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Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden BWV 6 / BC A 57
Second Day of Easter, April 2, 1725
With the cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden BWV 6 (Remain with us, for it will become evening), performed for the first time on April 2, 1725, Bach abandoned his effort to create an annual cycle of chorale cantatas, a comprehensively conceived project he had begun in June 1724 and, for reasons unknown, broke off shortly before Easter 1725.The text of our cantata, the work of an unknown poet, follows the Gospel reading for Easter Monday, found in Luke 24, which recounts the walk of two disciples to Emmaus. After the depiction of their meeting with Jesus, who joined them without being recognized, and his question to them as to their sadness, it reads:
They however spoke to him: That of Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deeds and words before God and all the people: how our high priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified. We however hoped that he should redeem Israel. And above all that today is the third day since these things happened. Moreover several women of ours have frightened us; they were at the grave early today but did not find his body, they came and said they had seen the face of an angel, who said that he lives. And several of us went to the grave and found it as the women said; but they saw him not. And he said to them: O you fools and slow of heart, to believe all of that, which the prophets have said! Did not Christ have to undergo such suffering to enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he set forth all the writings that spoke of him. And they came near the village they were going to, and he acted as if he wanted to go further. But they compelled him and spoke: Remain with us: for it will become evening and the day has come to an end. And he went in to stay with them. And it happened, as he sat with them at table, he took the bread, thanked them, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished before them. (24:19–31)
At his libretto’s beginning, the poet places the sorrowful, frightened plea from the disciples, “Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, und der Tag hat sich geneiget” (Remain with us, for it will become evening, and the day has come to an end). Following on from this, he variously juxtaposes light and darkness: light in the sense of faith and belief; darkness as symbol of sin and lack of faith. The first freely versified movement, an aria, is unreflective and rather naive:
Hochgelobter Gottessohn,
Laß es dir nicht sein entgegen,
Daß wir itzt vor deinem Thron
Eine Bitte niederlegen:
Bleib, ach bleibe unser Licht,
Weil die Finsternis einbricht.
Highly praised son of God,
Do not let it put you off
That we now, before your throne,
Lay down a prayer:
Remain, oh remain our light,
For darkness falls.
Essentially, this aria is an anticipation of the chorale that follows, Philipp Melanchthon’s Vespera iam venit in the German version of 1579 with a second strophe by Nicolaus Selnecker:
Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ,
Weil es nun Abend worden ist,
Dein göttlich Wort, das helle Licht,
Laß ja bei uns auslöschen nicht.
In dieser letzt’n betrübten Zeit
Verleih uns, Herr, Beständigkeit,
Daß wir dein Wort und Sakrament
Rein b’halten bis an unser End.
Ah, remain with us, Lord Jesus Christ,
For it has now become evening.
Your divine word, that brilliant light,
Let it not be extinguished for us.
In this final, troubled time,
Lend us, Lord, steadfastness,
That we hold your word and sacrament
Pure until our end.
The ensuing recitative provides an explanation for the impending gloom:
Es hat die dunkelheit
An vielen Orten überhand genommen.
Woher ist dieses kommen?
Bloß daher, weil sowohl die Kleinen als die Großen
Nicht in Gerechtigkeit
Vor dir, o Gott, gewandelt
Und wider ihre Christenpflicht gehandelt.
Drum hast du auch den Leuchter umgestoßen.
The darkness has
In many places taken the upper hand.
How has this come about?
Simply thus, because those small as well as great
Without righteousness
Have walked, O God, before you
And have acted against their Christian duty.
Therefore, you have knocked over their candlesticks.
The closing phrase alludes to a place in the second chapter of the Revelation of St. John, where, in Christ’s letter to the church at Ephesus, it reads: “Consider, where you have fallen from, and do penance and do the first things. If not, I will quickly come to you and knock your candlesticks away from their mountings, if you do not do penance” (5). Following the recitative’s reprimand, the ensuing aria readopts the first aria’s gesture of supplication:
Jesu, laß uns auf dich sehen,
Daß wir nicht
Auf den Sündenwegen gehen.
Laß das Licht
Deines Worts uns heller scheinen
Und dich jederzeit treu meinen.
Jesus, let us look to you,
That we not
Walk upon the ways of sin.
Let the light
Of your word shine for us more brightly
And at all times grant your favor.
The cantata text closes with the second strophe of Luther’s hymn Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort (Preserve us, Lord, with your word):
Beweis dein Macht, Herr Jesu Christ,
Der du Herr aller Herren bist;
Beschirm dein arme Christenheit,
Daß sie dich lob in Ewigkeit.
Reveal your might, Lord Jesus Christ,
You who are Lord of all lords;
Shield your wretched Christendom,
That it may praise you in eternity.
As expected, Bach’s composition is dominated by its first movement, on the dictum taken from the Gospel reading for the feast day. Bach assigns an impressive three-part form to it, whose sequence of slow beginning, quick middle section, and slow conclusion recalls the French overture. But the opening and closing sections do not have the expansive scalar motion and dotted rhythms characteristic of that instrumental form. Instead, there appears a somber dance texture in
4 meter, a sarabande, that distinctly recalls the closing chorus from the St. John Passion. In the elaborate counterpoint of the middle section, the plea “bleib bei uns” (stay with us) is frequently repeated and constantly varied by voices and instruments in alternation, evolving from a modest plea to a sharply contoured demand with insistent tone repetitions. Yet after the culmination of the middle section’s closing measures a return to the gently coaxing opening section takes place.
A dance-like animation also characterizes the first aria for alto and obbligato oboe da caccia, “Hochgelobter Gottessohn” (Highly praised son of God). Yet the muted colors of voice and woodwind instrument, together with the sometimes ingratiating motives as well as the downward intervals, emphasize the true concern of the movement: the urgent plea “bleibe unser Licht, weil die Finsternis einbricht” (remain our light, for darkness falls). Upon reperforming the cantata near the end of the 1730s, Bach replaced the obbligato instrument with a viola, preserving the twilight coloration. A soloistic chorale arrangement appears in the center of the cantata, “Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ” with its melody Danket dem Herrn heut und allzeit (Thank the Lord today and for all time), which goes back to Seth Calvisius. The melody, given by the soprano in large note values, is accompanied by a quiet bass foundation as well as the lively figuration of an obbligato violoncello piccolo, a more easily manageable form of the usual cello. More than twenty years after its composition, this movement found its way, transcribed for organ, to Bach’s collection Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art BWV 645–650, called the Schübler Chorales after its publisher. A brief bass recitative is followed by the aria for tenor and strings, “Jesu, laß uns auf dich sehen” (Jesus, let us look to you), which, with its quick interchange of motivic substance, makes palpable the balancing act between a firm grip and dangerous slipping. In the face of such uncertainty, the stability of the simple closing chorale shows all the more consolation and help.