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Herr Gott, dich loben wir BWV 16 / A 23
New Year's Day
This cantata, heard for the first time in Leipzig on January 1, 1726, belongs to a small group of compositions that originated between Advent 1725 and mid-January of the following year and make use of texts by one and the same author. The libretti, printed in 1711, are the work of Georg Christian Lehms, who was born in Silesia, worked as court librarian at Darmstadt, and died there in 1717 at the age of only thirty-three. The text cycle, Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer (Church offering pleasing to God), was originally meant for Christoph Graupner, then music director, who set most of the collection to music between Pentecost 1711 and the end of November 1712. Today the fifty compositions in question by Graupner are preserved in the Hessisches Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek (Hessian State and University Library). Only shortly after the appearance of the libretto cycle, the Weimar court organist, Johann Sebastian Bach, must have had a copy at his disposal, for in 1713 he used two of these libretti for the composition of solo cantatas. A decade later he probably brought the Lehms print with him to Leipzig. Whether he fell back on these somewhat dated texts because of a dearth of suitable libretti at the moment or thought of them for some other reason is beyond our knowledge. In any case, a series of six cantatas came into being around the turn of 1725–26, and there is documentation of two more in July and September.The libretto for Bach’s cantata Herr Gott, dich loben wir BWV 16 (Lord God, we praise you) appears in Lehms beneath the heading “Nachmittags-Andacht. Auf den Neujahrs-Tag” (Afternoon devotion. On the New Year’s Day). There is no connection in this “afternoon devotion” to the New Year as the feast of the circumcision and naming of Jesus. Instead, praise of God and thanksgiving for blessings received stand at the core of the train of thought. Martin Luther’s 1529 translation of the Te Deum serves as the opening movement:
Herr Gott, dich loben wir,
Herr Gott, wir danken dir.
Dich, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit,
Ehret die Welt weit und breit.
Lord God, we praise you,
Lord God, we thank you.
You, God the father in eternity,
The world honors far and wide.
The ensuing recitative takes up this song of praise directly:
So stimmen wir
Bei dieser frohen Zeit
Mit heißer Andacht an
Und legen dir,
O Gott, auf dieses neue Jahr,
Das erstes Herzensopfer dar.
Thus we strike up
At this joyful time
Our ardent devotion
And lay before you,
O God, at this New Year
Our hearts’ first offering.
“Heil” (salvation), “Lieb und Treu” (love and faithfulness), “vollkommne Ruh” (perfect rest), “Glück und Segen” (happiness and blessing) are other keywords that give cause for praise and thanks. Accordingly, the poet seeks a quick transition to a new song of praise:
Der Tempel schallt
Von Psaltern und von Harfen,
Und unsre Seele wallt,
Wenn wir nur Andachtsglut in Herz und Munde führen.
O, sollte darum nicht ein neues Lied Erklingen
Und wir in heißer Liebe singen?
The temple resounds
With psalteries and harps,
And our soul swells,
If we only put the glow of devotion in heart and
voice.
O, should not therefore a new song be heard,
And should we not sing in ardent love?
This question is answered with an aria text:
Laßt uns jauchzen, laßt uns freuen:
Gottes Güt und Treu
Bleibet allen Morgen neu.
Krönt und segnet seine Hand,
Ach so glaubt, daß unser Stand
Ewig, ewig glücklich sei.
Let us exult, let us rejoice:
God’s goodness and faithfulness
Remain new every morning.
Since his hand crowns and blesses,
O, then believe, that our condition
Ever, ever shall be fortunate.
After such effusive praise it is time for the prayer for protection and peace. This falls to the next recitative:
Ach treuer Hort,
Beschütz auch fernerhin dein wertes Wort,
Beschütze Kirch und Schule,
So wird dein Reich vermehrt
Und Satans arge List gestört;
Erhalte nur den Frieden
Und die beliebte Ruh,
So ist uns schon genug beschieden,
Und uns fällt lauter Wohlsein zu.
O trusted refuge,
Protect also henceforth your valued word,
Protect church and school,
Then will your kingdom be increased
And Satan’s evil cunning thwarted;
But preserve our peace
And our beloved tranquility,
Then enough is granted to us,
And true well-being falls to us.
Included in this plea are improvement of the country and its productivity. In thanks, Jesus is offered the human heart; the last freely versified text, an aria, reads:
Geliebter Jesu, du allein
Sollst meiner Seelen Reichtum sein.
Wir wollen dich vor allen Schätzen
In unser treues Herz setzen,
Ja, wenn das Lebensband zerreißt,
Stimmt unser gottvergnügter Geist
Noch mit den Lippen sehnlich ein:
Geliebter Jesu, du allein
Sollst meiner Seelen Reichtum sein.
Beloved Jesus, you alone
Shall be my soul’s fortune.
We will, before all treasures,
Enshrine you in our faithful heart.
Yes, if the bond of life is torn,
Our God-contented spirit
Still joins with our lips, longingly, in:
Beloved Jesus, you alone
Shall be my soul’s fortune.
With this confession, Lehms allows his “afternoon devotion” to come to a close. In the version composed by Bach, there follows, catechetically, the final strophe of Paul Eber’s hymn for New Year, Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen (Help me praise God’s goodness):
All solch dein Güt wir preisen,
Vater ins Himmels Thron,
Die du uns tust beweisen
Durch Christum, deinen Sohn,
Und bitten ferner dich,
Gib uns ein friedlich Jahre,
Vor allem Leid bewahre
Und nähr uns mildiglich.
All such of your goodness we praise,
Father on Heaven’s throne.
As you prove to us
Through Christ, your son,
And we pray, further, to you,
Give us a peaceful year,
Preserve us from all suffering,
And nourish us abundantly.
Bach’s composition begins with a chorale arrangement in the manner of a motet on the first four lines of the Te Deum. Such a procedure—the avoidance of a concerted texture—was suggested above all by the modal, archaic character of the melody. In spite of this self-imposed restriction, and in spite of its necessarily brief and concentrated structure, the opening movement hints at the antiphonal, polychoral tradition of performance associated with the Te Deum in a sublime fashion. In this regard, the number of voices and the instrumental setting change so that the first and third lines of melody are played in four parts with only basso continuo and a horn to strengthen the cantus firmus, while the second and fourth lines are assigned to the voices with colla parte strings or oboe, as well as an independent fifth part consisting of first violin and first oboe. Like the ensuing recitative, the associated aria is also given to the bass voice. This aria clearly shows itself to be a complex, multilevel structure with various exchanges of solo episodes as well as clearly defined tutti sections in which chorus and orchestra sound their “Laßt uns jauchzen, laßt uns freuen,” in partly chordal, partly fugal texture, with the inclusion of a horn part in its upper range. The aural splendor of this song of praise is followed by the humble prayerfulness of the alto recitative with its plea for protection, peace, and growth rich in blessings. The tenor aria shows little extravagance; the voice is accompanied only by an instrument in its lower range—an oboe da caccia, replaced by a “violetta” or viola in later performances in 1731 and 1749. This avoidance of outward display focuses on the main thrust of the aria’s text, in particular, on its central ideas: “Geliebter Jesu, du allein / Sollst meiner Seelen Reichtum sein” (Beloved Jesus, you alone / Shall be my soul’s fortune). The later change of obbligato instrument may have changed this somewhat, as the silver shimmer of the violetta’s timbre might have been seen to create an association with “Schätzen” (treasures)—an effect that Bach had tried in previous works with success. However, the overall mien of the cantata’s second part is in no way put in question or surrendered, least of all in the unpretentious closing chorale movement on the melody Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen.