Melody & Text | Use of the CM by Bach | Use of the CM by other composers

Melody & Text::

Chorale Text: O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

O Welt, ich muß dich lassen is anonymous and first appeared in Nürnberg, 1555.
Bach has not used this CT in his vocal works.

Chorale Melody: Zahn: 2293b | EKG: 312

This famous melody was most likely composed by Heinrich Isaac from whose pen we have two 4-pt settings, the earliest with the melody in the tenor, the latest with the melody in the soprano part (it has not been definitely established, however, which version came first.) In any case, the earliest appearance of this melody as used by Issac dates roughly from about 1490. The text used by Issac is secular in nature and reflects the poet’s/singers’ sadness and reluctance in departing from the city where he will leave behind him his beloved as he sets forth to go elsewhere in the world. Without being able to provide clear evidence for their suppositions, musicologists have surmised that Issac may have derived/taken the melody from a 15^th-century folksong or frottola, but the majority of musicologists believe that it might be Issac’s own melody. Certainly the excellence of his settings aided in the quick dissemination of this melody so that was already being used for sacred songs as early as 1505. In 1550 it was used as the basis of the CM for the CT Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ (see: CM Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ)

The melody was also discussed previously at: Cantata BWV 97 - Discussions.

The 4-pt. score of Issac’s Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen can be found at: Cantata BWV 97 - In allen meinen Taten - Name that tune! - Example T1

Henricus [Heinrich; Arrigo d’Ugo; Arrigo Tedesco] Isaac [Ysaak, Ysac, Yzac], (b Flanders or Brabant, c1450-55; d Florence, 26 March 1517) was a South Netherlandish composer. The Latin name-form ‘Henricus’, adopted here, is found in many documents and musical sources. Issac was a prominent member of a group of Franco-Flemish musicians, including Josquin des Prez, Jacob Obrecht, Pierre de La Rue, Alexander Agricola and others, who achieved international fame in the decades around 1500, influencing the Italian and European Renaissance. His musical output is particularly large and varied. Through his notable link with the Habsburg dynasty he left his mark on German musical traditions, although he also lived and worked for a considerable time in Florence.

As if in gratitude, German-speaking musicians of several centuries (particularly the 19^th) have cherished him as the composer of Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (which, contrafacted as O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, had been naturalized as a Lutheran chorale and set by J.S. Bach); at the same time, they searched feverishly for the presumed German folksong behind the famous setting.

The two settings: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen [= Herr got las dich], 4vv (i), W i; Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen, 4vv (ii)

Probably Isaac’s best-known German songs, the two settings of Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (i and ii), have problematic aspects. The poetic form AABCCB, which so memorably determines the shape of the melody, is neither a popular scheme nor a Kanzonenstrophe. Staehelin (1989) suggests that a pre-existent Hofweise – perhaps beginning ‘Zurück muss ich dich lassen’ - was used, but no copy of the melody from before Isaac’s time is known. Isaac’s setting (i), with the melody in the discantus and an expressive but rhythmically simple harmonization, resembles his Italian songs and many mass sections; its earliest sources date from the 1530s. In setting (ii), first found in the 1520s, tenor and altus sing the melody in canon, as is more usual in German songs. The bassus of a four-voice setting, of uncertain authorship, survives as well from about 1510. Who composed the melody itself? Stylistic analogies connect it with the Italian lauda or frottola idioms, with some Hofweisen, and with certain French songs such as Helas que devera or Comment poit avoir joye. The opening rhythm is a familiar cliché in Franco-Italian songs from Florence, some of them by Isaac himself. For these reasons, Isaac seems to be the composer of the melody and at least of its Italianate setting (i), whereas the canonic setting (ii) and the anonymous bassus fragment might be Germanized, more contrapuntal adaptations.

Reinhard Strohm in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2006, acc. 4/16/06

Chorale Text 1: In allen meinen Taten | EKG: 292 (15 verses)

The author of this chorale text which first appeared in 1642 is Paul Fleming.
Bach used this CT also with a different CM: In allen meinen Taten (Zahn 2276). See more detailed explanation there.

Chorale Text 2: Nun ruhen alle Wälder | EKG: 361

by Paul Gerhardt.

Chorale Text 3: O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben | EKG: 64

by Paul Gerhardt.

Use of the Chorale Melody by Bach:

Text 1: In allen meinen Taten | EKG: 292
Author: Paul Fleming (1642)

Ver

Work

Mvt.

Year

Br

RE

KE

Di

BC

Score

Music Examples

9

BWV 13

Mvt. 6

1726

Anh 4
103

295

103

-

A34:6

PDF

Mvt. 6 (MG) [midi] | Mvt. 6 (Leusink) [ram]

9

BWV 44

Mvt. 7

1724

354

296

355

108

A78:7

PDF

Mvt. 7 (MG) [midi] | Mvt. 7 (Leusink) [ram]

1

BWV 97

Mvt. 1

1734

-

-

-

-

A189:1

Mvt. 1 (Leusink) [ram]

-

BWV 97

Mvt. 2

1734

-

-

-

-

A189:2

Mvt. 2 (Leusink) [ram]

-

BWV 97

Mvt. 4

1734

-

-

-

-

A189:4

Mvt. 4 (Leusink) [ram]

-

BWV 97

Mvt. 6

1734

-

-

-

-

A189:6

Mvt. 6 (Leusink) [ram]

9

BWV 97

Mvt. 9

1734

-

297

-

66

A189:9

PDF
PDFch

Mvt. 9 (MG) | Mvt. 9 ch (MG) [midi] | Mvt. 9 (Leusink) [ram]

BWV 13/6: Breitkopf Anhang 4 Nun ruhen alle Wälder; Breitkopf 103 (in Bb) Nun ruhen alle Wälder
BWV 44/7: Dietel 108 Nun ruhen alle Wälder; Breitkopf 354 Nun ruhen alle Wälder
Footnote to BWV 97/2,4,6 above:
>>The text is the complete hymn in nine strophes by Paul Fleming ( 1642), but the celebrated melody to which these austere verses are sung, O Welt, ich muß dich lassen (derived from the secular Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen by Heinrich Isaac (c1450-1517), appears only in the first and last movements. The central movements--four arias, a duet, and two recitatives--make no reference to the melody.<<
Alberto Basso in the Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, Oxford University Press, 1999.
BWV 97/9: Dietel 66 Nun ruhen alle Wälder

Text 2: Nun ruhen alle Wälder | EKG: 361
Author: Paul Gerhardt

Ver

Work

Mvt.

Year

Br

RE

KE

Di

BC

Score

Music Examples

-

BWV 392

-

?

288

398

289

-

F166.1

PDF

Chorale (MG) [midi]

Text 3: O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben | EKG: 64
Author: Paul Gerhardt (1647)

Ver

Work

Mvt.

Year

Br

RE

KE

Di

BC

Score

Music Examples

10

BWV 244

Mvt. 10

1727

117

294

117

-

D3:10

PDF

Mvt. 10 (MG) [midi]

3

BWV 244

Mvt. 37

1727

50

292

50

-

D3:37

PDF

Mvt. 37 (MG) [midi]

3,4

BWV 245

Mvt. 11

1724

62

293

63

138

D2:11

PDF

Mvt. 11 (MG) [midi]

-

BWV 393

-

?

275

289

275

57

F166.2

PDF

Chorale (MG) [midi]

-

BWV 394

-

?

365

290

366

141

F166.5

PDF

Chorale (MG) [midi]

-

BWV 395

-

?

362

291

363

-

F166.9

PDF

Chorale (MG) [midi]

Use of the Chorale Melody by other composers:

Paul Luetkeman (c1555-after 1611):
Choralfantasie a 5 Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen for 2 violins, 2 violas & violoncello, in Newer lateinischer und deutscher Gesenge (1597)

Bartholomäus Gesius (1555-62? - 1613):
4-pt setting of O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630):
O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, SATB [bc] (1627); A ii/2, 69

Johann Wolfgang Franck (1644-1710):
Cantata: In allen meinen Taten

Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679-1735):
Chorale Prelude for Organ on Nun ruhen alle Wälder/In allen meinen Taten (Leipzig, 1733)

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767):
Cantata: In allen meinen Taten, 1:928

Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748):
Chorale Prelude for Organ on O Welt, ich muß dich lassen and In allen meinen Taten

Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749):
Passion O Welt! sieh hier dein Leben (Passion Oratorio) (Gotha, 1729)
O Welt! sieh hier dein Leben (= Textinzipit des Schlußtl., Fragment; 1729 Gotha), Textbuch LB Gotha (Fragment)

Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780):
In allen meinen Taten, Chorale Prelude for Organ (Trp.)

Johann Friedrich Doles, sr.(1715-1797):
Cantata: In allen meinen Taten

Franz Liszt (1811-1886):
Nun ruhen alle Wälder, No. 5 of Zwölf alte deutsche geistliche Weisen [Deutsche Kirchenlieder und liturgische Gesänge] for piano (1878-79)

Gottfred Matthison-Hansen (1832-1909):
Nun ruhen alle Wälder, Concertstück for Organ, op. 31

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897):
Two Chorale Preludes for Organ on O Welt, ich muß dich lassen, Op. 122 Nr. 3 & 11 Opus posthumous
The 11 Chorale Preludes for organ, composed in May and June 1896, were published posthumously in 1902 as op.122. Intimations of the composer's mortality are clear from his choice of chorales, including two settings of O Welt, ich muss dich lassen. The models for this set are the preludes of Bach's Orgelbüchlein, described by Reger as ‘symphonic poems in miniature’, in which the chorale melody remains mostly in the top part. Reger's description could apply equally well to Brahms. The expressive seems inseparable from the structural in moments like the achingly sustained half-diminished 7^th chord that precedes the final cadence in the first O Welt prelude, or in the complex motivic development that supports the guileless melody of O Gott, du frommer Gott. These last works capture the unique synthesis of historical and modern that lies at the core of Brahms's musical personality.
Author: Walter Frisch, © Oxford University Press 2006

Johann Nepomuk David (1895-1977):
Partita for Organ on Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (1953-55)

Paul Höffer (1895-1949):
Serenade (Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen), op.43, ob, vn, va, vc; Str Qt, op.46

Ernst-Lothar von Knorr (1896-1973):
Cantata Nun ruhen alle Wälder

Hugo Distler (1908-1942):
Nun ruhen alle Wälder, motet, chorus 4vv (1930/31)

Kurt Hessenberg (1908-1994):
Chorale Partita on O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

Siegfried Reda (1916-1968):
Triptychon for Organ on O Welt, ich muß dich lassen (1951)
[Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Reda, Siegfried, P. 3. Digitale Bibliothek Band 60: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, P. 61841 (cf. MGG Bd. 11, P. 93) (c) Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986]

Ingvar Lidholm (b 1921):
Greetings from an Old World, 1976 for Orchestra
His technical development in the orchestral genre is represented in a twin set of works characterized by the brilliance of the orchestral writing: Greetings from an Old World, written for the 1976 USA bicentenary, in which Heinrich Isaac's Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen forms part of the thematic material.

Sources: NBA, vols. III/2.1 & 2.2 in particular [Bärenreiter, 1954 to present] and the BWV ("Bach Werke Verzeichnis") [Breitkopf & Härtel, 1998]
The PDF files of the Chorales were contributed by Margaret Greentree J.S. Bach Chorales
Software: Capella 2004 Software, version 5.1.
Prepared by Thomas Braatz & Aryeh Oron (April 2006)

Chorales BWV 250-438
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