploys what is known as bassetto effect, in which the entire bass instrumental region falls silent except for those participating with the bass voices, which remain in their middle range. Bass voices and basso continuo enter each time together, and the movement structure is clarified in every conceivable way.
After the initial, simply set recitative, which emphasizes only the “Tränenfluten” (streams of tears) apostrophized in the text, in the aria “Tröste mir, Jesu, mein Gemüte,” two oboes, tenor, and basso continuo combine in a densely constructed quartet whose restrained passagework and measured, dance-like movement, which approaches that of the minuet, seems to anticipate the success of the prayer for consolation in the text. In contrast, the second recitative is laden with expression, proceeding from the literally adopted chorale verse “Ich bin von seufzen müde.” The ensuing bass aria, “Weicht, all ihr Übeltäter,” with its combative gestures, belongs to the category known as “aria with heroic affect.” Following this rousing episode, the four-part chorale provides a calming conclusion.