O Jesus Christ, the light of my life

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O Jesu Christ, mein Lebens Licht BWV 118a / b is a mourning composition by Johann Sebastian Bach for four-part mixed choir and orchestra accompaniment. It is available in two versions, which essentially only differ in the instrumentation . The first version (BWV 118a) from 1736 or 1737 requires two " litui " as an accompaniment in addition to a zinc and three trumpets . To this day, it is still controversial in musicology which instrument is meant by "lituus". The most common assumption is that it is a high horn in B ♭. This assumption is based on an article by Curt Sachs from 1919. Thomas G. MacCracken criticizes this assumption and considers trumpets to be more likely; Recent research suggests a straight horn, similar to an alphorn.

The pure brass line-up of the first version makes it likely that it was heard during a funeral procession or at the grave . This mourning composition is a late and particularly impressive follow-up to those mourning arias with multiple stanzas for choir that were traditional in central Germany in the 17th century. It is unique among all of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions in several respects.

history

While the years 1736 or 1737 are assumed to be the origin of the original version (BWV 118a) based on the sources, the revised version (BWV 118b) is classified either in the first half of the 1740s or in the years 1746 or 1747. The occasion and location of the premiere are unknown. Due to the use of the passion and death hymns O Jesus Christ, my life's light, it can be assumed that it will be premiered at a funeral service. Since the original version only calls for brass instruments , it could have been played during a funeral procession or at the grave . Attempts to assign it to a specific memorial service have so far failed. The reason for the revival of the funeral composition with a revised orchestra is also unknown.

The original version of the work was first printed as a cantata in 1876 ​​as part of the Old Bach Edition (published by the Leipzig Bach Society) in Volume XXIV , because it is a vocal composition with orchestra and a German sacred text (which is why it was later published in the Bach Catalog of works with the number 118 in the Cantatas section). The New Bach Edition, on the other hand, assigned it to the motets in Volume III / 1 in 1967 , since Bach's original designation “Motetto” can be found in the head titles of both surviving scores. The Leipzig musicologist Hans-Joachim Schulze argues that the compositional disposition of the work forbids taking Bach's designation motetto as a justification for assigning this work to the genre of the motet. He points out that Bach also referred to other compositions that are far removed from the genre of motets, such as the Mühlhausen council election cantata BWV 71 and his arrangement of Pergolesi's Stabat mater , Tilge, Höchster, Meine Sünden as motetto. For Schulze, this choral setting is one of the numerous vocal and instrumental chorale settings in Bach's oeuvre in the style of O Mensch, weeping your sin big from Bach's St. Matthew Passion .

Cast and performance practice

Bach sadness composition for four voices mixed choir ( S A T B ) and orchestra is accompanied in two versions, and differs essentially only by the instrumentation . The first version (BWV 118a) requires two litui, one zinc and three trumpets , which makes it probable that it was heard during a funeral procession or at the grave ; the second version (BWV 118b) is for two litui, two violins , one viola and basso continuo and allows three oboes , one oboe da caccia and one bassoon to reinforce the vocal parts ad libitum .

Although Bach only added the first chorale verse to the Passion and Death Hymns, the autograph of his second version with the Dal-Segno sentence annotation and the notated conclusion shows that Bach evidently thought of singing several chorale verses. A performance of the funeral composition should therefore by no means be restricted to the first stanza. For reasons of performance practice, a maximum of two or three stanzas of the total of 15 chorale stanzas will be played; Sir John Eliot Gardiner , for example, used the first and twelfth stanzas in 1989, so that because of the generally applicable text of these two stanzas, the mourning composition remains a composition that can be performed throughout the church year .

Text structure

Bach's mourning composition is a chorale setting of the passion and death hymn O Jesus Christ, the light of my life , which (in us today has become alien to the drama) seeks consolation for one's own suffering and death from the passion of Christ . The chorale goes back to Martin Behm's choir collection from 1610. Music historians assume, however, that Bach took the hymn from the edition of the Leipzig hymn book published by Carl Gottlob Hofmann in 1734, where it contained 15 stanzas. According to this Leipzig hymn book, the following chorale wording results:

1. O Jesus Christ, the light of my life,
my refuge, my consolation, my confidence,
on earth I am only a guest
and I am very oppressed by the burden of sins.		 9. Let your last word be my light
when death breaks my heart!
Protect me from naughtiness
if I bow my head now.
2. I have a heavy journey
to you in the heavenly paradise,
there is my true fatherland,
to which you have turned your blood.		 10. Let your cross be my walking stick,
my rest and rest, your holy grave, let
the pure grave cloths be yours,
my death clothes.
3. My heart is very weak for rice,
the body has very little strength;
Only my soul screams in me:
"Lord, take me home, take me to you!"		 11. Let me
see through your nails the choice of genes,
through your split since
my poor soul has been escorted home.
4. Therefore strengthen me through your suffering
in my last agony;
Your blood sweat comforts and equick
me, set me free with your cord and cord!		 12. On your farewell, Lord, I trust,
build my last journey home on it,

Open the door of heaven wide for me
when I decide my life is to run.

5. Your stroke of the cheek and your rods freshly
wiped the streaks of my sin,
your scorn and mockery, your crown of thorns,
let be my honor, joy and joy.		 13. On the last day awaken my body,
help that I stay on
your right, so that your judgment does not meet me, which
speaks the terrible judgment.
6. Your thirst and bile drink refreshed me
when I have no other refreshment;
your screams of fear are too good
for me , save me from the embers of hell.		 14. Then renew my body completely, so
that it shines like the shine of the sun,
and like your clear body,
also remains like the dear angels.
7.
Let the sacred five wounds of yours be right rock holes for me, into which
I flee as a deaf, so
that the holy holy do not steal me.		 15. How will I be so happy,
will sing with the angels
and with the chosen crowd
forever see your face clearly.
8. When my mouth cannot speak freely,
your spirit in my heart shouts:
Help my soul find heaven
when my eyes go blind.

Musical structure

Bach's Mourning Composition BWV 118 is a late and particularly impressive follow-up to those mourning arias with multiple stanzas for choir that were traditional in central Germany in the 17th century. The melody belongs to the chorale Oh God, like many Herzeleid that Bach set to music in the cantatas BWV 3 and BWV 58 . The style of O Jesus Christ, the light of my life is reminiscent of the setting of the hymn O man, weep for your sins greatly in the St. Matthew Passion .

The mourning composition begins in basso continuo with a four-bar organ point above B ♭, to which the other orchestral voices move freely in harmony with motifs of sighs. Now the basso continuo also adopts the sigh motif, but the organ point is repeated over and over again at different levels in the course of the composition. In bar 19 the soprano appears gently as cantus firmus with the first chorale line O Jesu Christ mein Leben ist , the three lower voices interpret the text with rhetorical figures. After modulations from the initial key of B major to C minor and F major, Bach's Dal Segno note in bar 90 refers to the repetition of the composition from bar 2, which suggests that Bach was thinking of singing another chorale strophe . After the repetition, the orchestral aftermath follows from bar 91 with the organ point over B ♭, to which the other orchestral voices move harmoniously one last time with motifs of sighs. Bach's mourning composition closes in a quiet B major.

literature

  • New Bach Edition III / 1: Critical Report, p. 191 ff.
  • Thomas MacCracken: The use of brass instruments by JS Bach with special consideration of the Tromba da tirarsi. In: Bach-Jahrbuch 70 (1984), p. 78.
  • Wolfram Enßlin: O Jesus Christ, my light. Foreword to the score, Breitkopf & Härtel, 2014.
  • Anselm Hartinger & Kathrin Menzel: The baroque 'Lituus' and its use in Johann Sebastian Bach's motet "O Jesu Christ mein's Lebens Licht" (BWV 118). Source and instrumental remarks on a research project of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In: Glareana. News of the Society of Friends of Old Musical Instruments 58th vol. (2009), Issue 1/2, pp. 33–44, here p. 40. This article also contains images and other technical data on this newly developed instrument, which is also available in a winding Shape, similar to the traditional "Büchl" of the Alpine region, would be conceivable.
  • Klaus Hofmann: Johann Sebastian Bach. The motets . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1499-2 .
  • Ulrich Leisinger : O Jesus Christ my light. Foreword to the score, Carus-Verlag 2000.
  • Ulrich Prinz: Johann Bach's instruments. Original sources, cast, usage. (= Series of publications of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart 10), Kassel [u. a.] 2005, p. 154 (Notes on the lituus with numerous other references to this instrument designation, p. 151–155).
  • Curt Sachs : The Litui in Bach's motet "O Jesu Christ". In: Bach-Jahrbuch 18 (1921), p. 96 f.
  • Hans-Joachim Schulze : O Jesus Christ my light. On the transmission of a Bach Source and the Riddle of its Origin. In: A Bach Tribute. Essays in Honor of William H. Schneider. Edited by Paul Brainard and Roy Robinson, Kassel [u. a.] 1993, p. 214.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The baroque "Lituus" and its use in Johann Sebastian Bach's motet "O Jesus Christ, meins Lebens Licht" (BWV 118) ( Memento from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Research project of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (accessed on September 11, 2019 )
  2. ↑ Ulrich Leisinger, foreword to the piano reduction, CV 31.118 / 03, May 2015.
  3. ↑ The Leipzig Hymnal , ed. by Carl Gottlob Hofmann , Leipzig, 1734 (to be found at Sebastian Heinrich Barnbeck at Thomaskirchhofe 1739 No. 211 Mart. Böhme.Mel. Oh God, how many things, ec. , p. 118 f.)