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Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten BWV 74 / BC A 83
Pentecost, May 20, 1725
Of the two Pentecost cantatas that bear the name Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (Whosoever loves me will keep my word), this is the later one, performed for the first time in May 1725. The close commonality between the two works—they both start with the same biblical text and employ the same set of musical forces—will be discussed later.
Our cantata’s libretto is the work of the Leipzig poet Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, who published it in her 1728 collection Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art; however, it was available to Bach three years earlier. As usual, the text takes up the Gospel reading for the holiday, which in this case is found in the fourteenth chapter of John and contains a portion of Jesus’s farewell addresses, in particular the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus answered and spoke to him: Whoever loves me will keep to my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. But whoever does not love me, he will not keep to my words. And the word that you hear is not mine, rather the Father’s, who has sent me. Such things I have been saying to you, as long as I have been with you. But the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you, as the world gives. Let your heart not be afraid, and let it not be fearful. You have heard, that I have said to you: I go away and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I have said “I go to the Father,” for the Father is greater than I. And now I have said to you, before it happens, when it will happen, you will believe. I will not talk with you much more, because the prince of this world is coming, and he has no power over me. But that the world might recognize that I love the Father and I also do as the Father has bidden me: stand up, and let us go hence. (23–31)
Von Ziegler’s cantata text opens with the beginning of the Gospel reading: “Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten; und mein Vater wird ihn lieben, und wir werden zu ihm kommen und Wohnung bei ihm machen.” In accordance with the religious love motive suggested here, the aria that follows deals with the ancient metaphor of the human heart as the dwelling of God:
Komm, komm, mein Herze steht dir offen,
Ach laß es deine Wohnung sein.
Ich liebe dich, so muß ich hoffen,
Dein Wort trifft itzo bei mir ein;
Denn wer dich sucht, fürcht, liebt und ehret,
Dem ist der Vater zugetan.
Ich zweifle nicht, ich bin erhöret,
Daß ich mich dein getrösten kann.
Come, come, my heart stands open to you,
O let it be your dwelling.
I love you, so I must hope
Your word will be fulfilled for me;
For whoever seeks, fears, loves, and honors you,
To him the Father is devoted.
I do not doubt I have been heard,
That I may take comfort in you.
The ensuing recitative also confirms:
Die Wohnung ist bereit.
Du findst ein Herz, das dir allein ergeben,
Drum laß mich nicht erleben,
Daß du gedenkst, von mir zu gehn.
Das laß ich nimmermehr, ach nimmermehr geschehen.
The dwelling is prepared.
You will find a heart that is devoted to you alone;
Therefore, let me not experience
That you consider going away from me.
That I will let happen nevermore, ah, nevermore.
A difference in the text used by Bach and the version printed by von Ziegler is noteworthy. The somewhat overdrawn formulation in von Ziegler—”Drum laß mich nicht die Schmach erleben, / Daß du gedenkst von mir zu gehn” (Therefore, may I never feel the shame / That you consider going away from me)—is modified in Bach so that the unmotivated, drastic word “Schmach” (shame) is eliminated.
The fourth cantata movement sets a second scriptural passage, the promise taken from the last part of the holiday Gospel reading: “Ich gehe hin und komme wieder zu euch. Hättet ihr mich lieb, so würdet ihr euch freuen” (John 14:28; I go away and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice). The poet answers this good news with a musical intermezzo in the form of an aria:
Kommt, eilet, stimmet Sait und Lieder
In muntern und erfreuten Ton.
Geht er gleich weg, so kömmt er wieder,
Der hochgelobte Gottessohn.
Der Satan wird indes versuchen,
Den Deinigen gar sehr zu fluchen.
Er ist mir hinderlich,
So glaub ich, Herr, an dich.
Come, hurry, let sound strings and songs
In cheerful and delighted tones.
If he soon goes away, he comes again,
The highly praised son of God.
Satan will meanwhile attempt
To curse greatly those who follow you.
He is a hindrance to me,
So I believe, Lord, in you.
The somewhat peculiar conclusion proves to be a significant deviation from von Ziegler’s version. She had written:
Der Satan wird indes versuchen,
Den Deinigen gar sehr zu fluchen;
Ich aber glaub an dir,
Drum hat er gar kein Teil an mir.
Satan will meanwhile attempt
To curse greatly those who follow you.
I, however, believe in you;
Therefore, he has no claim on me.
This formulation leads more smoothly than the version composed by Bach to the third scriptural passage, taken from the eighth chapter of Romans: “Es ist nichts Verdammliches an denen, die in Christo Jesu sind” (1; There is nothing damnable in those who are in Christ Jesus). As with the previous two scriptural passages, the aria that follows provides a commentary that focuses on the dangerous bonds of sin and Jesus’s act of redemption:
Nichts kann mich erretten
Von höllischen Ketten
Als, Jesu, dein Blut.
Dein Leiden, dein Sterben
Macht mich ja zum Erben:
Ich lache der Wut.
Nothing can deliver me
From hellish chains
Other than, Jesus, your blood.
Your passion, your dying
Indeed make me an heir:
I laugh at the rage.
The concluding chorale strophe, taken from Paul Gerhardt’s hymn Gott Vater sende deinen Geist, draws together the libretto’s train of ideas:
Kein Menschenkind hier auf der Erd
Ist dieser edlen Gabe wert,
Bei uns ist kein Verdienen.
Hier gilt gar nichts als Lieb und Gnad,
Die Christus uns verdient hat
Mit Büßen und Versühnen.
No child of humankind here on the earth
Is worthy of this noble gift;
In us there is no merit.
Here nothing counts but love and grace,
Which Christ has earned for us
By atonement and expiation.
In a certain sense, Bach’s composition of this eight-movement, relatively wide-ranging source text reflects the challenges of church music for the high holidays. The cantor of St. Thomas School and his team were clearly overtaxed by the need to provide elaborate concerted music to both main churches on three holidays in a row as well as the University Church on the first day. Thus it is hardly surprising that the number of older works Bach drew upon for these feast days was higher than usual. This is certainly the case with our cantata. In large part it goes back to another Pentecost cantata of the same name that Bach prepared in 1724 at the latest and possibly as early as May 1723 before taking office as the cantor of St. Thomas School. This older composition of the passage from John, Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten BWV 59, has a modest setting of two trumpets with drums, strings, and continuo. Its vocal component, a duet for soprano and bass, seems rather like Bach’s compositional procedure at Köthen before early 1723, where duets in instrumental settings dominated. In reworking this older composition, Bach enriched the instrumental ensemble by adding a third trumpet, a chorus of three oboes, and two voices to the vocal component. While the overall outline of the piece remained the same, there are so many changes of detail that one wonders whether Bach actually succeeded in reducing his workload at all.
The second movement of our cantata also goes back to the older composition for Pentecost. Starting with an aria in C major for bass with obbligato solo violin, Bach created an aria in F major for soprano with obbligato oboe da caccia. In addition to the work of transposing the piece, Bach had to overcome a problem of text, since the verses by Mariane von Ziegler are in no way similar to the rhyme structure and flow of Erdmann Neumeister’s libretto of 1714. One is certainly justified in wondering why Bach would impose an ill-fitting text upon an existing aria; the answer becomes clear when one considers the content. The older text begins with the verses:
Die Welt mit allen Königreichen
Die Welt mit aller Herrlichkeit
Kann dieser Herrlichkeit nicht gleichen,
Womit uns unser Gott erfreut:
Daß er in unsern Herzen thronet
Und wie in einem Himmel wohnet.
The world with all its kingdoms,
The world with all its glory
Cannot equal this glory
With which our God delights us:
That he is enthroned in our hearts
And dwells as if in heaven.
The newer text formulates the same ideas with different words:
Komm, komm mein Herze steht dir offen,
Ach laß es deine Wohnung sein.
Come, come, my heart is open for you,
O let it be your dwelling.
After a brief recitative—the third movement—the second biblical passage appears: “Ich gehe hin und komme wieder zu euch.” As expected, it is given to the bass, the vox Christi. Accompanied only by the basso continuo, strict and concentrated motive repetitions provide disciplined gravity and dignity. Without transition, the tenor aria ensues directly. “Kommt, eilet, stimmet Sait und Lieder” allows only a passing moment of darkness, even at the mention of evil.
The string-accompanied aria is followed by a recitative-like performance of the passage from Romans in a setting for bass and three woodwinds. Both instrumental groups unite in the last solo movement with alto and a virtuoso solo violin for an animated “aria with heroic affect,” in which continuous tone repetitions, symbolically meant, fall silent only briefly in the middle section. However, the cantata comes to a tranquil conclusion with a four-part setting of the sixteenth-century melody Kommt her zu mir, spricht Gottes Sohn (Come here to me, speaks God’s son).