This tag was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Angela Watters.
Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 69.2 / BC B 10
Town Council Election, August 26, 1748
The cantata Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 69.2 (Praise the Lord, my soul) belongs to the relatively small group of Bach’s town council election cantatas. These were works that were performed rather infrequently in honor of the Leipzig town council and by its explicit mandate. As was conventional in many German cities and in line with the political conventions of the era, councilmen were appointed for life, and their total number was divided into several councils, each of which was led by a mayor. In regular succession, these councils alternated in conducting the affairs of government. This rotation between “sitting” or governing council and “resting” councils occurred at the end of every August during Bach’s time in Leipzig—or, more precisely, on the Monday following St. Bartholomew’s Day. Early in the morning, the town council service was held in the municipal main church, St. Nicholas, which included a particular sermon as well as festive music.In his twenty-seven years of service in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach must have furnished just as many town council election church services with festive cantata performances. It is difficult to say whether the five works that survive with music—including one that is fragmentary, as well as three with text only—represent the totality of work that Bach performed on those twenty-seven August Mondays in the St. Nicholas Church, because the number of repeat performances is difficult to judge. However, it is striking that even after 1740 the cantor of St. Thomas was still working to expand the corpus of these works.
The cantata Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele belongs to this later period. Its first performance likely took place on August 26, 1748. In that year, St. Bartholomew’s Day fell on a Saturday, followed by the eleventh Sunday after Trinity on August 25, and the town council election was scheduled a day afterward. It may be that this proximity of occasions caused Bach to take a cantata from his music library for the nearby twelfth Sunday after Trinity (BWV 69.1) and refashion it as a town council election cantata. This composition was written in mid-August 1723, only a few weeks after Bach took over the cantorate at St. Thomas School. Bach made a few minor revisions to it in 1727, and this is the version that served as the prototype for our cantata. Bach wanted to minimize his workload as much as possible, so he took the opening chorus and the two arias, essentially unchanged, from the cantata versions of 1723 or 1727, replacing only two recitatives and the concluding chorale. Consequently, he did not need to prepare a new score and could enter the required changes directly into the performing parts.
An unknown librettist provided a text that accommodated these ideas. In accordance with the cantata’s first version, the town council music begins with Psalm 103:2: “Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, und vergiß nicht, was er dir Gutes getan hat” (Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget what good things he has done for you). The first recitative takes this up with praise and thanksgiving:
Wie groß ist Gottes Güte doch!
Er bracht uns an das Licht,
Und er erhält uns noch.
Wo findet man nur eine Kreatur,
Der es an Unterhalt gebricht?
How great indeed is God’s goodness!
He brought us to the light,
And he sustains us still.
Where does one find but a single creature
That lacks for sustenance?
The last two lines of the recitative lead almost too clearly to the beginning of the first aria:
Ach! Möcht es mir, o Höchster, doch gelingen,
Ein würdig Danklied dir zu bringen!
Doch sollt es mir hierbei an Kräften fehlen,
So will ich doch, Herr, deinen Ruhm erzählen.
Ah! May I but succeed, O Most High,
In bringing you a worthy song of thanks!
But should I lack the powers for it,
Then I would still, Lord, declare your glory.
Textually, the associated aria begins with the first version of 1723 but then repeats the language of the newly created recitative—which does not enhance its effect:
Meine Seele,
Auf! Erzähle,
Was dir Gott erwiesen hat.
Rühme seine Wundertat,
Laß, dem Höchsten zu gefallen,
Ihm ein frohes Danklied schallen.
My soul,
Arise! Tell
What God has revealed to you.
Praise his acts of wonder.
To please the Most High, let
A joyous sound of thanks to him resound.
The second recitative also begins with praise and thanksgiving:
Der Herr hat große Ding an uns getan,
Denn er versorget und erhält
Beschützer und regiert die Welt.
The Lord has done great things for us,
For he cares for and sustains,
Protects and governs the world.
From this point, it is not difficult for the text to turn to its real concern, the obligatory praise of the authorities:
Was könnt uns Gott wohl Beßres schenken,
Als daß er unsrer Obrigkeit
Den Geist der Weisheit gibet,
Die denn zu jeder Zeit
Das Böse straft, das Gute liebet?
Ja die bei Tag und Nacht
Vor unsre Wohlfahrt wacht?
What better could God give us
Than to grant our authorities
The spirit of wisdom,
Which then at every time
Punishes evil, loves goodness?
Indeed, which by day and night
Watches for our welfare?
At the end, it reads:
Was unserm Lande schaden kann,
Wirst du o Höchster, von uns wenden
Und uns erwünschte Hilfe senden.
Ja, ja, du wirst in Kreuz und Nöten
Uns züchtigen, jedoch nicht töten.
Whatever can damage our land,
You will, O Most High, turn away from us
And send us the salvation we desire.
Yes, yes, you will, with cross bearing and afflictions
Chastise but not kill us.
The expected plea for blessing is omitted here, but the closing chorale more than makes up for it with strophe 3 from Luther’s hymn Es woll uns Gott genädig sein (May God wish to be merciful to us), a paraphrase of Psalm 67. The peculiar turn to “Kreuz und Nöten” (cross bearing and afflictions) at the end of the recitative is most probably meant to facilitate the direct adoption of the second aria:
Mein Erlöser und Erhalter,
Nimm mich stets in Hut und Wacht!
Steh mir bei in Kreuz und Leiden,
Alsdenn singt mein Mund mit Freuden:
Gott hat alles wohlgemacht.
My redeemer and sustainer,
Keep me ever in your protection and watch!
Stand by me in cross bearing and suffering,
Whereupon my mouth shall sing with joy:
God has made all things well.
Bach’s composition of this libretto, heavily conditioned by musical demands, is a combination of older and newer components. The opening chorus and arias are a quarter century older—as long as the chorus does not go back to a still older model from Bach’s Köthen period, as is occasionally suggested. In this context, it is noteworthy that the rather introverted bass aria, “Mein Erlöser und Erhalter” (My redeemer and sustainer), with its saraband rhythm and subtle writing, shows a particularly close relationship to the vocal chamber music of the pre-Leipzig period. In contrast, the exuberant alto aria, with its gigue dance character, sends its praises forth in every direction. Characteristic for the cantata is the multisectional, festively radiant opening movement, in whose center the two-part dictum in Psalm 103 is set as a double fugue. Crowned by the brilliance of the brass instruments, the self-confident “Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele” and the humble “und vergiß nicht, was er dir Gutes getan hat” present themselves first as separate fugal sections and are then combined in an astonishing compositional intensification, a simultaneous exposition. It is unlikely that this compositional display was intended primarily as a demonstration of supreme artistry: what was decisive for the choice of compositional procedure was the form and content of the psalm verse.