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Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet BWV 164 / BC A 128
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, August 26, 1725
This cantata is for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity; it originated in August 1725. Its text begins with the title line, “Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet” (You, who call yourselves of Christ), followed by the question “Wo bleibet die Barmherzigkeit?” (Where is the mercy?), referring to the Gospel reading for the Sunday, Jesus’s telling of the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:And behold, a scribe stood up, tempted him and spoke: Master, what must I do, that I may inherit eternal life? He however said to him: How is it written in the law? How do you read? He answered and spoke: You shall love God, your Lord, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. He however spoke to him: You have answered correctly: Do that, and you will live. He however wanted to justify himself and spoke to Jesus: Who then is my neighbor? Then Jesus answered and spoke: There was a man who went from Jerusalem down to Jericho and fell among murderers; they stripped him and beat him and fled, leaving him half dead. It came to pass by chance that a priest came down the same road; and as he saw him, he passed by. A Levite did the same thing; as he came to the place and saw him, he passed by. A Samaritan, however, was traveling and came to the place; and as he saw him he wept for his sake, went to him, bound his wounds and poured oil and wine in them and lifted him upon his beast and led him to the inn and took care of him. . . . Which, do you think, among these three may have been the neighbor to the one who had fallen among murderers? He spoke: The one who showed mercy upon him. Then Jesus spoke to him: Then go forth and do likewise. (25–34, 36–37)
The text Bach set to music in 1725 in Leipzig had already been available to him ten years earlier in Weimar in the printed collection Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer (Protestant devotional offering) by the Weimar chief consistory secretary, Salomon Frank. Since Bach, as music director in Weimar, was only obligated to produce a new cantata for the castle chapel every four weeks, it can be assumed that in 1715 and perhaps the following year the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity was not on Bach’s schedule; hence he saw no reason to set that particular Franck text to music. Very probably, however, he took the printed text volume with him first to Köthen and later to Leipzig, where, as opportunities arose, he drew upon the somewhat dated texts.
At the beginning of Franck’s libretto, the all too rare experience of compassion addressed by Jesus’s parable is converted into a question posed to all Christendom:
Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet,
Wo bleibet die Barmherzigkeit,
Daran man Christi Glieder kennet?
Sie ist von euch, ach, allzu weit.
Die Herzen sollten liebreich sein,
So sind sie härter als ein Stein.
You, who call yourselves of Christ,
Where is the mercy
By which one recognizes members of Christ?
It is, alas, all too distant from you.
Your hearts should be filled with love,
But they are harder than a stone.
After this aria, which remains within the realm of the general, the librettist goes purposefully to work and enhances the philippic drawn from the Gospel reading with allusions to the Sermon on the Mount:
Wir hören zwar, was selbst die Liebe spricht:
Die mit Barmherzigkeit den Nächsten hier umfangen,
Die sollen vor Gericht Barmherzigkeit erlangen.
Jedoch, wir achten solches nicht!
Wir hören noch des Nächsten Seufzer an;
Er klopft an unser Herz, doch wirds nicht aufgetan.
We indeed hear what love itself says:
Those who embrace their neighbor with mercy,
They shall receive mercy before judgment.
However, we do not heed this!
We hear the neighbor’s sighs;
He knocks at the door of our heart, but it is not opened.
The end of this movement also uses parts of the Gospel reading to draw a current comparison:
Der Priester und Levit,
Der hier zur Seite tritt,
Sind ja ein Bild liebloser Christen;
Sie tun, als wenn sie nichts von fremden Elend wüßten,
Sie gießen weder Öl noch Wein
Ins Nächsten Wunden ein.
The priest and Levite,
Who here step aside,
Are truly a picture of loveless Christians;
They act as if they had no awareness of the suffering of others,
They pour neither oil nor wine
In the wounds of their neighbor.
The second aria advises how to act instead:
Nur durch Lieb und durch Erbarmen
Werden wir Gott selber gleich.
Samaritergleiche Herzen
Lassen fremden Schmerz sich schmerzen
Und sind an Erbarmung reich.
Only through love and through mercy
Do we become like God himself.
Samaritan-like hearts
Let themselves be pained by the pain of others
And are rich in mercy.
The last freely versified movement pair prayerfully follows the way to recovery:
Ach schmelze doch durch deinen Liebesstrahl
Des kalten Herzens Stahl,
Daß ich die wahre Christenliebe,
Mein Heiland, täglich übe.
Ah, but melt, with your radiant love,
The steel of the cold heart,
That the true Christian love,
My savior, I may daily practice.
At the close of this recitative, the heart appears as a metaphor for Christian love:
Mein Herz sei liebreich, sanft und mild,
So wird in mir verklärt dein Ebenbild.
May my heart be rich in love, soft and mild,
That your image may be transfigured in me.
The associated aria traces this path to its conclusion:
Händen, die sich nicht verschließen,
Wird der Himmel aufgetan.
Augen, die mitleidend fließen,
Sieht der Heiland gnädig an.
Herzen, die nach Liebe streben,
Will Gott selbst sein Herze geben.
To hands that do not close,
Heaven will be open.
Eyes that stream with sympathy
Are regarded by the savior with grace.
To hearts that strive to love,
God himself would give his heart.
Elisabeth Kreuziger’s chorale Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn (Lord Christ, the only Son of God) closes the cantata text with its fifth strophe, “Ertöt uns durch dein Güte, / Erweck uns durch dein Gnad” (Mortify us through your goodness, / Awaken us through your grace).
Bach’s Leipzig composition of this Weimar text lends the opening movement, a tenor aria with string accompaniment, gravitas and meaning through its densely woven contrapuntal texture and in particular through the nearly constant presence of the earnest main theme, which seems constantly to repeat the admonition “Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet.” At its very beginning, the ensuing verbose recitative for bass uses arioso to highlight the allusions to the core ideas of the Sermon on the Mount: “Die mit Barmherzigkeit den Nächsten hier umfangen, / Die sollen vor Gericht Barmherzigkeit erlangen” (Those who embrace their neighbor with mercy, / They shall receive mercy before judgment). In the alto aria, tightly linked sigh motives and downward melodic gestures, together with the timbre of a pair of flutes that dominates over long stretches, clarify the concern of the text: “Nur durch Liebe und durch Erbarmen / Werden wir Gott selber gleich” (Only through love and through mercy / Do we become like God himself). In the fourth movement, rich harmonic shadows created by chords in the string instruments lend emphasis and intensity to the tenor recitative’s attitude of prayer. In the final aria, “Händen, die sich nicht verschließen, / Wird der Himmel aufgetan,” unusual musical means are used to create the sense of, as it were, promise coming from another world: a quartet of soprano, bass, continuo, and a pastose obbligato part comprising violins, flutes, and oboes is united in ambitious counterpoint that, with its alla breve meter, has a touch of the archaic or timeless. Frequent canonic formations between the voices symbolize the immutability of the text. The characteristic procedure of increasing concentration seen in this cantata is seen once in the brief final chorale on the melody Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn, based on pre-Reformation materials.