Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161

Komm, du süße Todesstunde
BWV 161
Church cantata by J. S. Bach
The Schlosskirche in Weimar
Occasion	16th Sunday after Trinity
Performed	27 September 1716 (1716-09-27) – Weimar
Movements	6
Cantata text	Salomon Franck
Chorale	by Christoph Knoll
Vocal	alto and tenor soloists SATB choir
Instrumental	2 recorders 2 violins viola continuo

Komm, du süße Todesstunde (Come, o sweet hour of death),^[1] BWV 161,^{[lower-alpha 1]} is a church cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar for the 16th Sunday after Trinity. The text was provided by court poet Salomon Franck, derived from the prescribed gospel reading about the Young man from Nain reflections on longing for death, seen as a transition to a life united with Jesus. The words includes as a closing chorale the fourth stanza of the hymn "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" by Christoph Knoll. The text was published in 1715, but due to a period of public mourning Bach possibly led the first performance only a year later on 27 September 1716, in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in the ducal Schloss.

Bach structured the work in six movements, opening with a alternating arias and recitatives leadings to a chorus and a concluding chorale. The chorale tune of "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" appears in the first movement, played by the organ, and musical motifs of the arias are derived from it, providing an overall, formal unity to the composition. Bach revived the cantata with minor changes in Leipzig, later assigning it to the feast of the Purification.

History and text

Bach established his reputation as an outstanding organist while in his teens. He moved to Weimar in 1708 to take up position as court organist to the co-reigning dukes Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. He had already begun to compose cantatas at his previous posts at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, and his reasons for moving included disappointment with the standard of singing at the churches where he had worked. He was appointed concertmaster of the Weimar court capelle on 2 March 1714. As concertmaster, he assumed principal responsibility for composing new works. Specifically he was tasked with providing cantatas for the Schlosskirche (palace church) on a monthly schedule, and a complete annual cycle within four years.^[2]

Bach wrote BWV 161 for the 16th Sunday after Trinity. He would have led the first performance, but there is some debate as to the date this took place. The cantata appears to belong to a group of cantatas written in 1715. (The text for this and other cantatas of 1715 was written by the court poet Salomon Franck, and published in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer in 1715). Alfred Dürr, an authority on the dating of Bach's vocal works, concluded that it was first performed on 6 October 1715. However, as this date fell in a period of public mourning in Weimar,^[3] the first performance is dated as the same occasion the following year (27 September 1716) by the publisher Carus-Verlag^[4] and others such as the Bach scholar Christoph Wolff.

The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Ephesians, dedicated to the strengthening of faith in the congregation of Ephesus (Ephesians 3:13–21), and from the Gospel of Luke, the raising from the dead of the Young man from Nain (Luke 7:11–17).^[5] In Bach's time the story pointed at the resurrection of the dead, expressed in words of desire to die soon.^[6] The closing chorale is from the fourth stanza of the hymn "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (1611) by Christoph Knoll.^[7]

Bach revived the work during his years in Leipzig in a version dated some time between 1737 and 1746.^[8] He even performed it for a different liturgical occasion, the feast of the Purification of Mary on 2 February.^[9][10][3] The prescribed readings for the Purification included Simeon's canticle Nunc dimittis (Luke 2:22–32), which with its line "now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace" has a similar message to the libretto.

Scoring and structure

The cantata in structured in six movements, a series of alternating arias and recitatives leads to a chorus and a concluding chorale.^[3] As with several other cantatas on words by Franck, it is scored for a small ensemble: two vocal soloists (alto (A) and tenor (T)), a four-part choir and a Baroque chamber ensemble of two recorders (Fl), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), organ (Org) and basso continuo (Bc).^[9] The title page reads simply: "Auf den sechzenden Sontag nach Trintatis" (For the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity).^[11] The use of recorders is reminiscent of the early cantata Actus tragicus, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106. When the work was revived at Leipzig the recorders were possibly replaced by transverse flutes.^[7]

In common with the cantatas Alles, was von Gott geboren, BWV 80a, and Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BWV 185, also composed at Weimar, one of the structural elements is the anticipation of the closing chorale in the first movement, where the chorale melody is used as a cantus firmus. (Bach used the juxtaposition of a chorale cantus firmus against vocal music later on a grand scale in his St Matthew Passion). In Leipzig, instead of the instrumental quotation of the chorale in the first aria, the first verse of the chorale was probably sung by a soprano.

In the following table of the movements, the scoring and keys are given for the version performed in Weimar in 1714. (The cantata was transposed from C major to E-flat major at Leipzig). The keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4).^[7][9] The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements of Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 185

No.	Title	Text	Type	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Other	Key	Time
1	Komm, du süße Todesstunde	Franck	Aria	A	2Fl		Org	C major
2	Welt, deine Lust ist Last	Franck	Recitative	T					3/4
3	Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland zu umfangen	Franck	Aria	T		2Vl Va		A minor
4	Der Schluß ist schon gemacht	Franck	Recitative	A	2Fl	2Vl Va
5	Wenn es meines Gottes Wille	Franck	Chorus	SATB	2Fl	2Vl Va		C major	3/8
6	Der Leib zwar in der Erden	Knoll	Chorale	SATB	2Fl (obbl.)	2Vl Va		A minor

Music

A Phrygian chorale melody, the well-known melody of "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden", provides the musical theme of the cantata, appearing in movement 1 in both its original form and the alto line derived from it. The themes of the two other arias are taken from the same melody, providing unity.^[3] The same melody appears five times in chorales of Bach's St Matthew Passion.^[6]

1

The opening aria for alto, "Komm, du süße Todesstunde" (Come, o sweet hour of death),^[1] is accompanied by the recorders, while the organ serves not only as a bass instrument but supplies the chorale melody.^[12] In Weimar, Bach seems to have expected the congregation to know the words of the first stanza of Knoll's hymn.

In a later performance in Leipzig, a soprano sang the stanza with the organ.^[6]

2

The tenor recitative, "Welt, deine Lust ist Last" (World, your pleasure is a burden),^[1] ends in an arioso as the words paraphrase a line from Phil 1:23, "Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden und bei Christo zu sein" (I desire to pasture soon with Christ. I desire to depart from this world).^[1]

3

The aria for tenor, "Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland zu umfangen" (My longing is, to embrace my Savior),^[1] is the first movement with the strings,^[12] expressing a deep sense of longing.^[6]

4

The alto recitative, "Der Schluß ist schon gemacht" (The end has already come),^[1] is accompanied by all instruments, creating the images of sleep (in a downward movement, ending in long notes), the waking up (in fast movement upwards), and funeral bells in the recorders and pizzicato of the strings.^[12][8] Isoyama notes: "In this movement the anticipation of death appears to be fulfilled, and the alto's declamation, welcoming death and the ringing of the funeral bells, is filled with a pathos amounting almost to obsession."^[6]

5

The first choral movement 5,"Wenn es meines Gottes Wille" (If it is my God's will),^[1] is marked aria by Franck. Bach set it for four parts, using song-like homophony. Wolff compares the style to Thuringian motets of around 1700.^[3] The first part is not repeated da capo, in keeping with the last words "Dieses sei mein letztes Wort" (May this be my last word).^[1]

6

The closing chorale, "Der Leib zwar in der Erden" (The body, indeed, in the earth),^[1] is illuminated by a fifth part of the two recorders playing a lively counterpoint in unison.^[7] Their "soaring descant" has been interpreted as "creating the image of the flesh transfigured".^[6]

Wolff summarizes: "Cantata 161 is one of the most delicate and jewel-like products of Bach's years in Weimar. The writing in up to ten parts is extraordinarily subtle. ... The recorders additionally contribute in no small way to the spiritualised emotion and positive feelings associated with the 'sweet hour of death'".^[3]

Publication

The cantata was edited for the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe, the first complete edition of Bach's works, by Franz Wüllner. The volume in question was published in 1887.

Recordings

The sortable table are excerpt from the selection on the Bach-Cantatas website.^[5] Choirs are roughly marked as large by red background, orchestras from large (red) to period instruments in historically informed performances (green).

Notes

References

Sources

• Komm, du süsse Todesstunde, BWV 161: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Komm, du süße Todesstunde (1st version) BWV 161; BC A 135a / Sacred cantata (16th Sunday after Trinity) / Cantata] Leipzig University
• Komm, du süße Todesstunde (2nd version) BWV 161; BC A 135b Sacred cantata (16th Sunday after Trinity) / Cantata] Leipzig University
• BWV 161 Komm, du süße Todesstunde English translation, University of Vermont