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Ich bin ein guter Hirt BWV 85 / BC A 66
Misericordia Domini, April 15, 1725
Bach composed and performed this cantata in early 1725, shortly after breaking off work prematurely on his annual cycle of chorale cantatas. It follows the Gospel reading of the Sunday of Misericordia Domini in John 10:I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The hireling, however, who is not a shepherd, of whom the sheep are not his own, sees the wolf come and leaves the sheep and flees; the wolf catches and destroys the sheep.
The hireling only flees, for he is a hireling and does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know those of mine, and am known by those of mine, as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I give my life for the sheep, which are not of this stable, and those I must lead here, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one herd and one shepherd. (112–15)
The unidentified librettist places the beginning of this Gospel reading at the start of his cantata: “Ich bin ein guter Hirt, ein guter Hirt läßt sein Leben für die Schafe” (I am a good shepherd; a good shepherd gives his life for his sheep). The structure of this libretto, including this passage from the New Testament, follows a model whose origins have not yet been investigated but whose impact is not to be overlooked. At least seven of the texts set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1724 and 1725, all of which belong to the church calendar season between Easter and Pentecost, have this same sequence: New Testament scripture–aria–chorale strophe–recitative–aria–chorale strophe. These attributes, which are too striking to be coincidental, are joined by other inner criteria that reinforce the impression that these are the work of one and the same librettist. One of these inner criteria is the way the first aria functions, as it picks up the main ideas from the preceding biblical passage and develops them further, preparing a transition to the first chorale strophe in the libretto.
In this cantata, the prophecy of Jesus is presented as if having become fact and confirmed in view of the events of Good Friday:
Jesus ist in guter Hirt,
Denn er hat bereits sein Leben
Für die Schafe hingegeben,
Die ihm niemand rauben wird.
Jesus ist ein guter Hirt.
Jesus is a good shepherd,
For he has already given up his life
For the sheep,
Which no one will rob of him.
Jesus is a good shepherd.
The chorale strophe that replies to this comes from a 1598 hymn by Cornelius Becker; it is a paraphrase of Psalm 23:
Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt,
Dem ich mich ganz vertraue,
Zur Weid er mich, sein Schäflein, führt
Auf schöner grünen Aue,
Zum frischen Wasser leit er mich,
Mein Seel zu laben kräftiglich
Durchs selig Wort der Gnaden.
The Lord is my faithful shepherd,
To whom I entirely entrust myself.
To the meadow he leads me, his little lamb,
Upon fair, green pasture.
To cool water he leads me
To refresh my soul powerfully
Through the blessed word of grace.
The ensuing recitative returns to the Gospel reading for the Sunday and compares the uselessness of hirelings to the protective hand of Jesus. At its beginning the text reads:
Wenn die Mietlinge schlafen,
Da wachet dieser Hirt bei seinen Schafen.
When the hirelings sleep,
This shepherd watches over his flock.
At the end, the text interprets and elucidates the Gospel reading:
Denn sucht der Höllewolf gleich einzudringen,
Die Schafe zu verschlingen,
So hält ihm dieser Hirt doch seinen Rache zu.
For if hell’s wolf tries at once to break in
To devour the sheep,
This shepherd holds his jaws closed.
The aria continues these ideas but at the same time returns to Jesus’s death on the cross and, thereby, to the motto of the first two movements of the cantata.
Seht, was die Liebe tut.
Mein Jesus hält in guter Hut
Die Seinen feste eingeschlossen
Und hat am Kreuzesstamm vergossen
Für sie sein teures Blut.
See what love does.
My Jesus holds well guarded
His own, tightly sheltered,
And has poured on the cross’s beam
For them his precious blood.
The flow of thought is encapsulated by the closing chorale, the fourth strophe from Ernst Christian Homburg’s hymn of 1658, Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann (If God is my shield and helper):
Ist Gott mein Schutz und treuer Hirt,
Kein Unglück mich berühren wird:
Weicht, alle meine Feinde,
Die ihr mir stiftet Angst und Pein,
Es wird zu eurem Schaden sein,
Ich habe Gott zum Freunde.
If God is my protection and faithful shepherd,
No misfortune will touch me:
Away, all my enemies,
You who cause me fear and pain.
It will be to your detriment.
I have God as my friend.
In spite of the key words “Hirt” and “Schafe,” which stand at the ready, Johann Sebastian Bach’s composition avoids any connection to the pastoral and instead places Christ’s readiness to sacrifice himself at the center. As the bass, the vox Christi, repeatedly intones the solemn words from the Gospel of John in a gloomy C minor, a closely woven instrumental texture supports and confirms the language. Curiously, the obbligato woodwind part of two oboes is performed in unison; clearly, Bach had in mind the effect of penetrating sharpness—a clear indication of the overall character he was aiming for in the movement. While the opening movement lacks a simple, folk-like character and naive delight, these qualities are to a certain extent found in the aria that follows, even though it remains in the minor mode. Still, the unceasing, busy figuration of the obbligato instrument, a violoncello piccolo, a light, smaller, and more manageable form of the normal cello, and the joyous coloratura of the voice bring about a marked relaxation in contrast to the deep solemnity of what came before. As in its sibling works described above, in our cantata the third movement is a chorale strophe arranged as a solo. This arrangement, for soprano, two oboes, and continuo, is laid out in the style of Georg Böhm, Bach’s erstwhile teacher in Lüneburg; its thematic material consists of the ornamented beginning of the chorale melody as well as a playful, rather independent interlude.
The tenor recitative, with the scornful beginning “Wenn die Mietlinge schlafen,” is vividly and prominently accentuated by the string instruments, all of which unite to form a single obbligato part in the tenor aria “Seht, was die Liebe tut,” which helps to intensify the expressively cantabile quality and introduces the pastoral affect largely missing heretofore—even though the key words “shepherd” and “sheep” do not appear in the aria at all.
The simple concluding chorale conveys faith and trust in God with its melody, first documented in 1694, Ist Gott mein Schild und Helfersmann. Although this movement, like the cantata’s beginning, is in C minor, Bach purposefully changed its character. With six lines and a repetition, there are seven cadences—and each cadence always ends on a major harmony.