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Chorales BWV 250-438: Details and Recordings
Individual Recordings: Hilliard - Morimur | Chorales - N. Matt | Chorales - H. Rilling | Preludi ai Corali - Quartetto Italiani di Viola Da Gamba
Discussions: Motets & Chorales for Events in the LCY / Chorales by Theme | General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Chorales in Bach Cantatas: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Passion Chorale
References: Chorales BWV 250-300 | Chorales BWV 301-350 | Chorales BWV 351-400 | Chorales BWV 401-438 | 371 4-Part Chorales sorted by Breitkopf Number | Texts & Translations of Chorales BWV 250-438
Chorale Texts: Sorted by Title | Chorale Melodies: Sorted by Title | Explanation
MIDI files of the Chorales: Cantatas BWV 1-197 | Other Vocal Works BWV 225-248 | Chorales BWV 250-438
Articles: The Origin of the Texts of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Origin of the Melodies of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Chorale in the Church Service [A. Schweitzer] | Choral / Chorale [C.S. Terry] | Hidden Chorale Melody Allusions [T. Braatz] | The History of the Breitkopf Collection of J. S. Bach’s Four-Part Chorales [T. Braatz] | The World of the Bach Chorale Settings [W.L. Hoffman]
Hymnals: Hymnals used by Bach | Wagner Hymnal 1697 | Evangelisches Gesangbuch 1995 | Dietel Chorale List c1734
Abbreviations used for the Chorales | Links to other Sites about the Chorales


Chorale Texts used in Bach's Vocal Works
Selig ist die Seele
Text and Translation of Chorale

Ref. in hymnals/hymn books: FT:V 539
Author: Heinrich Müller (1659)
Chorale Melody: Jesu, meine Freude (Zahn 8032) | Composer: Johann Crüger (1653)
Theme: Rogate; Song of Praise; Cross & Persecution; Joyful Jesus Song; Love & Longing for Jesus

Description:

J.S. Bach composed two Rogate Cantatas based on the day's gospel: "Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch" (Truly, truly, I say to you, John 16:23), BWV BWV 86, 1724, and BWV 87, "Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namon" (Until now you have asked nothing in my name, John 16:24), 1725. Cantata BWV 87 moves from sorrow to joy, with two undesignated (hybrid aria-arioso) Vox Christi bass solos of mottos from the Gospel of John 16:23-30, the Farewell Discourse: the initial dictum (verse 24), and Movement 5 (Verse 33), “In the world you will have anguish” (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV87-Eng3.htm, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV87-D4.htm). Cantata BWV 87 closes (Mvt. 7) with Heinrich Müller’s 1659 BAR Form song of praise chorale, “Selig ist die Seele” (Blessed is the Soul), with closing Stanza 9, “Must I be troubled?” (http://www.bach-chorales.com/BWV0087_7.htm). J.S. Bach harmonized it to the associated Johann Crüger (1653) popular melody (Zahn 8032), “Jesu, meine Freude” (Jesus, my joy, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Jesu-meine-Freude.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqBMP0J0-Ag). The H. Müller nine 10-line (AABCCDEEFF) chorale was first published in Geistliche Seeln Musik (Rostock 1659). The pietist melody "Jesu, meine Freude" is found in the NLGB as No. 301, Cross & Persecution, in the Weimar Orgelbuchlein as No. 610, Christmas, prelude BWV 610, and in the Schmelli Gesangbuch (Leipzig, 1736) as No. 744, Joyful Jesus Song, while “Selig ist die Seele” is found in the Schmelli Gesangbuch as No. 709, Love & Longing for Jesus.
Cantata BWV 87 “places the turning of sorrow into joy within the context of prayer [Rogate] and the Trost [trust] from Jesus’s having overcome ‘the World’,” observes Eric Chafe in his recent study, J. S. Bach’s Johannine Theology.4 Cantata 87 moves from “the believer’s acknowledgement of guilt” with anxiety to “qualms of conscience” to “the positive other side of the acknowledgement of sin, consolation for the troubled conscience, as Luther described it in his Sermon on the Meditation of Christ’s Passion (1519) and other writing,” says Chafe. Movement 5, John 16:33, concludes: “Ich habe die Welt überwunden.” (I have conquered the world.). This statement ends the Farewell Discourse proper, “ushering in the chapter [John 17] in which Jesus names his ‘hour’ as having come and prays to the Father for his glorification,” says Chafe (Ibid.: 466). The final chorale, “Selig ist die Seele/Jesu, meine Freude," presents “the transformed view of suffering that Jesus’s love brings about,” says Chafe (Ibid.: 468), in Martin Luther's Theology of the Cross (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology_of_the_Cross). The hymn “evokes all the qualities of Jesulove” expressed in influential theologians Heinrich Müller and Valerius Herberger, says Chafe (Ibid.: 474). Cantata BWV 87 completes the first of three Ziegler cantatas that comprise a subgroup “which deal with the understanding of suffering” through Jesus’ victory and love, increasingly showing how “the tribulation of the world is overcome,” preparing for Jesus’ ascension and the Pentecost theme of love.
Source: Cantatas for Rogate Sunday (William Hoffman, April 27, 2018)

Vocal Works by J.S. Bach:

Chorale Muß ich sein betrübet? (Mvt. 7) from Cantata BWV 87 (1725) (verse 9)
Ref: RE 201, Br 96; KE 201; Di 105; BC F74:7; CST 208

German Text (verses in bold print set by Bach)

English Translation

1. Selig ist die Seele,
die in ihrer Höhle,
dich, o Jesu liebt.
Du wirst sie umarmen,
und mit Trost erwarmen
wenn sie ist betrübt.
Du bist ihr
Licht, Heil und Zier,
ihres Herzens süße Weide,
Leben, Schatz und Freude.

1. Blessed truly is he
In this vale of mis'ry,
Jesu, loves Thee well.
Him Thou'lt ever cherish,
Never shall he perish
When life's tempests swell.
For 'tis Thou
A light wilt show,
Comfort sweet beyond all measure:
Jesu, Joy and Treasure!

2. Ein Herz, das dich liebet,
ist stets unbetrübet
und von Sorgen frei.
Unter tausend Waffen
kann es sicher schlafen,
denn du stehst ihm bei.
Wenn der Feind,
der's böse meint,
noch so grausam tobt und wütet,
wird es doch behütet.

2. Lord, the heart that loves Thee
Standeth ever firmly,
Free from every care.
Foemen wildly raging,
Him in fight engaging,
Let them all beware!
Satan's might
Is broken quite;
Howsoever fierce he rageth,
God his power tameth.

3. Schießt der Teufel Pfeile
in geschwinder eile
auf die Herzen zu,
find' ich in den Klüften
und blutroten Grüften,
deiner Wunden Ruh.
Wenn mich gleich
ein ganzes Reich
voller Teufel will umringen
will ich fröhlich singen.

 

4. Kommen seine Schuppen
mit vermehrten Truppen
bieten wieder Sturm,
sprechen mit Belachen
was will dieser machen,
dieser arme Wurm?
Wirst du doch,
das weiß ich noch,
mich vor aller Feinde Stürmen
Jesu, wohl beschirmen.

 

5. Tobt, ihr Satansrotten,
es wird euer spotten,
der im Himmel sitzt.
Er wird euer Dichten,
ganz und gar vernichten,
wenn ihr noch so schwitzt.
Seid ihr gleich
so groß und reich
als der große Alexander
stürzt er's miteinander.

 

6. Laßt mir alles nehmen,
ich will mich nicht grämen
um das schnöde Geld.
Reichtum kann wohl drücken,
aber nicht erquicken
und bleibt in der Welt.
Hab' ich Gott,
so hat's nicht Not
über hunderttausend Schätzen,
muß mich Gott ergötzen.

 

7. Würd' ich mich drob kränken,
was würde der denken,
der den Himmel baut?
Ist er doch mein Vater
mein Freund und Berater
dem ich mich vertraut.
Bleibt mir Gott,
mein Stücklein Brot
wird mir hier auf dieser Erden
auch wohl müssen werden.

 

8. Muß ich aller Ehren
bloß sein und vermehren
meiner Feinde Ruhm?
Laß' sie immer prangen
ich hab' kein Verlangen
nach der Wiesen Blum!
Menschenehr',
was ist sie mehr
als ein ängstenvolles Leben
Gott kann mich erheben.

 

9. Muß ich sein betrübet,
so mich Jesus liebet
ist mir aller Schmerz
über Honig süße,
tausend Zuckerküsse
drücket er ans Herz.
Wenn die Pein
sich stellet ein,
seine Liebe macht zu Freuden
auch das bitt're Leiden.

9. When dark cares oppress me,
If my Lord possess me,
Vanishes my woe.
Honey is not sweeter,
Passing joys are fleeter,
Jesu's love I know.
Grief and pain
I do disdain;
Jesu's love can turn to gladness
E'en the deepest sadness.

   

Source of German Text: Monarchieliga
English Translation: Charles Sanford Terry | Source of English Translation: Charles Sanford Terry: The Four-Part Chorals of J.S. Bach (Oxford University Press, 1929), p 217
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (November 2018)


Chorales BWV 250-438: Details and Recordings
Individual Recordings: Hilliard - Morimur | Chorales - N. Matt | Chorales - H. Rilling | Preludi ai Corali - Quartetto Italiani di Viola Da Gamba
Discussions: Motets & Chorales for Events in the LCY / Chorales by Theme | General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Chorales in Bach Cantatas: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Passion Chorale
References: Chorales BWV 250-300 | Chorales BWV 301-350 | Chorales BWV 351-400 | Chorales BWV 401-438 | 371 4-Part Chorales sorted by Breitkopf Number | Texts & Translations of Chorales BWV 250-438
Chorale Texts: Sorted by Title | Chorale Melodies: Sorted by Title | Explanation
MIDI files of the Chorales: Cantatas BWV 1-197 | Other Vocal Works BWV 225-248 | Chorales BWV 250-438
Articles: The Origin of the Texts of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Origin of the Melodies of the Chorales [A. Schweitzer] | The Chorale in the Church Service [A. Schweitzer] | Choral / Chorale [C.S. Terry] | Hidden Chorale Melody Allusions [T. Braatz] | The History of the Breitkopf Collection of J. S. Bach’s Four-Part Chorales [T. Braatz] | The World of the Bach Chorale Settings [W.L. Hoffman]
Hymnals: Hymnals used by Bach | Wagner Hymnal 1697 | Evangelisches Gesangbuch 1995 | Dietel Chorale List c1734
Abbreviations used for the Chorales | Links to other Sites about the Chorales




 

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Last update: Saturday, January 04, 2020 13:41