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

Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott BWV 139 / BC A 159

Twenty-Third Sunday after Trinity, November 12, 1724

This cantata belongs to that group of Bach’s compositions, fortunately small in number, that have been passed down to us in incomplete form. In contrast to those cases in which manuscript owners, particularly in the nineteenth century, cut up scores or sold off performing parts singly in order to send something of historical interest to as many enthusiasts as possible (or to maximize proceeds), in the case of our cantata it seems that the main factor was simple inattention. After the death of the Thomaskantor in 1750, under pressure of time the household needed to be divided among the widow and nine children from two marriages—and the musical estate had to be organized and appraised as well. Whether Bach himself had a part in these arrangements remains unknown to us. In any case, Wilhelm Friedemann, as the only son of Bach active in church music, was to receive the lion’s share of church cantatas. In order to preserve a modicum of fairness, for at least three of the five annual cycles of cantatas, scores and performing parts were separated from one another so that two heirs might come into possession of these works. One would receive a complete set of performing parts, the other the score. Since the one receiving the score was at a disadvantage—he would have to have parts copied out in order to perform the work—he was compensated by receiving whatever duplicate parts were available: normally, one duplicate part each for the first and second violins and for the basso continuo. Difficulties arose, however, if the apparent “duplicate” parts actually contained different music and this went undiscovered during the sorting process, in which case what seemed to be a complete set of parts would actually transmit the work in fragmentary form. 

Unfortunately, this seems to have been the fate of the cantata Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott BWV 139 (Fortunate is the one who upon his God). Who may have been at fault and when the error occurred remain uncertain. It may be that one of the assistants at the division of the estate made a mistake—Bach’s student and son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol seems likely—or perhaps the error occurred at a later point. In any case, the first aria is missing an obbligato part, and it is not at all clear even which instrument it was for. The most common error does not seem to be among the possibilities here, that is, the mistaken exchange of the first copies of violin parts, which also contain solo parts, with shorter second parts not containing the solos. Instead, a woodwind instrument seems to be at issue for the aria—but its part has vanished entirely.

Hence the cantata requires the careful addition of a fourth part to its first aria, which is transmitted with only three parts. The cantata belongs to Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas. It originated in November 1724, and there is evidence of performances in the 1730s and 1740s. The five-strophe chorale on which the cantata is based is by Johann Christoph Rube; it was first published in 1692. Rube, a pious jurist from Hesse, was active in administrative service for decades but in addition was a prolific and successful poet of religious songs. One chorale that has enjoyed a certain degree of fame is the evening hymn Der Tag ist hin, die Sonne gehet nieder (The day is gone, the sun goes down), from Schemellis Gesangbuch (Schemelli’s hymnal) of 1736—very much a feature of Bach’s immediate environment.

The hymn Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott appears beneath the heading “Von der Freudigkeit des Glaubens” (Of the joys of faith). It was transformed into a cantata text by an unknown librettist in the characteristic manner of Bach’s chorale cantata annual cycle. That is, as usual, the opening and last strophes were adopted without change:

Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott
Recht kindlich kann verlassen.
Den mag gleich Sünde, Welt und Tod
Und alle Teufel hassen,
So bleibt er dennoch wohlvergnügt,
Wenn er nur Gott zum Freunde kriegt.

Fortunate is he who can trust his God
In a truly child-like way.
Though sins, world, and death
And all devils may hate him,
He nevertheless remains well contented,
If he only receives God as his friend. 


“God as the best friend of humanity”: all five chorale strophes end with variations of this formula. The cantata librettist places this guiding principle as a kind of motto at the beginning of the first aria:

Gott ist mein Freund; was hilft das Toben,
So wider mich ein Feind erhoben.
Ich bin getrost bei Neid und Haß.
Ja, redet nur die Wahrheit spärlich,
Seid immer falsch, was tut mir das? 
Ihr Spötter seid mir ungefährlich.

God is my friend; what use is the raging
An enemy inflicted against me.
I am confident amid envy and hatred.
Yes, speak the truth but sparely,
Be ever false, what does that do to me?
You mockers are harmless to me.


In spite of the very free paraphrase, the model for this aria text is quite clearly the second strophe of Rube’s chorale:

Die böse Welt mag immerhin
Mich hier und dar befeinden,
Kann sich nur mein Gemüt und Sinn
Mit meinem Gott befreunden;
So frag ich nichts nach ihre Haß:
Ist Gott mein Freund, wer tut mir was?

The evil world may, in any case,
Attack me here and there,
If only my heart and mind can
Befriend themselves with my God;
Then I do not care about their hatred.
If God is my friend, who can harm me?


In the third movement, a recitative, the “böse Welt” in the strophe just quoted is the only reference point to Rube’s chorale text. First, the recitative draws upon a verse from Matthew 10, a word of the Lord regarding the sending out of the twelve apostles: “Siehe, ich sende euch wie Schafe mitten unter die Wölfe” (16; Behold, I send you forth as sheep among the wolves). At this point the cantata text reads:

Der Heiland sendet ja die Seinen
Recht mitten der Wölfe Wut.
Um ihn hat sich der Bösen Rotte
Zum Schaden und zum Spotte
Mit List gestellt.
Doch da sein Mund so weisen Ausspruch tut,
So schützt er mich auch vor der Welt.

The savior sends indeed his people
Right into the middle of the wolves’ fury.
Around him the evil gang
To harm and to humiliate
Has gathered itself with cunning.
Yet since his mouth such wisdom utters
Thus he protects even me from the world.


The arranger’s procedure was different yet again in the fourth cantata movement, an aria whose subject is misfortune and consolation. Its first four verses are a paraphrase of the beginning of the third chorale strophe, but the last two verses quote the strophe’s conclusion literally:

Das Unglück schlägt auf allen Seiten
Um mich ein zentnerschweres Band.
Doch plötzlich erscheinet die helfende Hand.
Mir scheint des Trostes Licht von weiten;
Da lern ich erst, daß Gott allein 
Der Menschen bester Freund muß sein.

Misfortune winds all around me
A hundredweight chain.
Yet suddenly there appears the helping hand.
The light of consolation shines to me from afar;
Thus I learn that God alone
Must be humanity’s best friend.

 
The next to last chorale strophe and the recitative derived from it speak of the burden of sin, guilt, and redemption. The cantata concludes with the closing strophe of Johann Christoph Rube’s chorale text:

Dahero Trotz der Höllen Heer!
Trotz auch des Todes Rachen!
Trotz aller Welt! mich kann nicht mehr
Ihr Pochen traurig machen.
Gott ist mein Schutz, mein Hülf und Rat;
Wohl dem, der Gott zum Freunde hat.

Therefore, defiance to the host of hell!
Defiance to the jaws of death as well!
Defiance to all the world! No longer can 
Its battering make me sorrowful.
God is my protection, my help and counsel;
Fortunate is he who has God as his friend.


Bach’s composition of this substantial libretto, obviously marked by the powerful rhymes of the chorale, begins with an extensive chorale arrangement with independent orchestral component, as is typical of the chorale cantata annual cycle. The melody, performed by the soprano line by line in long note values, is Johann Hermann Schein’s 1628 chorale Machs mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt (Deal with me, God, according to your goodness). Its key is E major, identical to the movement with the same melody, Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn (Through your imprisonment, Son of God), which goes back to Bartholomäus Gesius, at the center of the St. John Passion, which originated seven months earlier.

Characteristic of the first aria (which, as mentioned above, is not transmitted completely and can only be restored through a careful addition) is the opposition between lively passagework in the upper voices and the undeterred pitch repetitions in the basso continuo, illustrating the text’s “raging of the enemy” (Toben des Feindes) and its lack of effect. The rest is done by the defiant tone repetitions of the head motive, performed, as it were, with stamping foot, with its insistent “Gott ist mein Freund.”

The second aria, like the previous one, is also in four parts. Two oboi d’amore in unison join the bass as well as a violin—which, according to recent scholarship, may be a replacement made during a final performance for an older obbligato part. With almost too frequent changes of tempo, meter, and themes, this aria attempts to do justice to the heterogeneous text. With hardly any transitions almost in a single breath, it speaks of the heavy shackles of misfortune, the sudden appearance of a helping hand, the glimmer of consolation visible from afar, and the friendship between God and humanity. The triumphant “Dahero Trotz der Höllen Heer!” (Therefore, defiance to the host of hell!) that closes our cantata is more than a reminiscence of the choral movement from the St. John Passion, mentioned above.

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