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Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele BWV 180 / BC A 149
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, October 22, 1724
In a copy that originated in Leipzig in about 1760, the cantata Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele BWV 180 (Adorn yourself, O dear soul) is designated as “Communion Cantate,” in other words, as music to be performed during the distribution of the Lord’s Supper. Whether this statement can be attributed to Bach cannot be ascertained today. Quite certainly, it is in the same vein as that of hymnodist Johann Franck, who designated his strophes, published in the middle of the seventeenth century, as “preparation for Communion” (Abendmahlsbereitung). However, Bach’s assignment of the cantata, written in his own hand, is to the twentieth Sunday after Trinity. In the manner typical of his annual cycle of chorale cantatas, the libretto is based on a chorale, some of whose strophes are left unchanged, while others are reshaped to become recitatives and arias. The chorale Schmücke dich o liebe Seele is not necessarily among the main hymns for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity; rather, it is the core element of the roughly fifty Communion hymns (Abendmahlslieder) found in Leipzig hymnaries of the period. According to ancient tradition, exactly this Sunday was preferred for the communal procession. This Sunday’s Gospel reading—the parable of the king’s wedding feast, from Matthew 22—was an important reason for this:And Jesus answered and spoke once more in parables to them, saying: The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son. And he sent forth his servants to call the guests to the wedding; and they did not want to come. Once again, he sent other servants out and said: Say to the guests: Look, I have prepared my meal; my oxen and fat calves are slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding! But they scorned it and went on their way, one to his field, the other to his shop; several seized his servants and mocked and killed them. When the king heard this, he became angry and sent forth his army and killed these murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants: The wedding is indeed ready, but the guests were not worthy of it. Therefore, go out on the streets and invite whomever you find and invite them to the wedding feast. And the servants went out on the streets and brought together whomever they found, evil and good, and the tables were all full. Then the king went in to greet the guests and saw there a person who was not wearing a wedding cloak and said to him: Friend, how did you come here and are not wearing a wedding cloak? But he fell silent. Then the king said to his servants: Bind him, hands and feet, and throw him out into the darkness! There will be his howling and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (1–14)
At the very beginning, Johann Franck’s chorale text takes up this parable of the royal wedding meal and connects it with the bridal mysticism of the Song of Songs:
Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele,
Laß die dunkle Sündenhöhle,
Komm ans helle Licht gegangen,
Fange herrlich an zu prangen;
Denn der Herr voll Heil und Gnaden
Läßt dich itzt zu Gaste laden.
Der den Himmel kann verwalten,
Will selbst Herberg in dir halten.
Adorn yourself, O dear soul,
Leave the dark cave of sin,
Come into the bright light,
Begin to shine gloriously;
For the Lord, full of salvation and grace,
Lets you be invited now as his guest.
He who can administer the heavens
Would himself take up lodging within you.
Franck maintains the tone struck here at first through all nine strophes. The second reads:
Eile wie Verlobte pflegen,
Deinem Bräutigam entgegen,
Der da mit dem Gnadenhammer
Klopft an deine Herzenskammer;
Öffn’ ihm bald des Geistes Pforten,
Red ihn an mit schönen Worten:
Komm, mein Liebster, laß dich küssen,
Laß mich deiner nicht mehr missen.
Hasten, as fiancées do,
To meet your bridegroom,
Who, with his hammer of grace,
Knocks at the chamber of your heart;
Quickly open the doors of the spirit to him,
Speak to him with beautiful words:
Come, my dearest, let yourself be kissed,
Let me miss you no more.
Although formulated on a biblical basis, this poetry is voluptuous, and for that reason it may have seemed inappropriate to the unknown arranger of the cantata text. In any case, he eliminated the letter and spirit of the Song of Songs and rhymed, in dry formulations:
Ermuntre dich: dein Heiland klopft,
Ach öffne bald die Herzenspforte!
Ob du gleich in entzückter Lust
Nur halb gebrochne Freudenworte
Zu deinem Jesu sagen mußt.
Cheer yourself: your savior knocks.
Ah, quickly open the door of your heart!
Though now, in enraptured delight,
Only half-broken words of joy
You must say to your Jesus.
This sober diction dominates large swaths of the cantata text and stands in a strange contrast to Franck’s verses when they reappear unadulterated, for example, in the third movement, which begins with a paraphrase of a Franck strophe and transitions to the original fourth strophe of the chorale:
Wie teuer sind des heilgen Mahles Gaben;
Sie finden ihresgleichen nicht.
Was sonst die Welt
Vor kostbar hält,
Sind Tand und Eitelkeiten.
Ein Gotteskind wünscht diesen Schatz zu haben
Und spricht:
“Ach wie hungert mein Gemüte,
Menschenfreund, nach deiner Güte.
Ach wie pfleg ich oft mit Tränen
Mich nach dieser Kost zu sehnen.
Ach wie pfleget mich zu dürsten
Nach dem Trank des Lebensfürsten.
Wünsche stets, daß mein Gebeine
Sich durch Gott mit Gott vereine.”
How precious are the gifts of the sacred meal;
Their like is not to be found.
Whatever else the world
Holds to be valuable
Are trifles and vanities.
A child of God wishes to have this treasure
And says:
“Ah, how my spirit hungers,
Friend of man, for your goodness.
Ah, how often do I, often in tears,
Long for this fare.
Ah, how often do I thirst
For the drink of the prince of life
And wish always that my bones
May through God with God unite.”
This original strophe of Franck’s marks a certain caesura in the course of the cantata; between it and the closing chorale there are three more freely versified texts—two recitatives and an aria. The recitatives exhibit the diction already described and achieve a poetic quality only where they approach the original formulations of Johann Franck. There is somewhat more linguistic impetus inherent in the aria text:
Lebens Sonne, Licht der Sinnen,
Herr, der du mein alles bist.
Du wirst meine Treue sehen
Und den Glauben nicht verschmähen,
Der noch schwach und furchtsam ist.
Sun of life, light of the senses,
Lord, you who are my all.
You will see my faithfulness
And not scorn my faith,
Which still is weak and fearful.
But even here the libretto version is clearly inferior to the exuberant poetry of Franck:
Jesu, meines Lebens Sonne,
Jesu, meine Freud und Wonne,
Jesu, du mein ganz Beginnen,
Lebensquell und Licht der Sinnen!
Jesus, sun of my life,
Jesus, my joy and delight,
Jesus, you, my very origin,
Wellspring of life and light of the senses!
Thus only the original closing strophe of the chorale text can round out the cantata text in an appropriate manner:
Jesu, wahres Brot des Lebens,
Hilf daß ich doch nicht vergebens
Oder mir vielleicht zum Schaden
Sei zu deinem Tisch geladen.
Laß mich durch dies Seelenessen
Deine Liebe recht ermessen,
Daß ich auch, wie itzt auf Erden,
Mög ein Gast im Himmel werden.
Jesus, true bread of life,
Help, that I may not in vain,
Or, perhaps, to my harm,
Be invited to your table.
Let me, through this meal of the soul,
Know the true measure of your love,
That I also, as now on earth,
May become a guest in heaven.
Bach’s composition of this rather conflicted libretto seems to have found an unusual degree of favor even in the eighteenth century. Hardly any other cantata exists in so many copies from the circle of his students. Bach’s autograph score also had an eventful fate that in some respects indicates the level of esteem the composition commanded. The manuscript passed from the estate of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach to the singer and passionate admirer of Bach, Franz Hauser, to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and from him to Julius Rietz, and then to the famous singer Pauline Viardot-García. Sold in America in 1930, the score was preserved for decades in the library of a music institute in Philadelphia until it was forced to part with its treasures. Since then the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart has been the happy owner of this precious relic.
The first movement presents itself as a festive round dance in a perfect, self-enclosed
8 meter, beginning in the nuptial mood of the Song of Songs, in the serene melodiousness of recorders, oboes, and strings. The following tenor aria is much livelier: aggressively repeated tones in the basso continuo and energetic, ascending triadic motives in the transverse flute illuminate the wakening call “Ermuntre dich: dein Heiland klopft” (Cheer yourself: your savior knocks). In the third movement, a brief soprano recitative flows into a sensitively expressive, ornamented version of the chorale melody, in which the busy figuration of a violoncello piccolo provides counterpoint, enveloped in a tonal warmth as well. The sonorous harmonies of the recorders in thirds and sixths support the alto voice in the second recitative. “Tutti li stromenti” (all the instruments) are required by the soprano aria that follows: only the participation of all available instruments is enough to bring forth the inner enthusiasm in dance-like momentum and gleaming brilliance. After a brief bass recitative, a simple four-part chorale setting on Johann Crüger’s melody from 1649 provides a calming conclusion.