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Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Names BWV 148 / BC A 140
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, September 19, 1723, or September 23, 1725
The cantata Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens BWV 148 (Bring to the Lord the honor of his name) is for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity and probably originated in Bach’s first years of activity as cantor of St. Thomas School in Leipzig. A more precise determination is not possible because the work’s score is not in Bach’s handwriting; it is a late copy from the circle of his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol. However, the text offers a welcome reference point for further investigation. Although its author is unknown, one can recognize borrowings from a work by the Leipzig postal secretary and occasional poet Christian Friedrich Henrici, found in his Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedancken über und auf die gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Fest-Tage (Collection of edifying thoughts about and on the usual Sundays and feast days), published in Leipzig in 1725.
What is remarkable about the poem from Henrici’s collection and the cantata text composed by Bach is that neither take any notice whatsoever of the Gospel reading for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. The reading is found in Luke 14 and contains an admonishment to be modest in the form of a parable culminating in the adage “Whoever exalts himself shall be abased, and whoever abases himself shall be exalted.” In addition, it tells of Jesus’s healing of the man with dropsy on the Sabbath:
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him. And behold, there was a man in front of him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? But they held their silence. And he took him and healed him and let him go. And he said to them, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well that shall not immediately draw him up on a Sabbath day? And they could not give him back an answer as to these things. (1–6)
Strictly speaking, this passage concerns exceptions to the sanctity of the Sabbath. Henrici’s poem for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity and the cantata libretto derived from it take little notice of this passage and instead devote themselves to unrestricted joy at God’s house and word. The first recitative of the cantata reads:
Wie heilig und wie teuer
Ist, Höchster, deine Sabbatsfeier!
Da preis ich deine Macht
In der Gemeine der Gerechten.
How holy and how dear,
Highest, is your Sabbath feast!
So I praise your might
In the congregation of the righteous.
The explanation for the apparent contradiction is provided by the poem’s context in Henrici’s collection, where it is preceded by a lengthy rhymed disquisition in which the poet satirically depicts the mindless and unworthy activities with which the great majority spend their Sunday. The opening lines of that poem read, in this vein:
Weg, ihr irdischen Geschäfte,
Ich hab jetzt was anders für,
Alle meiner Seelen Kräfte
Sind, mein Jesu, bloß bei dir.
Away, you earthly concerns,
I now have something different planned.
All my soul’s powers
Are, my Jesus, simply with you.
This was to be sung to the chorale melody Jesu, der du meine Seele, which itself is of secular origin; in the first half of the seventeenth century, it was associated with Johann Rist’s poem “Daphnis ging vor wenig Tagen” (Daphnis went a few days ago).
The cantata text, entirely focused on praise of God, places an appropriate verse from Psalm 29 at the beginning: “Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens, betet an den Herrn im heiligen Schmuck” (2; Bring to the Lord the honor of his name, pray to the Lord in holy adornment). A rather abrupt transition leads to an aria:
Ich eile, die Lehren
Des Lebens zu hören
Und suche mit Freuden das heilige Haus.
Wie rufen so schöne
Das frohe getöne
Zum Lobe des Höchsten die Seligen aus!
I hasten to hear
The teachings of life
And seek with joy the holy house.
How beautifully
The joyful ringing
Summons the blessed to praise the Highest!
This is clearly a reshaping of Henrici’s 1725 poem:
Eilet, ihr behenden Füße,
Stellet euch im Tempel ein,
Ach, wie lieblich, ach wie süße
Soll mir Gottes Stimme sein.
Rede, Herr, dein Knecht will hören,
Weil ihm deine Lebens-Lehren
Mehr als Gold und Silber sind,
Und dich dadurch lieb gewinnt.
Hasten, you nimble feet,
Place yourselves in the temple.
Ah, how lovely, ah, how sweet
God’s voice to me shall be.
Speak, Lord, your servant will hear,
For to him your life teachings
Are more than gold and silver,
And thereby you are beloved.
The cantata text’s tendency to more concise and precise formulations continues in the following recitative, which paraphrases an eight-line strophe of Henrici’s in only four lines:
So wie der Hirsch nach frischem Wasser schreit,
So schrei ich, Gott, zu dir.
Denn alle meine Ruh
Ist niemand außer du.
Just as the hart cries out for fresh water,
So I cry, God, to you.
For all of my repose
Is no one other than you.
In this way, room is found for the praise of the Sabbath celebration, mentioned above, which does not appear in the prototype. Henrici’s poem does provides the model for the associated aria with its fourth strophe:
Herr, mein Herze steht dir offen,
Ach so senke dich hinein.
Lieben, gläuben, dulden, hoffen,
Soll dein Ruhe-Bette sein.
Weder Leben, Sterben, Leiden,
Soll uns von einander scheiden,
Weil ich nach dem Geist und Sinn
In dir eingewurzelt bin.
Lord, my heart stands open to you,
Ah, so sink yourself therein.
Loving, believing, enduring, hoping
Shall be your bed of peace.
Neither life, death, suffering
Shall part us from one another,
For I, by spirit and sense,
Am rooted in you.
In contrast to these eight lines, the unknown librettist of the cantata manages with only five:
Mund und Herze steht dir offen,
Höchster, senke dich hinein.
Ich in dich, und du in mich;
Glaube, Liebe, Dulden, Hoffen
Soll mein Ruhebette sein.
Mouth and heart stand open to you,
Most High, sink yourself therein.
I in you, and you in me;
Faith, love, endurance, hope
Shall be my bed of peace.
The cantata’s penultimate movement, a recitative, prays for a godly transformation:
Damit ich nach der Zeit
In deiner Herrlichkeit,
Mein lieber Gott, mit dir
Den großen Sabbat möge halten.
So that after the present time
In your glory,
My dear God, with you I may
Keep that great Sabbath.
Regrettably, the concluding chorale is transmitted without text. The melody Auf meinen lieben Gott could be sung to the first strophe of the 1603 chorale of the same name or to its sixth strophe: “Amen zu aller Stund / Sprech ich aus Herzensgrund” (Amen at all hours / I say from the bottom of my heart). A connection to Johannes Heermann’s 1630 hymn Wo soll ich fliehen hin would also be possible, in particular, its eleventh strophe:
Führ auch mein Herz und Sinn
Durch deinen Geist dahin,
Daß ich mög alles meiden,
Was dich und mich kann scheiden,
Und ich an deinem Leibe
In Gliedmaß ewig bleibe.
Lead my heart and mind as well
Through your spirit
So that I might avoid everything
That can separate you and me
And I may ever remain
A member of your body.
In view of its extensive relations to the poem in Henrici’s Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedancken, described at the beginning of this essay, it seems likely that Bach’s composition originated in September 1725,1 the year Henrici’s collection was published. It is distinguished by its extensive opening movement. In accordance with the character of the psalm text, Bach composed it as a chorus with elements of fugue; moreover, the orchestra gains a festive luminosity through the inclusion of high trumpets. The substantial five-part section at the beginning, almost a quarter of the entire piece, makes clear that the instrumental part is intended to play a leading role. Even so, the choral voices are able to free themselves of this dominance over the course of the movement, in particular through the fugal exposition of two different themes on the psalm verses “Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens” and “betet an den Herrn im heiligen Schmuck.”
In contrast, the tenor aria “Ich eile, die Lehren des Lebens zu hören,” which approaches the gigue dance type, seems less ambitious. The nearly incessant figuration of the solo violin, which almost irresistibly pulls the voice along with it and is even able to draw the thoroughbass out of its shell, is assigned to vocabulary such as “eilen” (hasten), “Freuden” (joys), “frohe Getöne” (joyous ringing), and “Lob des Höchsten” (praise of the Most High). In comparison to this primacy of technique—or even the purely mechanical emphasis of key words—the moderated wind texture of the alto aria “Mund und Herze steht dir offen” seems inward looking. The occasional silence of the basso continuo upon the entry of the voice is undoubtedly meant symbolically and is aimed at the liberation of the faithful from all earthly burdens. In view of these oppositions, the closing chorale could be seen as having a mediating function. It is all the more regrettable that the text Bach intended must remain unknown.
Footnotes
- First performance September 19, 1723 [due to possible affiliation with Cycle 1] or September 23, 1725 [due to the possible use of the Picander print]. See BWV3, 193 (no. 148).—Trans.↵