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• 1 2023-09-26T09:32:59+00:00 Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott BWV 127 / BC A 49 9 Chorale cantata on hymn by Paul Eber. Estomihi. Part of Chorale Cantata Annual Cycle. First performed 02/11/1725 in Leipzig (Cycle II). plain 2024-04-24T17:34:34+00:00 1725-02-11 BWV 127 Leipzig 51.340199, 12.360103 18Estomihi Chorale Cantata Estomihi BC A 49 Johann Sebastian Bach Paul Eber Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott, BWV 127 / BC A 49" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 158 James A. Brokaw II Chorale Cantata Annual Cycle Leipzig II

  Estomihi, February 11, 1725

  The cantata Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott BWV 127 (Lord Jesus Christ, true human and God) is one of the last works in Johann Sebastian Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas. It was performed for the first time on Estomihi Sunday, February 11, 1725. The chorale on which it is based was published by Paul Eber in 1562; although it is a funeral hymn, it appears among Passion hymns in the collections of Bach’s time. The reason a Passion hymn is used in a cantata for Estomihi can be seen in the nature of this Sunday, whose Gospel reading from Luke 18, depicting the journey to Jerusalem, clearly foreshadows the Passion story. The blurred line between funeral and Passion hymn stems from the doctrine that Christ truly walked the path to death and that it is possible for the believer to emulate Christ in their own death.
  
  In the manner typical for the cycle, the unknown cantata librettist left the first and last strophes untouched and reshaped the inner strophes to form recitatives and arias. Accordingly, Paul Eber’s first strophe in its original wording stands at the beginning:

  Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, 
  Der du littst Marter, Angst und Spott,
  Für mich am Kreuz auch endlich starbst 
  Und mir deins Vaters Huld erwarbst, 
  Ich bitt durchs bittre Leiden dein:
  Du wollst mir Sünder gnädig sein.
  
  Lord Jesus Christ, true human and God, 
  You who suffered torture, fear, and mockery, 
  Finally also died on the cross for me
  And earned for me your Father's favor. 
  I ask, through your bitter suffering,
  That you would be gracious to me, a sinner.

  
  The ensuing recitative combines the content of the second and third strophes, following the depiction of the pains of death in the chorale, a depiction that spans the strophes and pleads for an end to the torture. Eber’s fourth strophe prays for the assistance of Christ:

  Bis sich die Seel vom Leib abwendt,    
  So nimm sie, Herr, in deine Hand;    
  Der Leib hab in der Erd sein Ruh 
  Bis sich der jüngst Tag naht herzu.
  
  Until the soul turns away from the body, 
  So take it, Lord, in your hand.
  The body will have its rest in earth 
  Until the last day approaches.

  
  The aria text derived from this is vividly formulated:

  Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen, 
  Wenn Erde diesen Leib bedeckt.
  Ach ruft mich bald, ihr Sterbeglocken, 
  Ich bin zum Sterben unerschrocken, 
  Weil mich mein Jesu wieder weckt.
  
  The soul rests in Jesus’s hands, 
  When earth covers this body.
  O call me soon, you funeral bells, 
  I am of dying unafraid,
  Because my Jesus wakes me again.

  
  The contrast between chorale strophe and cantata text is even stronger in the ensuing recitative. Eber’s simple opening verses in the fifth strophe, “Ein fröhlich Auferstehung mir verleih, / Am jüngsten G’richt mein Fürsprecher sei” (Grant me a joyous resurrection. / May you be my advocate at the Last Judgment), are transformed into an impressive scenario of the Last Judgment:

  Wenn einstens die Posaunen schallen, 
  Und wenn der Bau der Welt
  Nebst denen Himmelsfesten 
  Zerschmettert wird zerfallen,
  So denke mein, mein Gott, im besten;
  Wenn sich dein Knecht einst vors Gericht stellt, 
  Da die Gedanken sich verklagen,
  So wollest du allein,
  O Jesu, mein Fürsprecher sein 
  Und meiner Seele tröstlich sagen: 
  Fürwahr, fürwahr, euch sage ich:
  Wenn Himmel und Erde im Feuer vergehen, 
  So soll doch ein Gläubiger ewig bestehen.
  Er wird nicht kommen ins Gericht
  Und den Tod ewig schmecken nicht.
  
  When once the trumpets sound
  And when the foundations of the world 
  Beside that of the firmament,
  Dashed to pieces, will collapse,
  Then think of me, my God, for good;
  When your servant one day stands before judgment, 
  Where his thoughts accuse him,
  Then would you alone, O Jesus, be my advocate
  And to my soul, in consolation, say:
  Truly, truly, I say to you:
  When heaven and Earth pass away in fire,
  Yet shall the faithful one withstand in eternity. 
  He will not come before judgment
  And shall not eternally taste death.

  
  Parts of the promise beginning with “fürwahr” (truly) are taken literally from Eber’s sixth strophe; the closing lines depend on his seventh strophe:

  Ich breche mit starker und helfender Hand 
  Des Todes gewaltig geschlossenes Band.
  
  I break, with strong and helping hand, 
  Death’s powerful, closed snare.

  
  The closing strophe of this funeral and Passion hymn remains unchanged:

  Ach Herr, vergib all unsre Schuld, 
  Hilf, daß wir warten mit Geduld
  Bis unser Stündlein kömmt herbei
  Auch unser Glaub stets wacker sei, 
  Dein’m Wort zu trauen festiglich, 
  Bis wir einschlafen seliglich.
  
  O Lord, forgive us all our sins. 
  Help, that we await with patience
  Until our hour of death arrives
  And always keep our faith brave,
  To trust your word to trust absolutely, 
  Until we fall blessedly into death’s sleep.

  
  The opening movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s setting of this libretto stands out because of its unusually multileveled structure. It exhibits the expected pattern: here as in most of its sister works, the soprano presents the chorale melody in relatively large note values, while the other voices provide imitative counterpoint to the cantus firmus in the manner of a motet, and a motivically unified instrumental texture serves to unify these divergent components. In fact, the instrumental ensemble—two recorders, two oboes, and strings—fulfills this function from the very beginning, in particular by way of a rhythmically pregnant motive, as well as a figure that clearly refers to the beginning of the chorale melody, with both components remaining present throughout the entire course of the movement.
  
  But the matter does not end there. Beginning with the strings in the first measure and later taken up by the oboes and recorders, the ancient melody of the “German Agnus Dei,” Christe, du Lamm Gottes (Christ, you lamb of God), is heard as a second cantus firmus. By doing this, Bach makes a connection to a somewhat older Estomihi cantata, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn BWV 23 (You true God and David’s Son), which he composed in 1723 in conjunction with his application for the position of cantor of St. Thomas School. Here also, the ancient Christe, du Lamm Gottes is inserted as a purely instrumental quotation, without words, creating the effect of multitextuality in the recitative in which it appears. In the same way, the opening chorus of the cantata Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott actually integrates two text levels: the chorale poetry of Paul Eber from the second half of the sixteenth century, as well as Luther’s translation of the Agnus Dei from about a decade earlier, based on the instrumental quotation. Musically, there are actually three historical levels represented here: the liturgical melody of the Agnus Dei; the cantus firmus to Paul Eber’s chorale melody, taken from a French psalter; and the motet-like, concerted composition of Johann Sebastian Bach.
  
  Following a brief tenor recitative, a haunting dialogue unfolds in the aria “Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen” (The soul rests in Jesus’s hands), between the lonely and imploring soprano voice and a faithful and consoling oboe by its side, while the unceasing toll of the funeral bell can be heard in the endless staccato of the recorders, later in the pizzicato of the strings. The penultimate cantata movement, a hybrid of recitative and aria, allows two opposing components to clash with one another: on the one hand, the depiction of the Last Judgment, with wide intervals in the vocal part, impassioned tone and chord repetitions in the strings, and fanfares in the trumpet that signal danger; and on the other, the calming and soothing promise of salvation in the stepwise-moving voice, accompanied only by the basso continuo. The beginning of the last third of the movement anticipates the chorus “Sind Blitzen, sind Donner in Wolken verschwunden” (Have lightning and thunder vanished in clouds) of the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244/27b, several years before it came into being. After the triumphant conclusion of this drama-filled movement, the concluding four-part chorale, “Ach Herr, vergib all unsre Schuld,” seems rather humble.
  
  The cantata as a whole occupies a unique position in Bach’s oeuvre, which can be seen in the fact that the opening movement—transposed to E-flat major and with minor changes¹—was taken into a pasticcio Passion music that is largely the work of Carl Heinrich Graun and is contained in a manuscript from the estate of Bach’s son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol.² The second part of the Passion, to be performed after the sermon, begins with “Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott.” It is possible that Altnickol was following a suggestion from Johann Sebastian Bach in making this addition. It is even conceivable that Bach not only offered encouragement but also acted directly as a model, in that he himself added his own chorale movement to a Passion that has not survived, thereby giving it a special place among his cantatas.

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  Footnotes

  1. Dürr (1988).↵
  2. Wollny and Glöckner (1997).↵