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Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende BWV 90 / BC A 163
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity, November 14, 1723
This cantata, Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende BWV 90 (A horrible end will sweep you away), was first performed in Leipzig on November 14, 1723, the penultimate Sunday of the church year. The Gospel reading of the day, from Matthew 24, concerns the end of the world, starting with the destruction of Jerusalem. In accordance with this promise, the libretto of our cantata presents itself as a denunciation of those who scorn the word of God. Images of horror and rage predominate, and images of sins and vengeance are more vividly and elaborately described than those of forgiveness and redemption. The unknown librettist describes the looming disaster right away in the first aria:Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende,
Ihr sündlichen Verächter, hin.
Der Sünden Maß ist voll gemessen,
Doch euer ganz verstockter Sinn
Hat seines Richters ganz vergessen.
A horrible end will sweep you away,
You sinful scoffers.
The measure of your sins is fully told,
Yet your completely hardened mind
Has completely forgotten its judge.
The ensuing recitative laments that goodness is met with ingratitude and benevolence is repaid with evil:
Des Höchsten Güte wird von Tag zu Tage neu,
Der Undank aber sündigt stets auf Gnade.
O ein verzweifelt böser Schade,
So dich in dein Verderben führt.
Ach! wird dein Herze nicht gerührt?
Daß Gottes Güte dich
Zur wahren Buße leitet?
Sein treues Herze lässet sich
Zu ungezählter Wohltat schauen:
Bald läßt er Tempel auferbauen,
Bald wird die Aue zubereitet,
Auf die des Wortes Manna fällt,
So dich erhält.
Jedoch, o Bosheit dieses Lebens,
Die Wohltat ist an dir vergebens.
The Most High’s goodness is renewed from day to day,
But ingratitude sins constantly against grace.
Oh, what a desperately evil failing
That leads you to your damnation.
Ah! Is your heart not touched?
That God’s goodness
Leads you to true penance?
His faithful heart can
Be seen in countless blessings:
Now he has the temple built,
Now the pasture is prepared
Upon which the divine word’s manna will fall
That will sustain you.
However, O evil of this life,
For you good deeds are in vain.
The poet based what follows on words of the Lord, first from the Revelation of St. John: “Remember, whence you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works. If, however, you do not, I will soon come to you and knock away your lamps from their places if you do not repent” (2:5). Later, the poet cites the prophet Jeremiah: “Do you then hold this house, which is called by my name, to be a den of murderers?” (7:11). From this, the librettist created an aria with animated dactylic verses:
So löschet im Eifer der rächende Richter
Den Leuchter des Wortes zur Strafe doch aus.
Ihr müsset, o Sünder, durch euer Verschulden
Den Greuel an heiliger Stätte erdulden,
Ihr machet aus Tempeln ein mörderisch Haus.
Then in a rage the vengeful judge
Puts out the lamps of the word in retribution.
You must, O sinners, through your guilt,
Suffer the abomination in holy places,
You make, out of temples, a murderous house.
The final recitative indicates that despite all this disaster, awareness of the word of God can bring salvation and rescue:
Doch Gottes Auge sieht auf uns als Auserwählte:
Und wenn kein Mensch der Feinde Menge zählte,
So schützt uns doch der Held in Israel,
Es hemmt sein Arm der Feinde Lauf
Und hilft uns auf;
Des Wortes Kraft wird in Gefahr
Um so viel mehr erkannt und offenbar.
Yet God’s eye looks upon us as the elect:
And though no one can count the horde of his enemies,
The hero in Israel still protects us,
His arm restrains the enemy’s charge
And helps us up;
In peril, the power of the word
Is all the more recognized and revealed.
The concluding strophe from Martin Moller’s 1584 hymn Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott (Take from us, Lord, you faithful God) serves as a conclusive prayer:
Leit uns mit deiner rechten Hand
Und segne unser Stadt und Land;
Gib uns allzeit dein heilges Wort,
Behüt für’s Teufels List und Mord;
Verleih ein selges Stündelein,
Auf daß wir ewig bei dir sein.
Lead us with your right hand
And bless our city and our land;
Grant us always your holy word,
Protect us from the devil’s deceit and murder,
Grant us a blessed hour of death,
That we eternally may be with you.
As in the libretto, somber colors predominate in Bach’s composition. In the first aria, in an archaic D minor, the tenor is accompanied by a complement of strings in which the first violin vividly illuminates the end times situation in the text with driving motoric rhythms, rapid scales that span nearly two octaves, and disjointed cadential figures. The voice makes use of the same gestures, except for the scalar passages that it is unable to perform, but with sharp chromaticism on the word “sündlich” (sinful). The middle part of the movement offers little change except for the last twenty measures, in which the instrumental accompaniment drops out (with symbolic effect), and the voice, supported only by the basso continuo, finds itself all alone once again out in the open.
Associations with the Last Judgment are evoked when the second aria begins with a reveille fanfare by the instruments in unison. After this single-voiced beginning there follows an animated interplay in which obbligato trumpet and first violin strive to outdo one another in rapid scalar passages. Hammering tone repetitions and expansive sequencing of the fanfare motive in the strings and continuo provide a foundation for the image of “Eifer” (enthusiasm) or, as we would say today, a holy rage. The brass instrument’s restriction to natural tones and its narrow range of keys impair the music’s course only marginally. The voice—a bass in high register—provides modulatory liveliness. With its uninterrupted syllabic declamation, this aria—an image of the highest dudgeon—almost never allows a pause. Two apparent points of repose, designated with fermatas, are no exception: with their sudden stasis in medias res they are instead moments of high tension between recurring outbreaks of rage. The timid closing chorale on the sixteenth-century melody Vater unser in Himmelreich (Our father in heaven) scarcely compensates for what has gone before.