Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (Ah Lord, poor sinner that
I am), BWV 135, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian
Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the third Sunday
after Trinity and first performed it on 25 June 1724.
It is the fourth chorale cantata from his second annual
cycle, of chorale cantatas, based on the hymn by
Cyriakus Schneegass.
Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the Third
Sunday after Trinity as the fourth cantata of his
second annual cycle of chorale cantatas and ...(+)
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (Ah Lord, poor sinner that
I am), BWV 135, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian
Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the third Sunday
after Trinity and first performed it on 25 June 1724.
It is the fourth chorale cantata from his second annual
cycle, of chorale cantatas, based on the hymn by
Cyriakus Schneegass.
Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the Third
Sunday after Trinity as the fourth cantata of his
second annual cycle of chorale cantatas and first
performed it on 25 June 1724, after Christ unser Herr
zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, on St. John's Day.
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the
First Epistle of Peter, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord"
(1 Peter 5:6–11), and from the Gospel of Luke, the
parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost
Coin (Luke 15:1–10). The cantata is based entirely on
the chorale "Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder" (1597) by
Cyriakus Schneegass, a paraphrase on Psalm 6 in six
stanzas. The connection to the readings is rather
marginal, the Lord's comforting (movement 3) and
destruction of the enemies (5) refer to the epistle,
the joy about a repenting sinner, the theme of the
chorale, to the gospel. The unknown poet kept the first
and last stanza unchanged. He paraphrased the other
four stanzas to four movements, alternating recitatives
and arias.
The opening chorus is a chorale fantasia as in the
previous chorale cantatas. Bach had started the first
one of his second cycle with the cantus firmus of the
chorale tune in the soprano, in this fourth work the
bass has the honour. According to Christoph Wolff, the
first four cantatas of the cycle form a group,
distinctively different in their chorale fantasias.
After a French Overture (O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV
20), a motet (Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2)
and an Italian concerto (Christ unser Herr zum Jordan
kam, BWV 7), the movement is an "extraordinary filigree
of vocal and instrumental counterpoint" of the chorale
melody. John Eliot Gardiner observes: "Together they
make a fascinating and contrasted portfolio of choral
fantasia openings." All parts, even the instruments,
take part in the polyphon setting of the tune. Bach
used the melody, originally a love song, later for the
first chorale of his Christmas Oratorio, "Wie soll ich
dich empfangen", and several times in his St Matthew
Passion, most prominently "O Haupt voll Blut und
Wunden". All eight lines of the text are first treated
instrumentally, then vocally. The instrumental
anticipation is a trio without continuo of oboe I and
II against the strings, which play in unison the cantus
firmus. In stark contrast to this high texture, the
four-part vocal setting is dominated by the cantus
firmus in the bass, reinforced by the trombone and the
continuo. The strings play colla parte with the other
voices. On the words "daß ich mag ewig leben" (that I
may live forever) the cantus firmus is broadened to
three times as slow. It is concluded by an original
line from the chorale, "Ah, Lord, why so long?". In the
tenor aria, accompanied by the two oboes, the "collapse
in death" is pictured by falling sevenths, "silent in
death" by long silences. The alto recitative opens with
an original line of the chorale, "I am weary of
sobbing", expressed in a variation of the first line of
the tune. The bass aria is a vigorous call, "Hence, all
you evildoers". The strings play a forceful two-bar
phrase, repeated twice at lower pitches, at which point
it soars upwards and becomes increasingly dispersive in
nature. ... In Bach's Obituary, written by Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach and Agricola and published in 1754 mention
is made of his distinctive melodies which are described
as "strange" and "like no others". This is a good
example; scrupulously shaped and crafted, ranging over
nearly three octaves and carried forward through jagged
shapes whilst radiating an unprecedented vigour and all
the time reflecting the imagery of the text. The
cantata closes with a four-part chorale, the soprano
enforced by the cornett.
Although originally scored for three vocal soloists
(alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, cornett,
trombone, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso
continuo, I created this arrangement for Solo Cello &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION