Estomihi Sunday

Then he took aside the twelve, and said unto them, See, we shall go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished, that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered unto the heathen, and shall be mocked, and spitefully treated, and spat upon. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things: and this speech was hidden from them, and they did not know what had been said. (31–34)

Mein Jesu, ziehe mich nach dir,
Ich bin bereit, ich will von hier
Und nach Jerusalem zu deinen Leiden gehn.
Wohl mir, wenn ich die Wichtigkeit
Von dieser Leid- und Sterbenszeit
Zu meinem Troste kann durchgehends wohl verstehn.

My Jesus, draw me after you,
I am prepared, I will go from here
And to Jerusalem and your sufferings.
Blessed am I, if the consequence
Of this time of suffering and dying
I can thoroughly understand, to my consolation.

The ensuing recitative, rich in text, does not leave this approach but paraphrases the conclusion of the scripture quoted at the beginning of the cantata, “Sie aber vernahmen der keines” (They did not know what had been said). At its beginning, the recitative reads:

Mein Jesu, ziehe mich, so werd ich laufen,
Denn Fleisch und Blut verstehet ganz und gar,
Nebst deinen Jüngern nicht, was gesaget war.

My Jesus, draw me, so I will run,
For flesh and blood quite fail to understand, 
Along with your disciples, what was said.

The end presents a view of renunciation of the world’s temptations:

Ach! kreuzige bei mir in der verderbten Brust
Zuvörderst diese Welt und die verbotne Lust,
So werd ich, was du sagst, vollkommen wohl verstehen
Und nach Jerusalem mit tausend Freuden gehen.

O crucify in me, in my corrupted breast,
First of all this world and its forbidden pleasure,
Then I will perfectly understand what you say
And go to Jerusalem with a thousand joys.

Once again, this intention intensifies in an aria:

Mein alles in allem, mein ewiges Gut,
Verbeßre das Herze, verändre den Mut;
Schlag alles darnieder, 
Was dieser Entsagung des Fleisches zuwider.
Doch wenn ich nun geistlich ertötet da bin, 
So ziehe mich nach dir in Friede dahin.

My all in all things, my eternal good,
Improve my heart, transform my courage,
Strike everything down
That is opposed to this renunciation of the flesh. 
But now when I am spiritually put to death here,
Then draw me after you in peace.

The phrase “ziehe mich” is placed prominently in all three freely versified movements in the manner of a leitmotif, so to speak. With its last appearance, it closes the circle transited in the recitative and arias; just beforehand, the allusion “geistlich ertötet” (spiritually put to death) foreshadows the closing chorale. A strophe from Elisabeth Kreuziger’s hymn Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn (Lord Christ, the only son of God) speaks of the passing of the old, sin-laden man to make way for the “new” man with his certainty of salvation:

Ertöt uns durch dein Güte,
Erweck uns durch dein Gnad;
Den alten Menschen kränke,
Daß der neu’ leben mag
Wohl hie auf dieser Erden,
Den Sinn und all Begehren
Und G’danken hab’n zu dir.

Put us to death through your goodness,
Awaken us through your grace;
Mortify the old Adam,
That the new one may live
Even here on this earth,
That our minds and all desires
And thoughts may to you.

In Johann Sebastian Bach’s composition, the emphasis clearly lies on the first movement: a thickly woven contrapuntal texture with slowly rising yet bravely striding figures that slowly make progress; painful sigh motives and energetic descending scales all point toward the language of the Passion compositions, urgently depicting the outward progress and inward mental state on the journey into the period of suffering. The word of Jesus, performed by the solo bass—the vox Christi—is followed immediately by the close of the evangelist’s account, the motet-like and fugal “sie aber vernahmen der keines,” whose indifferent bustling represents the strongest conceivable contrast to what came before. Real sensitivity, however, is developed by the moderately animated aria “Mein Jesu, ziehe mich nach dir” (My Jesus, draw me unto you), in which the expressive passages for obbligato oboe dominate for long stretches. The bass recitative, accompanied by strings and often expanded with arioso passages, is followed by the tenor aria “Mein alles in allem” (My all in all), a veritable dance movement, close in character to the passepied or minuet, and to be seen as a reminiscence on works by the director of music at the court of Köthen.

The cantata closes with a four-part setting of the chorale melody Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn, which has its origins in the pre-Reformation. The three-part instrumental texture points back to the way of writing preferred by Bach at the end of his time at Weimar. On the other hand, the unrelenting figuration and rigid adherence to a single motive could be seen as a concession to Leipzig musical preferences during the era of Johann Kuhnau.¹ But beyond this, the cantata shows the effort, even in a work of rather limited scope, to showcase a broad range of artistic possibilities and thus fulfill the exigencies of an audition piece. An inscription on a copy of the score from Bach’s circle around 1730 thus shows itself to be undoubtedly correct: “Dies ist das Probestück in Leipzig” (This is the audition piece in Leipzig).