Clavier-Übung III, BWV 552, BWV 669-689
General Discussions - Part 1

Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales, BWV 669-689

William L. Hoffman wrote (July 9, 2017):
Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales, BWV 669-689

German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales

In 1735 Bach turned to sacred songs with the Schemelli Sacred Song Book and then returned to organ composition with his omnibus Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass and Catechism Chorales, published in 1739 and celebrating the Trinity and the Catechism at the beginning of the omnes tempore second-half of the church year. It was composed in two parts, beginning with the Mass: Kyrie and Gloria chorales, BWV 669-677, and the pedaliter Catechism chorales and at a later stage the manualiter Catechsim chorales, together BWV 678-689, as well as the four manualiter canonic duets, BWV 802-805, and the opening/closing Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552, sometimes known as “St. Anne,” described in Richard D. P. Jones’ “The middle Leipzig years: Clavierübung II-III.” ¹

The Clavierübung III, German Organ Mass and Catechism Chorales collection fills a significant void in the church year calendar, systematically portraying the essential chorales of basic Lutheran teachings. These hymns are a transition from the chorales of de tempore (Proper Time) time of Jesus Christ to the omnes tempore (Ordinary Time) Christian themes found in the paired sermons and teachings of Trinity Time, now called the Sundays after Pentecost. The order is found in Bach’s Das new Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) of 1682, of Gottfried Vopelius.² These following the Pentecost feast and the Trinity section with the German settings of the Missae: Kyrie and Gloria, NLGB 139-149. The saints John the Baptist, Michael and the Apostles feast, plus the feast of Visitation with Magnificat settings follow, NLGB 150-169, as well as the liturgical Te Deum litany. The Catechism Hymns section follows with the Commandments, Creed, Baptism, Confession, NLGB Nos. 170-189, and other liturgical settings, of Morning and Evening Songs, Communion Songs, and Justification, NLGB Nos 190-233. The thematic omnes tempore section begins withe the rubric, “Christian Life and Conduct,” and concludes with school student teachings, NLGB 234-432, ending with “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit” and “Sey gegrüßset Jesu Gutig.”

The German Organ Mass/Catechism Chorales constitute one of a Bachian musical triumvirate of German-language, Luther-initiated transcriptions from the Latin music and texts to the vernacular language of the people. The other two are the Latin-derived German Language settings in Luther’s Magnificat, found in chorale Cantata BWV 10, “Meine Seel erhebt den Herren” (My soul praises the Lord, Luke 1:46), NLGB 153, and in Bach’s plain chorale settings of Luther’s 1525 Deutsche Messe (German Mass) of the Latin Mass Ordinary (Kyrie, BWV 371; Gloria, BWV 260; Credo, BWV 437; Sanctus, BWV 325; and Agnus Dei, BWV 421). In addition, Bach provided liturgical settings of the Catechism chorales: Commandments, BWV 298; Lord’s Prayer, BWV 437; Baptism, BWV 280; Confession, BWV 38/6; and Communion, BWV 363.

Chorale Preludes: Missa, Catechism

The German Mass/Catechism organ chorales involve nine settings of the Kyrie and Gloria, BWV 669-676, followed by Luther’s Catechism doctrinal teachings on the Ten Commandments, Apostles Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Penitence, and Communion. Bach’s 21 alternate chorale settings in old and new styles and forms represent two types of Sunday services, the early Main Services of the Word and Communion, with the Mssae: Kyrie-Gloria, and the afternoon Vespers/Catechism Service, observes Peter Williams in “Chorales from Clavierübung III BWV 669-689.3 The larger pedal preludes probably were intended to be played during appropriate places in the Main Service and Vesper Service of the Word, with the alternate manual preludes played during the Main Service of Communion.

The chorales are (Bach Compendium K 1-21): 1. Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 669; 2. Christe, Aller Welt Trost, BWV 670; 3. Kyrie, Gott Heiliger Geist, BWV 671; 4. Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 672; 5. Christe, aller Welt Trost, BWV 673; 6. Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, BWV 674; 7. Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr', BWV 675; 8. Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr', BWV 676; 9. Fughetta on Allein Gott, BWV 677; 10. Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot', BWV 678; 11. Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot' (Fughetta), BWV 679; 12. Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV 680;13. Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV 681; 14. Vater unser in Himmelreich, BWV 682;15. Vater unser in Himmelreich, BWV 683; 16. Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 684; 17. Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 685; 18. Aus tiefer Noth schrei' ich zu dir, BWV 686; 19. Aus tiefer Noch schrei' ich zu dir, BWV 687; 20. Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 688; 21. Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (Fuga), BWV 689. Topics are: The Ten Commandments, Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot; The Creed, Wir glauben all an einen Gott; The Lord’s Prayer (the "Our Father"), Vater unser im Himmelreich; Baptism, Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam; Penitence, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir; and The Eucharist, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland. The four non-chorale-based duets in fugal treatment, BWV 802-805, were added probably in mid-1739 to complete the printed publication at 27 numbers (3x3x3), and to proceed the closing fugue, BWV 552/2.⁴ The four could be appropriate for any communion service, particularly feast day main services which also could have included Bach’s Misse: Kyrie-Gloria, BWV 233-235, composed at the same time as Clavierübung III in the second half of the 1730s, as well as in any Sunday afternoon vesper/catechism service.

Bach’s motivation for composing Clavierübung III involved four agendas, suggests Peter Williams:⁵ 1. Organ recital plan for a Sunday afternoon; 2. Practical settings of Lutheran liturgy and doctrine for use in actual services; 3. Compilation of French, Italian, and German musical idioms from stile antico to modern styles; and 4. Learned study of counterpoint and invention, found in Bach’s final decade of studies in the Art of the Fugue, the Musical Offering, and Canonic Variations.

Genesis, Method, Influences

“There is sufficient cause to speculate that Bach started working on this collection not long after the publication of Clavier-Übung II in 1735, says Yo Tomita in his 2000 liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki recording (http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/essay/cu3.html). “While his involvement with the Schemellisches Gesangbuch, published at Easter 1736, may have brought to his mind closely such compositions exclusively dealing with chorale tunes, it is highly conceivable that the Kyrie and Gloria from this collection were part of the programme he performed on the new Silbermann organ at the Frauenkirche in Dresden from 2 to 4 on Saturday, 1 December 1736, an occasion marking his conferment of the title of Royal Court Composer that he had received less than a fortnight ago.”

“Yet the most striking aspect is that the work reflects Bach’s growing interest in expanding his stylistic horizon in both directions, i.e. old techniques of motet style and ancient church modality and modern stylistic elements,” says Tomita, “In some pieces, one can identify various influence from the contemporary works of his close friends, namely C. F. Hurlebusch, J. G. Walther and S. L. Weiss. There are strong similarities between Bach’s music and similar works of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679-1735), Director of Church Music for the Duke of Saxe-Merseburg, says Williams 2003 (388ff). Bach’s Clavierübung III and Kauffman’s unfinished Harmonische Seelenlust (1735) comprise similar chorale settings in older and newer idioms, with and without pedals, using similar rhythms and motives. ⁶

“The most significant finding from the study of the original prints must be the recent discovery of corrections in pagination made on the copper plates,” says Tomita (Ibid.). “From a careful analysis of these corrections, Gregory Butler⁷ sreconstructs the prepublication history of Bach’s compositional activity in three layers. It emerged that an earlier version of the collection contained the entire Missa settings and the pedaliter catechism chorales only (Layer 1). The scope of the work was then expanded sometime prior to the beginning of work on the engraving around late 1738 (Layer 2). This included the prelude and fugue that frame the collection and manualiter catechism settings. And finally, in the summer 1739, the four duets were added (Layer 3).”

The German Organ/Catechism Mass was published in Leipzig for the Michaelmas Fall Fair 1739, while the city observed the celebrations observing the Bicentenary of the establishment of the Reformation in Leipzig. Bach may have performed the music as a “dedicatory piece in commemoration” of the observances, during a special service, says Martin Petzoldt in “Bach as Thomascantor.” ⁸ A special service was held on Wednesday, August 12, for the 200th anniversary of the acceptance of Reformation theology and practice by Leipzig University.⁹ Previously, on Pentecost Sunday, May 17, a bicentenary commemoration was held for Martin Luther’s sermon preached at the early main service of the Thomas Church, followed by Luther preaching that evening in the Pleissenberg Castle on the plaza. Peter Williams speculates (2003: 388) that Bach may have performed the organ music “on his visit to the new organ at [St. George’s Church in] Altenburg Castle in September 1739.” Details of Bach’s visit and possible performance of the Credo chorale, BWV 580, on September 6, the 15^th Sunday after Trinity, are found in the Marshalls’ recent Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach.¹⁰

Collection Meaning, Purpose

The contents and form of Bach’s Clavierübung III, notably the framing and inclusion of an opening prelude and closing four duets and fugue, have puzzled Bach scholars and organists. A comprehensive exploration and explanation of this collection is found in David Humphreys’ monograph, The Esoteric Structure of Bach’s Clavierübung III.¹¹ As an exemplar of Bach’s well-regulated church music from a Christological and Trinitarian perspective, Bach’s organ settings suggest that the “religious motive for Clavierübung III was inherent in the design of the whole series (of keyboard studies) and was in Bach’s mind from the early 1730s,” says Humphreys (Ibid.: 87). The collection is “the provision of music for a complete Lutheran Sunday,” more liturgically figurative than functional, that provides the music for a Lutheran Mass and Vesper services. In its historical context, the collection is motivated in part by learned humanistic pursuits as well as the so-called Scheide Controversy regarding Bach’s compositional style, says Humphreys.

The symbolic and esoteric ordering of the 27 movements are as follows, “Prelude in E-flat,” BWV 552/1, represents the morning blessing of the Trinitarian Sign of the Cross, the last of Luther’s Catechism instructions; the nine Mass Kyrie-Gloria preludes, BWV 669-677 represent “Musica arithmetic”; the 12 Catechism preludes, BWV 678-689, represent the “Musica oratorical”; the four Duetti, BWV 802-805), represent Luther’s Lesser Catechism four rules for instilling their teachings on commandment, petition, and portion into young people; the closing “Fugue in E-Flat,” BWV 552/2, represents the Catechism evening blessing, also the Sign of the Cross. The chorale prelude manual and pedal versions could symbolically represent both the Lesser and Greater Catechisms as well as Luther’s advocacy in the Deutsche Messe for its use in private devotion as well as public worship.

While the six Catechism chorales are based on Luther’s own vernacular adaptation with versification of the Latin settings, the German Mass Kyrie-Gloria organ chorale settings are based on other sources: The Kyrie is the well-known German trope, “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit,” an anonymous contrafactum of the Latin trope, Fons bonitatis, first published in 1537 (NLGB: 423ff), and the Gloria versification, “Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr’,” of Nikolaus Decius, 1522. The Small Catechism is the model for Bach’s preludes in the Catechism group, says Humphreys in “The Significance of the Duet" (Chapter 2, Ibid.: 7). The Catechism addresses the Commandments, Creed and Lord’s Prayer, followed by baptism, confession, the sacraments, morning and evening blessing, and grace before and after meals, similar to the pattern in the NLGB hymnbook.

Duetti

The purpose of the Duetti setting in this collection seems an enigma with little practical explanation (description, see BCW Details & Discography, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV802-805.htm, and recording, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW9wU8Ht3U. The duo or bicinium was a popular musical form of imitation, canon and (later) fugue in Germany beginning in the reformation, representing the teacher-pupil relationship as a didactic symbol, says Humphreys (Ibid: 8). The Duet settings of the ascending four triadic thirds (e minor, F Major, G Major, and a minor) form the Dorian mode, “most suited to producing the required moral qualities in the young citizen,” observes Humphreys. The four Duetti represent Luther’s Catechism teaching rules: 1. maintaining the form of the essential teaching text, BWV 802 as a straightforward 3/8 two-part invention; 2. maintaining the form of the commentary for better understanding, BWV 803, a 2/4 strict fugue; 3. enhancing the pupil’s understanding of religious texts through the Greater Catechism, BWV 804, a 12/8 siciliano style simple fugue; and 4. applying the teachings through devotional, periodic use of the communion sacrament, BWV 804, a regular, two-part fugue in 4/4 that in its melody, harmony, and rhythm expresses errancy and then conformity.

Prelude and Fugue

“The prelude and fugue, like the Duetti, have long presented a seemingly intractable problem,” says Humphreys in Chapter 3, “The significance of the Prelude and Fugue” (Ibid.: 19). “They two seem to have no place within the general liturgical plan of the collection” of chorale preludes. The key comes from the last portion of Luther’s Catechism, the morning and evening blessing with which the Lutheran day opens and closes. The music is a theological-symbolic explanation in the prayer for the Trinitarian principles of three one. The prelude expresses three Persons, the fugue, one God,” says Humphreys (Ibid.: 25f). “The two opposed types of symbolism they represent — verbal and numerical — are only our first encounter with a dualism that runs right through the esoteric design of the Clavierübung.” The opposition of styles is found in the prelude as style galant and the fugue as stile antico. The Prelude begins in the style of a French Overture, representing the majesty of regal God the Father (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW9wU8Ht3U, patience!), similar to the manual setting of “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott,” BWV 681, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHX3DajzsE8. This first phrase is followed by an exact repetition, followed by the same phrase a fifth higher, representing the Christ as the image of God, incarnate and one run substance. In summary of the first section, says Humphreys, “Christ is the image of God, begotten of the Father; he descends into generation to do battle with the forces of darkness, to become man and to undergo suffering.” The Holy Spirit is portrayed by rushing semiquavers at bar 71 representing the wind, then the tongues of fire and the dove in descending figures, linked through rhythmic figures portraying the Nicene Creed reference to the Holy Spirit that “proceeds from the Father and the Son together.” The closing fugue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OFGNDsLs7U) has no graphic musical description, instead using contrasting numerology in a dualism of the morning and evening dualistic doxology of land dark. The prelude and fugue frame the dualism of the orartorica and arithmatica internal, chorale-based groups where there is no verbal symbolism in the Mass preludes and no numerical symbolism in the Catechism vesper preludes and Duetti. “Bach was deeply interested in number symbolism, and in the esoteric structure of the Clavierübung he employed it with a clarity, elegance and precision which makes fanciful speculation superfluous,” says Humphreys (Ibid.: 28f).

Mass: Kyrie, Gloria

The key of E-flat Major, which opens and closes the framing prelude and fugue, is the symbolic tonal center of the greater Kyrie cycle, says Humphreys in Chapter 4, “Musica arithmetic (The Mass Preludes)” (Ibid.: 43). Technically, “the Kyrie cycle is tonally unstable, the polyphony being permeated strongly by the Phrygian modality of the chant but within the esoteric structure, the Kyrie key is E Major, followed by the three Glories in F, G, and A Major. The mathematical basis of the Mass is the numerical world-order of Plato’s Timaeus, the principles of the universe, (Ibid.: 30f). The “Central Design” (Chapter 6) is a geometric microcosm of the Lutheran Sunday: morning, Mass, Vespers, evening. It is graphically (visually) represented as a circle with a hexagram inside, with the circle delineated in a four-fold cross and square, as an object for religious contemplation connecting the opposite poles of the human and universal elements (humana, mundata) of the structure, suggests Humphreys (Ibid.: 36, 74).

Musically, the opening Greater Kyrie cycle, BWV 669-671, has the entire 41-measure Kyrie- trope Fons bonitatis in the German trinitarian contrafactum: “Gott Vater in Ewigkeit” (God Father in eternity, 12 mm), “Aller Welt Trost” (All World Trust, 16 mm), and “Gott, heiliger Geist” (God, Holy Spirit, 13 mm). The three division are one continuous melody, not a repeat of three stanzas with the same melody. The chant appears in the soprano (Kyrie I0, senior (Chroste), and bass (Kyrie II) as a cactus firms in short segments, with accompanying voices of stile antico counterpoint, observes Humhreys (Ibid.: 33). The Lesser Kyrie circle, BWV 672-674) for manual are shorter pieces of free contrapuntal workings of motifs derived from the Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie melodies, observes Humphreys (Ibid.: 35). There large Kyrie set is in alle breve 4/2, while the lesser set is in 3/4, 6/8, 9/8. The two Gloria settings are in triple time 3/4, 9/8. In the “opposed concepts in the esoteric structure,” Humphreys outlines the elements of each as found in the Mass and Vespers. The musica arithmetica involve the concepts in the Mass of universal, number/geometry, and symbol, based on the ancient-pagan Graeco-Roman of Pythagoras, in the music of the fugue, stile antico, Italian-based and choral with the qualities of spirit, odd, active, male, light, fire, and Heaven.

Postscript. In the late 1730s, Bach was caught up in the great debate between the two intellectual communities: traditional, conservative, rhetorical, church and humanistic versus the progressive enlightenment of reason, naturalism, and aesthetics. Bach in part produced the Clavierübung III to demonstrate his mastery of all styles, old and new. His defenders included Lorenz Christoph Mizler, whose learned society he joined in 1747 and composed the “Canonic Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her’ for organ, BWV 769 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_Christoph_Mizler).

FOOTNOTES

¹ Jones, Part II, Chapter 2, The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. II: 1717-1750, “Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2013: 232f).
² See Jürgen Grimm’s NLGB compendium and indices, Berliner Studien zur Musikwissenschaft (Berlin: Verlag Merseburger No. 1464, 1969: 416ff [NLGB: 419ff]).
³ Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, 2^nd ed. (Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 2003: 390).
⁴ There are three different recordings that offer the setting: Kay Johannsen on Hänssler, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Organ-OrganMass-Johannsen.htm; Leo van Doeselaar with Jos van Veldhoven and chorus on Channel Classics,
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Organ-OrganMass-Doeselaar.htm; and Masaaki Suzuki on BIS, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Klavier-KlavierUbungIII-Suzuki.htm. Doeselaar omits the eight manual versions and substitutes choruses of Schütz (Kyrie), Schein (Gloria, Credo, Baptist), Praetorius (Commandments), Scheidt (Lord’s Prayer), and Hassler (Confession, Communion). Suzuki with choirs offers only one version of each chorale, interspersed with the plain chorale setting. Recording with vocal chorale settings inserted and scrolling score (BGA) is found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW9wU8Ht3U, BGA III (Organ Music, C. F. Becker, 1853. The original publication is found on-line at Bach Digital, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00024100, NBA, IV/4 (Manfred Tessmer, 1969: 2, 105ff), Critical report (1974): 35, 46).
⁵ Williams, “Background and Genesis: Clavierübung III,” Chapter 1, Bach: The Goldberg Variations (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001: 25f . Wikipedia offers an extensive commentary with graphics on-line at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavier-Übung_III; Contents: 1. History and origins, 2. Textual and musical plan (including form and key), 3. Numerological significance, 4. Prelude and fugue, BWV 552, 5. Chorale preludes BWV 669–689, 6. Four duets BWV 802–805, 7. Reception and influence, 8. Historic transcriptions, 9. Selected recordings, 10. See also, 11. Notes, 12. References.
⁶ Cited and examined in Butt, John (2006), “J.S. Bach and G.F. Kaufmann: reflections on Bach's later style,” Bach studies 2, ed. Daniel R. Melamed (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 47ff), both the Clavierübung III and the Schübler Chorales. Kauffmannn, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Friedrich_Kauffmann.
⁷ Gregory Butler, Bach's Clavier-Übung III: the making of a print (Raleigh NC: Duke University Press, 1990: 65ff). See also Christoph Wolff (1991), “The Clavier-Übung Series” in Bach, essays on his life and music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 205-208).
⁸ Martin Petzoldt, “Bach as Cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig , 1723-50” ed. Robin A. Leaver (original address 1997; Bach, Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Volume XLVI, No. 2, 2015: 7-21, with a Leaver introduction, “The Historical Context of Martin Petzoldt’s Paper in Bach’s Cantorate in Leipzig” (Ibid.: 1-6)
⁹ Cited in Robin A. Leaver, Chapter 20, “Life and Works,” The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Leaver (Abingdon GB: Routledge, 2017: 530).
¹⁰ Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall (University of Illinois Press, 2016: 99f), published in cooperation of American Bach Society.
¹¹ David Humphreys “The Esoteric Structure of Bach’s Clavierübung III” (Cardiff GB: University College Cardiff Press, 1983).

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To Come: Bach’s settings of Luther’s Vesper Service Catechism Chorales, Luther’s Main Service Deutsche Messe and other Liturgical Chorales .

William L. Hoffman wrote (July 9, 2017):
Clavierübung III: Catechism Chorales, BWV 678-689

The application of the Lutheran chorale embraced three Reformation usages: as theology, liturgy, and teaching through the catechism. Martin Luther utilized Latin chants with their associated texts to form the core of liturgy, as well as the German tradition of folk songs, to shape the basic Lutheran chorales. Following directly in this tradition of music as central to Lutheran worship, Bach composed the Clavierübung III German Organ/Catechism Mass collection of preludes and also set the many of the chorale melodies as four-part hymns and movements in cantatas for the church year.

The “heart of reformation theology was Christology, the solus Christus aspect of the Christian Gospel that was summarized by three further Latin formulae: sola scriptura, sola fidei, and sola gratis, says Robin A Leaver in “The Deutsche Messe from Luther to Bach.” ¹ Thus the Christian’s belief focused on Jesus Christ depends not on church authority but alone on the natural authority of scripture as the Word (not doctrine) centering on the person and work of Christ, salvation as a gift of faith alone (not good works), and expressed through God’s grace alone through the Lutheran concept of Justification [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justification_(theology)]. These are found in four publications on the dimensions of the Reformation: Bible, Catechism, Hymnal, and Liturgical Order, says Leaver (Ibid.: 297).

The development of essential Lutheran chorales, their purpose and themes, and the evolution of the hymn book are described in Robin A. Leaver’s “Musical Catechesis” (Ibid., Part II: 107ff). Scripture-based, the classic Lutheran hymns function as worship songs sung in a liturgical context and as theological songs, “declaring the substance of the faith with catechetical intentions,” he observes. The earliest hymns “by the Wittenberg circle of hymn writers in 1523-24 are essentially catechetical.” Luther published his vernacular Deutsche Messe in 1526 and in 1529 published his Large and Small Catechisms, in part to accompany the service. That same year (1529) Luther published Geistliche Lieder, with “its hymns within a carefully constructed and orderly plan,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 109). Following 10 hymns for then church year, from Advent to Trinity, are eight hymns addressing catechism topics. In 1543 the Wittenberg hymnal created “a more coherent and complete collection of catechism hymns . . . with all five parts of the catechism being represented,” with a later addition of Confession (Office of the Keys).

Luther’s Catechism Hymns

Luther's Catechisms had the following subjects and hymns: “Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot” (These are the 10 commandments); the Creed, “Wir glauben all an einen Gott” (We all believe in one God); The Lord’s Prayer (the "Our Father"), “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (Our Father in the heavenly kingdom); Baptism, “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” (Christ, our Lord, to the Jordan came); Penitence, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir” (Out of the deep I cry to you, Psalm 130); and the Eucharist, “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland” (Jesus Christ, our Savior). These are the liturgical catechism hymns set successively in Bach’s Clavierübung III, BWV 678-689, each in two settings. The Creed, which is part of the Deutsche Messe that also includes the German Kyrie and Gloria hymns, will be part of next week’s BCML Discussion on the Deutsche Messe chorale settings and other liturgical hymns.

In Christological terms, the Creed setting is trinitarian, the Commandments relate to the Law, the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ petitions to the Father, and the symbolic in the Baptism, Penitence, and Eucharist (Communion) the key Christology. The 1543 edition of the Wittenberg hymnal adds to the catechism hymns “Erhalt uns Herr, bei denim Wort (Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear Word), “a summary of the theological roots of the catechism” with “the Word of God and the source of theology, says Leaver (Ibid.: Chapter 4, “Erhalt, ins, Herr, bei deinem Wort: 113). Its three stanzas uphold the doctrine of the trinity, “the substance of the creeds: the Father who preserves, the Son who defends, and the Spirit who unifies.” The first and third stanzas form a fairly close paraphrase of Luther’s explanation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism”

which in the 1549 Leipzig edition has the hymn with the heading “A Children’s Catechism Hymn” (Luther text and Francis Browne English translation, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale142-Eng3.htm).

As the catechism was developed, various other catechism chorales were available to be used as alternatives. The Church Order for Electoral Saxony (1580) prescribed the various services and their liturgical contents. Cities such as Leipzig with many churches added other special practices or observances in the 1719 “Duke Heinrich’s Agenda.” ² Leipzig had special services of thanksgiving and other services such as the three-observance of Reformation 31 October 1739 during the Bicentenary of the acceptance of the Reformation.

Main, Vesper Services

The church services during Bach’s tenure in Leipzig [were] a mixture of two formularies: 1.) the formulary of the Ordinarium missae, and 2.) the formulary of Luther’s Catechism with its main constituent parts, says Petzoldt (Ibid.: 4). “This aforementioned tendency will become particularly clear by examining Bach’s work Dritter Theil der Clavier Vbung [Clavierübung Part 3] (1739). Bach’s title gives a complete accounting of the content of this work”: “The Third Part of the Clavier-Exercise, containing various Preludes on the Catechism and other Hymns, for the Organ. Composed for amateurs and lovers of such works, and for their recreation, by Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer to the Royal and Electoral Court of Poland-Saxony, Capellmeister and Director of the Music, Leipzig. Published by the Author.”

Meanwhile, Leipzig observed daily afternoon vespers service of the word, including special services on feast days and Vesper Catechism services on Tuesdays in St. Nicholas and Fridays in St. Thomas.³ The Sunday afternoon and feast day vespers focused on the reading of the day’s epistle followed by the sermon on this text, and included the Catecismus-Examen with “expositions of one or other parts of the small catechism,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 279f). The order of the Lutheran vespers was: Organ Prelude, Hymn, Cantata (on feast days only), Hymn of the Day, Psalm, Lord’s Prayer, Hymn, Announcement of the Sermon, Hymn “Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend,” Epistle Reading, Sermon, Prayers, Magnificat (Latin or German), Responsory (Collect and Benediction), and Hymn, “Nun danket all Gott.” An organ postlude probably followed.

During the fasting periods of Advent and Lent, as well as Epiphany Time and the pre-Lenten “gesima” Sundays, Vesper Catechism services were held on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with the preaching of catechism sermons. This service had the following liturgical order, with the two greater and lesser Commandment hymns, says Leaver (Ibid.: 120f): Psalm with antiphon, Scripture readings, Hymn “Dies sind die heiligen Zehn Gebot" (These are the holy Ten Commandments), Catechism sermon, Hymn “Mensch wills du lebend seliglich (Wilt thou, o man, live happily), Magnificat with Latin antiphon, Versicle, Collect, Benediamus Domino (Blessing).

“The Ten Commandments occupy a place of special significance in the writings of Martin Luther,” says a summary of the publication, "That We a Godly Life May Live": Martin Luther and the Ten Commandments. ⁴ <<Luther did not regard the Ten Commandments as the legal basis of a system of ethics, but rather as the starting point for a moral life and a necessary reminder of human sinfulness and the need for God’s grace. As such, they are an appropriate starting point for the reformer’s Large and Small Catechisms. Luther also recommended that Christians should “pray the commandments” and even wrote a hymn about the Ten Commandments along with their interpretation--“Dies sind die heiligen zehn Gebot’”--better known in English hymnals as “That Man a Godly Life May Live.” Thus, for Luther the Ten Commandments do not belong to the realm of dogmatic theology, but rather to practical or pastoral theology.>>

Clavierübung III Catechism Chorales

The Clavierübung III twelve Catechism chorales, BWV 678-689, emphasiMusica oratorical contextual, textual images rather than the opposing Musica arithmetica numerical, formalistic principles found in the nine Deutsche Messe Kyrie-Gloria chorales. BWV 669-678. The elements of the oratorio form are: Vespers service that emphasize mankind rather than the Mass universe through word instead of number/geometry, and figure instead if symbol as developed by Luther instead of Pythagoras, within a modern Christian Germanic context instead of Classical with music that displays prelude instead of fugue, style galant and French influence instead of Italian stile antico, and instrumental instead of vocal emphasis, with elements involving matter rather than spirit, even, passive, female, dark, water and earth instead of active, male, light, fire, and Heaven, respectively, says David Humphreys.⁵

With the 12 Catechism preludes, “Bach returns to the rhetorical armory of the word-music, says Humphreys (Ibid.: 49). Bach’s overall aim: a “programme for the doctrinal instruction of the faithful” “by giving pleasure.” The earliest Lutheran hymns as the Word of God in Song often were based on the appropriate biblical setting such as the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20:1-7 (NIV, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20). Luther used the melody of the German folksong, “In Gottes namen faren wir” (In God’s name we are traveling), “originally sung by pilgrims on their way to visit the holy places in Jerusalem,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 118). The tonal organization of the Catechism Preludes (Humphreys, Table 4: 66) is modal moving upward from G-Mixolydian to D Dorian to A Aeolian, then, shunning the devil on the raised fourth (tritone), F-sharp Phrygian, returning downward to A and D.

Luther’s beginning Catechism chorales on the commandments and the Lord’s Prayer address, respectively, the Law commanded by God to Moses and the people of Israel as well as Jesus’ directive to his disciples and followers to pray to the Father. Both are sacred teaching documents from the Father and the Son involving the practices of the people. The first is a covenant conveyed by Moses and the second is a proclaiming petitioning, reciprocal prayer to the Father. Both entail methods of conduct in the world. They are the foundation of Christian moral and ethical behavior, as well as Luther’s theological teaching on the beliefs and practices of Christians.

Dies sind die heiligen Zehn Gebot

The 12-stanza, four-line (AABB) text, “Dies sind die heiligen Zehn Gebot," with the strophic closing Leise litany, “Kyrie eleison” (Lord have mercy), was first found under the rubric, “Die zehn Gebot Gottes” (God’s Ten Commandments) in the Erfurt Enchiridion (1524). It also was published in Johann Walter's choral hymnal Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn in 1524. It was used in 1525 during weekday Lenten services. In catechism format for general instruction and confession, it has an introductory stanza, with succeeding stanzas covering each commandment and the two closing stanzas applying God’s law to the Christian belief in Jesus Christ as Savior.⁶ The text (Wackernagel III:15-15) is found in Bach’s Das new Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) as No. 170, beginning the omnes tempore section on Catechism hymns. The full German text (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_sind_die_heilgen_zehn_Gebot) is found at http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/Lieder/diessind.html, the English translation is http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/hymn/thatmana.html. The melody (Zahn 1956) is an adaptation probably by Johannn Wather.⁷

Bach set the melody three times as organ chorale preludes: the first of the Catechism hymns in the Orgelbüchlein (No. 61, BWV 635, c.1708-12; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMrc4pFUV3Q), and in the Clavierübung III twice, first as a pedal, BWV 678 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfYSGZRap9E), and then as a shorter fughetta super, BWV 679 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKjlMCCLv9Q). In all three settings, “Bach evolves the figures of the counterpoint out of the first line of the tune,” observes Charles S. Terry.⁸ The source probably is the Gotha (Witt) 1715 hymnbook.

Both collection preludes are set in G Major/Mixolydian. The longer has the chorale in free octave canon (law) in 6/4 set as a French overture in the manner of a piffaro, pastorale, observes Humphreys (Ibid.: 50f). The program is a “speaking picture,” rooted in the Pauline epistles, of “the Age of Nature, the Fall of Man, and the gift of the Law not Moses,” he says. This setting “attracts many kinds of attention,” says Peter Williams citing others.⁹ Padre Martinez in 1757 “quoted the opening as an example of imitation at the octave (Dok III p. 117).” Kirnberger c.1776 “found it a typical G-mixolyidan work (Dok III p. 301).” Schweitezer (1905: 346) says it represents order (canon) and disorder (upper voice wandering). The progressive 12/8 gigue rhythm of the shorter manual fughetta suggests cheerful obedience to the law.

In addition, Bach set the melody, source probably the penultimate stanza of the “long” Commandment hymn, “Dies sind die heiligen Zehn Gebot,” as a free-standing plain chorale, BWV 298 in G Major/Mixolydian, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJ9VCUTpDs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KAQPrqS8U. He also set the melody as an instrumental chorale opening Cantata 77, “Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben” (You must love God, your Lord, Luke 10:27), for the 13th Sunday after Trinity 1723. “Canonic treatment of this melody is already there in the Ob setting and Cantata 77, where a quasi-diminished canon between trumpet and continuo ‘summarizes’ the Law,” says Williams (Ibid.: 408). This emphasizes the contrast between the Old Law of the Commandments and the New Law (covenant ) of Jesus, the Great Commandment. In the Ob setting, its motivic construction is in 10 short phrases is “thoroughly engaging,” says Russell Stinson.¹⁰ “Nowhere else in the Orgelbüchlein is there a more extreme transformation of an accompanimental motive.”

Other composers who set “Dies sind die heiligen Zehn Gebot” include a Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694) who chorale prelude, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s two variations for organ, Johann Hermann Schein who setting for two soprano voices and continuo, and the Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703) chorale prelude setting in, 44 Choräle zum Präambulieren, No. 21, Dies sind heiligen zehn Gebote (In Gottes Namen fahren wir). Michael Bach’s setting, Schn (Max Schneider) 49, “an attempt is made to use a polyphonic style for preludes and interludes, contrasting with a predominately harmonic setting in the cantus firmus sections.” ¹¹ In the Neumeister collection of chorale preludes, 24 settings are attributed to Michael Bach (father of Maria Barbara, Sebastian’s first wife) throughout, particularly for Advent-Christmas, comparing him to Pachelbel and showing influences on the Orgelbüchlein, says Christoph Wolff. ¹²

English Language Hymnals: The best-known English language setting of Luther’s Commandment chorale is “That Man a Godly Life Might Live,” of Richard Massie (1854, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPc98TXX_ck). It was particularly popular c.1940 in Protestant hymnals, the best known is The Lutheran Hymnal (LSMS), where it appears as No. 287, “Law and Gospel” and the 2006 Lutheran Service Book and the 1982 edition, Lutheran Worship, but not in the current Lutheran Service Book (2006) In addition, it appears in Christian Worship (WELS, 1993). In the current Protestant German hymnal, the Evangelisches Gesangbuch, it is EG 231.

OCommandment Chorales

In his Orgelbüchlein manuscript, Bach lists two other Commandment chorales which he did not set, one also found in Das Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) of 1682: No. 62, Luther's Leise shorter setting, “Mensch, willst du leben seliglich” (Man, wouldst thou live all blissfully, NLGB No. 171, 5 stanzas, Zahn 1956, Phrygian composite), and No. 63, Ludwig Helmboldt’s 1594 “Herr Gott, erhalt uns für und für, die reine” (no NLGB), Katechismuslehr (Gotha, 1715; Zahn 443).¹³ Chorale No. 62 is Luther’s short, five-commandment version (German text, http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/Lieder/menschwi.html; English translation, http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/hymn/wilthouo.htm). Chorale No. 63 to the melody “Herr Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht” (Lord Jesus Christ, my life’s light), is a four-stanza general Catechism hymn. It is found in “Sebastian Bach’s Choral-Buch” (p 89, Zahn 439), two-part settings of the melody and figured bass in a c.1750 student workbook, possibly via one of Bach’s pupils.¹⁴ The German text is http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/Lieder/herrgote.html, the English translation is http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/hymn/lordhelp.htm.

In 1529 with the publication of both Catechisms, the Wittenberg hymnbook edition included another catechism-type hymn, "Mitten wir im Leben sind" (We are in the middle of Life) under the rubric “Effect of Law/Repentance.” Martin Luther's three-stanza teaching 1525 hymn from the Latin, Media vita in morte sumus, is found with the four-part setting of J. H. Schein in the NLGB, No. 344, "Death and Dying.” It is one of two eschatological chorales of Luther, the other being “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” (With peace and joy I depart), Simeon’s canticle.

Bach sets the Phrygian melody as a four-part chorale (EG 518), BWV 383 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLp5uwNYVaY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gR8wQqA-OA; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitten_wir_im_Leben_sind with German text; English translation, http://hymnary.org/text/in_the_very_midst_of_life). It is listed in the Orgelbüchlein as No. 129, “Death & Dying,” but not set, with Bach’s source possibly the Weissenfels 1714 hymnbook.

“Media vita in morte sumus” is the title and first line of a Latin antiphon, which translates as “In the midst of life we are in death.” (EG 518) by Thomas Cranmer (whose version became part of the burial service in the Book of Common Prayer)” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_vita_in_morte_sumus). The polyphonic motet, Media vita, is found in the Jakob Handl (Gallus) 8-voice setting) in Bach’s motet collection, Erhardt Bodenschatz’ Florilegium Portense. The vocal motets were set for Introit, Before Sermon at mass and vespers for Choir II, and During Communion (Jakob Handl (Gallus) http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Handl-Jakob.htm.

“Vater unser im Himmelreich”

Luther’s third catechism hymn essential triptych is his 1539 setting of the Lord’s Prayer, “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (Our Father in the heavenly kingdom, Zahn 2561, EKG 241). Martin Luther's poetic setting of the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:2-4) has nine six-line stanzas: introduction, the seven petitions, and the closing Amen. It has the heading: “The Our Father, briefly and well-expounded, and made into a song” (Leaver 2007 translation: 128). The hymn is probably based upon a Middle Ages secular melody published by Valentin Schumann in 1539. In the 1682 NLGB No. 175 (Catechism), ”Vater unser im Himmelreich" is appropriate for the following Sundays: Epiphany 3, Septuagesima, Lent 1, Easter 6, and Trinity 7, 11, and 22. Like the Neumark hymn, "Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten.” The Schumann melody has two succeeding omne tempore text settings, Martin Moller's 1584 "Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott" (Take from us, you faithful God, NLGB No. 316, Word of God & Christian Church) and Johann Heermann's 1630 "So wahr ich lebe, spricht dein Gott" (As truly as I live, says your God, no NLGB)

Given the existence of various early settings of his translation of the Lord’s Prayer, Luther’s hymn setting to the Schumann melody in 1539 was based on his 1531 revised catechism explanation of the prayer in nine stanzas corresponding to the seven petitions, an introduction and conclusion in catechetical form, observes Leaver (Ibid. 131ff). Luther’s German text is found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vater_unser_im_Himmelreich. Luther’s hymn can be used liturgically in place of the prose prayer in the Mass and Vesper services or for a catechism examination in church or home, says Leaver.

Schumann’s Dorian mode melody was published as a Geistliche Lieder in the Leipzig 1739 hymnal, Strassburger Gesangbuch,¹⁵ honoring the city acceptance of the Reformation (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Schumann-Valentin.htm). The collection of 88 chorales also includes the Decius seating of the German Gloria, “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr.” The Lord’s Prayer melody is based on the setting, “Begehren wir mit Innigkeit, vom Vater der” (text, https://hymnary.org/text/begehren_wir_mit_innigkeit_vom_vater_der), ¹⁶ in Michael Weisse’s Bohemian Brethren hymnal, Ein New Gesengbuchlein (A new little hymnal, Jungbunzlau: 1531), a collection of 157 Reformation songs in an early reprint copy owned by Bach. ¹⁷ In Luther’s surviving original setting, there is a different melody in the Ionian mode (Zahn 2562). “The tune in English use took on the nature of Psalm tune as it was also assigned to Psalm 112,” Praise ye the Lord (Beatus vir, KJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+112&version=KJV), says Leaver (Chapter 7, Footnote 13: 397).¹⁸ “It is uncertain how much Luther was involved in revising the [Weisse] tune,” says Gerike (Ibid.).

Bach’s “Unser Vater” Settings

Bach set the Schumann melody in the four-part chorale, BWV 416 (Trust in God, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1-Jcp7rt4), as well as organ chorale preludes BWV 636 (Baptism, Orgelbüchlein), BWV 682-3 (Catechism, Clavierübung III) and BWV 737 (miscellaneous chorales). Bach has two variant settings of the plain chorale to Luther's Verse 4 (Thy will be done), the earlier version of the chorale in the St. John Passion (SJP No. 5), now listed as BWV 416, and the c.1740 SJP version, both variants in D Minor. The source on "Vater unser im Himmelreich" is BCW Chorale Melody, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Vater-unser-im-Himmelreich.htm, includes Bach’s possible sources and various other composers use of the melody.

Bach’s setting of Luther’s "Vater unser im Himmelreich" in the Clavierübung III, BWV 682, as a canonic cantus firmus is one of his most complex (five-part) settings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfYSGZRap9E). It is an “intricate but much bigger way with a chorale melody: a multifaceted setting of it, combining many compositional techniques,” says Peter Williams in his last Bach biography.¹⁹ It is a slow arioso or adagio in 3/4 time in e minor in the form of a trio sonata with dotted figures and triplets on galant style. It uses progressivlombardic rhythm (bar 4), a 32nd note followed by a dotted 16th note, with the stress on the short note. This has been interpreted to refer either to Luther’s third stanza, “the Holy Spirit be with us,” or the fourth stanza, “thy will be done.” The canon at the octave enters at bar 11, illustrating God’s will being done by giving patience in time of suffering, with the syncopated rhythm returning at bar 41.

The succeeding, much shorter manual prelude, alio modo (in another manner), BWV 683, is in light-hearted 6/8 time with the soprano cantus firmus against free counter-subjects (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHi7RlRZjP0). The mood perhaps reflects the opening verse that the Father “willst das Beten von uns han” (will have prayer from us all), suggests Williams (2003, Ibid. 418). Similar to the much-earlier Weimer-era Orgelbüchlein setting, BWV 636 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RMxF27KaZg), “in their sweetly melodious harmony,” the former still is in contrast “more old fashioned and as sweet as the other is awesome,” says Williams. The rushing 16th-note figures in both voices can signify angels “as emissaries between Good and man,” suggests Humphreys (Ibid.: 56), as in the preludes in “Vom Himmel hoch” (From Heaven on high), BWV 701 for two voices (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOS-FRvbLY) and 738 with pedal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSgHme7dNVo. The figure also is found inn the last of the Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hooch,” BWV 769. In Prelude, BWV 683, “the ‘speaking picture’ shows God the Father ‘in Heaven,’ surrounded by the angelic host, says Humphreys (Ibid.: 87).

Bach’s “Vater unser” in Context

Bach set the melody "Vater unser im Himmelreich" most variedly in Moller’s hymn text, "Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott" (Take from us, you faithful God) as chorale Cantata 101 for the 10th Sunday after Trinity 1724. In 1726 Bach closed Cantata 102, “Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben!” (Lord, your eyes look for faith!, Jeremiah 5:3), also for the 10th Sunday after Trinity, with the melody to a different chorale text. Luther’s hymn has deep theological underpinnings which Bach two hundred years later set in various works, as found in “Vater unser,” Bach in Context: “Cantata, motet, and organ works by Bach performed in their liturgical-musical context.” “The Wittenberg reformer thought that human need was nowhere better summarized than in the seven prayers that make up the Lord’s Prayer,” says Dr, Jan Smelik (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Belder.htm, C-4). Prayer and penitence in the struggle against sin as revealed in the commandments directed Luther’s Catechism.

These catechetical teaching on the Lord’s Prayer are realized in Bach’s various settings, particularly Cantatas 101 and 102 as musical sermons, and the Motet, BWV 226, “Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf” (The spirit comes to help our weakness). In the struggle against sin in the world and the flesh, Luther continually urged people to seek the help of the Holy Spirit as trinitarian protector, comforter, and advocate. The motet for double chorus begins with a prelude and fugue poetic paraphrase of Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8:26:27, counseling the congregation in its struggles; but not knowing how to pray, the spirit as intercessor speaks for them who love God. The closing plain chorale is Luther’s Pentecost hymn, “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” (Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God), setting of Stanza 3, “Du heilige Brunst, süßer Trost” (You sacred warmth, sweet consolation). For further information on Motet BWV 226, see https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39097.

Bach’s publication in 1739 of Clavierübung III celebrated Leipzig’s Bicentenary of its acceptance of the Reformation with three events: the Pentecost Sunday (May 17) observance of Luther’s preaching at the main service of the St. Thomas Church and that evening at Pleissenberg Castle, the August 12 anniversary of the adoption of Reformation theology and practice by Leipzig University, and the October 31 beginning of the special three-day special observance of the beginning of the Reformation in 1517.

In 1739, Bach had considerably material on hand to commemorate the Lutheran celebration. For example, on the August 12 (Wednesday) anniversary, Bach could have presented music at the special service of the St. Paul University Church, using members of the Collegium musicum, including Cantata 101, which was most appropriate for the 10th Sunday after Trinity (August 2), as well as the Motet BWV 226. “Luther’s belief in the close connection between prayer, penitence and reform is also what binds” Motet NWV 226 and Cantatas 101 and 102, says Smelik (Ibid.). “Luther’s melody for the Lord’s Prayer hymn is used in both cantatas for texts referring to atonement, forgiveness, perseverance, God’s clemency, and his merciful withholding of punishment and correction,” he says.

The 12 August 1739 service could have been similar in musical format to the memorial service for Queen-Electress Christiane Eberhardine on 17 October 1727 in the same church, with an opening-closing prelude and fugue, the Missa:Kyrie-Gloria, the cantata and sermon, and appropriate hymns. Bach’s Prelude, Largo and Fugue in C Major, BWV 545, is a mature Leipzig work with two adaptations: a Trio from Trio Sonata, BWV 529, following the opening toccata Prelude, and the fugal third movement from the gamba Sonata, BWV 1029. Various versions of this showpiece exist from Bach associates, sons, and students. Besides the Catechism Chorale setting of "Vater unser im Himmelreich,” BWV 682, there is a contrasting, stile antico alla breve setting, BWV 737, c.1705 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYd7bLum4GM), as well as the plain chorale version, BWV 416. A special vesper/catechism service with the Clavierübung III Mass/Catechism nine shorter or longer settings could have been observed in 1739. Regarding the 1739 Pentecost and Reformation celebrations, the music presented then also is conjecture.

Baptism, “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam”

Following the commandment/prayer settings are Luther’s trilogy of Catechism Christological Chorales, describing the three required sacraments: Baptism, “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” (Christ, our Lord, to the Jordan came); Penitence, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir” (From deep affliction I cry out to you, Psalm 130); and the Eucharist, “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland” (Jesus Christ, our Savior). The Baptism hymn of Christian initiation and forgiveness, like the “Our Father,” was one of Luther’s last. The Penitence and Communion hymns essential to the practicing Christian were among Luther’s first in 1723-24.

“Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” was Luther’s most theologically complex hymn and involved his three questions: “What is Baptism? “Who established Baptism? and “What are its benefits? Cast in extended chorale BAR form of Stollen (statement, repeated), and Abgesang (explanation), Luther explained these in seven stanzas, framed by the first and last stanzas (German text, Francis Browne English translation, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale106-Eng3.htm). “They declare that baptism is the sacrament of spiritual cleansing, the granting of new life and forgiveness, through Christ’s willingness to receive baptism from John in the Jordan and in his bearing the sin of the world on the cross,” says Leaver (2007, Ibid.: 137). The trinitarian principle established Baptism: God the Father declared it, Jesus the Son received it, and the Holy Spirit administered it. The positive and negative benefits of Baptism are explained inLuther’s fifth and six stanzas, respectively: positive, to received forgiveness of sin, new birth, and eternal life; and the negative (opposite): to be without grace, condemned in sin, and subject to eternal death.”

The framing stanzas of Luther’s hymn are based on his “Flood’s Prayer” in his 1526 Order of Baptism, using immersion symbols of the Law that created the Flood and drowned the Pharaoh and his host in Exodus while the people of Israel survived to receive the commandments and their land, prefiguring the Gospel bath of Baptism in the Jordan that frees the Christian from Adam’s sin and death. The thematic Aeolian melody, based on Johann Walther’s “Es woll' uns Gott genädig sein” (May God be gracious to us, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale108-Eng3.htm), is Luther’s hymnic version of Psalm 67, Deus misereatur (God be merciful unto us (KJV), https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+67&version=KJV. Originally, Luther wrote his own version of the associated melody (Zahn 7247) but eventually accepted Walther’s (Zahn 7246), given its theological connection, says Leaver (Ibid.: 138), that is Psalm 67 as a general prayer for grace and blessing, and “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” as “an exposition of the specific grace and blessing of baptism.” For information on the melody, “Use of the Chorale Melody by other composers,” Bach’s chorale sources and uses in his works, see BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Christ-Jordan.htm.

The chorale "Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam" (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan) was written by Martin Luther 1524-41. It has 7 stanzas and is listed in the NLGB No. 176, Catechism Baptism. Luther's hymn is based on the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist in all four Gospels -- Mat. 3:3-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:29-34 - as well as Christ's Great Commission to his disciples, Mat. 28-16-20 (Stanza 5). As Luther's last Catechism teaching hymn, it is titled: "A Spiritual Song of our Holy Baptism, which is a fine summary of What is it? (Stanzas 1, 4, 7) Who established it? (Stanzas 2, 3) What are its benefits? (Stanzas 5-6)."

“Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” “was, and remains, the primary baptism hymn of the Lutheran Church,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 140). In the later 19th century, there was a trend in hymnbooks to “displace Luther’s objective baptism hymn by more subjective texts, written under the influence of Pietism,” says Leaver. “However, in the last thirty years or so, as part of the general movement for liturgical renewal, there has been a concern to recovery the integrity of the baptismal rite and its theology.” “All four recent American hymnals have included” “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam,” says Leaver, known in English as “To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord.”

Two hundred years after its creation, Bach set “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” as chorale Cantata 7 for the feast of John the Baptist, 24 June 1724 (anonymous German text and Francis Browne English translation, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale106-Eng3.htm). Bach set the melody as a free-standing plain chorale, BWV 280, in D minor/dorian/aeolian (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCaZ2P_zPw4), as well as in the Clavierübung III, BWV 684 with cantus firmus in bass in G minor 4/4, and BWV 685 "alio modo manualiter" in ¾ with modal progression. It is listed as a chorale prelude in the Orgelbüchlein collection (Weimar, c.1714) but not set.

Bach’s Clavierübung III pedal setting, BWV 684 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN18MefllJw), is a trio sonata in common time with ritornello in C minor and the cantus firmus in the the Dorian mode of C. Its begins with the running (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale085-Eng3.htm) 16th notes representing the river Jordan with the pedal entry at bar 5 as the cross theme representing Christ’s body immersed in the river, while the chorale melody in the tenor represents the “middle voice or mediator, Second Person of the Trinity,” says Williams (2003, Ibid.: 420).

The shorter manual setting, BWV 685 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vW2_ojZlE), is a fugue by inversion in 3/4, beginning with the melody, three times inverted to represent immersion, and the wave figure beginning in Bar 2, both subject and countersubject derived from the melody. “The work is not a simple fughetta, and its 27 bars are amongst the most closely reasoned of the whole collection,” says Williams (Ibid.: 420).

Cantata BWV 30, "Freue dich, erlöste Schar" (Rejoice, redeemed host), is one of Bach’s last sacred compositions, with progressive style pleasing to the Saxon Court. This two-part musical sermon for the Feast of John the Baptist, probably premiered in 1738, fulfills a Christological Cycle of major works for feast days based on parody (new text underlay) while completing the initial phase of incarnation/conception of Jesus Christ as interpreted in the Gospel of John. Meanwhile, another profane autobiographical element is the possibility that Bach may have presented the just-published Clavierübung III in Dresden at the end of September 1739, at the dedication of the “Dreikönigskirche” (Three Kings Church), the new garrison church “and ostensibly a gift from the same king whose birthday Bach as court composer was about to celebrate,” suggests Williams (2016, Ibid.: 382f). On October 7, the birthday of King-Elector, Friedrich Augustus II, a cantata (composition unknown) was “performed by Bach’s Collegium musicum in Zimmermann’s coffee house (Bach Document 2:459).²⁰ “News of the church’s dedication, important to Saxony and its elector, circulated through the kingdom and Clavierübung III could gave had more than one raisin d’être,” says Williams.

Penitence, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir”

Luther’s first Catechism hymn and one of the first he wrote in 1523 is his “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir” (From deep affliction I cry out to you), his German paraphrase of most penitential Psalm 130, De profundis clamavi (Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, KJV, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+130&version=KJV. The theology of penitence and its application to the people through congregational singing was essential to the reformers, witness Lazarus Spengler’s “Durch Adams Fall” and Erhart Hegenwalt’s penitential Psalm 51 paraphrase, “Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott” (Have mercy on me, O Lord God), both hymns written in 1524. Psalm 130 “portrays the deepest repentance, the highest assurance of forgiveness, and the strongest hope of the believer in Christ,” suggests Gerike (Ibid.). The hymn is written in five stanzas, each approximating a paraphrase of two lines of Psalm 130 (Luther text, Francis Browne English translation, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale085-Eng3.htm).

Underlying Luther’s treatment of Psalm 130 is his theological concept of sola gratia (grace alone), observes Leaver (2007, Ibid.: 147), at the close of Stanza 2, “Before you nobody can boast, / but everyone must fear you / and live by your grace.” This refrain is reiterated throughout Luther’s later teaching of the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism: “We should fear and love God,” “that dialect between servile and filial fear, one of the products of the Law that condemns, the other the gift of [unmerited, unconditional] grace in the Gospel that forgives,” says Leaver. Luther turns Psalm 130 into a Reformation hymn that begins in his 1517 Theses with the meaning of r, “deals with the tension and distinction between Law and Gospel, the essence of the diatribe of justification that embraces the principles of grace, faith, and the word alone.” The “striking Phrygian melody [Zahn 4437, EKG 195] almost certainly composed by Luther, beginning as it does with a musical hermeneutic,” “is given sonic (and visual) expression in the fall and rise of a fifth.”

Luther’s “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir” soon became accepted in the growth of the Lutheran hymnbook as both a de tempore (Hymn of the Day) Gradual Hymn and as a thematic hymn under the rubric, “Repentance and Confession.” “The hymn has had wide usage in the history of Lutheran worship,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 149). It initially was used most as a burial, catechism and psalm hymn, and as an introit at the beginning of worship. About 1537, for liturgical use, it was designated as a Gradual hymn, sung between the Epistle and Gospel, for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity. More history on Luther’s hymn is found at BCW, “Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works,” http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Aus-tiefer-Not.htm. Luther’s original version of Psalm 130, “Aus der Tiefen rufe ich” (Out of the deep I cry), of 1523 (Zahn melody 1218 Phrygian), appears in the NLGB 366, “Death & Dying), for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany and for the 11th, 19th, 21st and 22nd Sundays after Trinity. It was sung at Catechism and funeral services, including Luther's in 1546. Bach set a version of the text as Cantata 131 for a Mühlhaüsen memorial service in 1707. It is still found in many hymnals, often for funerals, translated as "Out of the depths I cry to Thee.” In 1724, Bach set Luther’s hymn as a paraphrased chorale Cantata, BWV 38, for the 21st Sunday after Trinity, based on the day’s readings, Epistle, Ephesians 6:10-17 (Paul, “Put on the armour of God”), and Gospel, John 4:46-54 (Miracle: The nobleman’s son healed).

Bach’s chorale prelude Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV 686 is a monumental and strict chorale motet in six parts (four manual, two pedal voices), in the phrygian mode of C (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDN4uznAtv0). The climax of the organ chiorale prelude collection, it is composed in the strict polyphonic stile antico of Palestrina in florid counterpoint, the only Catechism Chorale set in old style. The polyphonic voices become human petitioners, whose clamorous appeals (echoing the text of the chorale)” with arching lines and reiterated melody in motet form, says Humphreys (Ibid.: 60). The manual, “smaller” fughetta setting, BWV 687, uses similar organ motet form with different technique such as all-pervasive imitations and Bach’s use of galant elements of f-sharp minor and 2/4 meter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2TpWVkYSbA).

Eucharist, “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland” (Jesus Christ, our Savior).

Luther in the last section of his Catechism takes the reformer Jan Hus’s Bohemian Brethren setting of the Latin Jesus rostra salus as a starting point for a “broader theological understanding of the Lord’s Supper as the surety of God's grace in forgiveness,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 157). The full title is “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Gotteszorn wandt” (Christ Jesus, our Redeemer born, / Who from us did God's anger turn, C.S. Terry trans.; details and text, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christus,_unser_Heiland,_der_von_uns_den_Gotteszorn_wandt). Luther’s communion hymn was first published in 1524 in the Erfurt Enchiridion, later found in the NLGB No. 184, Catechism Communion hymn (melody Zahn 1576). Listed in the Evangelisches Gesangbuch No. 215, today it is found in the American Lutheran hymnals as a Catechism and Mass Communion hymn, “Jesus Christ, our Blessed Savior.”

Here the Supper is grounded in Christ’s sacrificial Passion, to be received by faith, and Christ’s invitation to participate is expressed in scriptural paraphrase, says Leaver. The ten stanzas explain the foundation, essence, and use of the sacrament, followed by the closing summary of the consequences for the believer. The hymn is rooted in the Christological principles of the Theology of the Cross as atonement and the Justification of Christ’s “actual” presence in the Supper and his sharing to all believers — concepts that continue to be debated today. Luther also explains that communion leads “to the response of praise and thanksgiving,” that it is partaken in “faith and then to express the fruits of faith in love to others,” says Leaver (Ibid.: 159). Penitential (Confession) and Communion chorales are the spiritual backbone of the omnes tempore section of the Lutheran hymnal and will be the topic of the BCML Discussion, Week of July 30.

The Communion Hymn pedal setting, BWV 688, is a trio sonata in Dorian mode G, set in 3/4 time. The full title, listed by Bach, is “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Gotteszorn wandt” (Christ Jesus, our Redeemer born, / Who from us did God's anger turn, C.S. Terry trans.; details and text, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christus,_unser_Heiland,_der_von_uns_den_Gotteszorn_wandt). The first four bars of the prelude (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vRfRuNZdHs) signify that “the wrath of God descends to meet Man, but is turned aside by the atonement of Christ,” says Humphreys (Ibid.: 62), “Who from us did God's anger turn.” The flowing figure at bar 6 represents the sacrificial drops of blood. The closing manual Fughetta setting in C minor, common time, BWV 689, is a long, complex fugue in four parts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgXFpa_eQZU) and ends with a reaffirmation of the incipit, “Christ Jesus, our Redeemer .”

Besides the two Clavierübung III settings of “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland,” Bach set Luther’s melody as a four-part plain chorale, BWV 363 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo19FmXGdWA). In Bach’s NLGB these hymns Bach set were part of the Catechism section on penitence and communion: “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (No. 178), “Ach Gott und Herr, wie groß” (No. 180), “Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut” (No. 181), “Wo soll ich fliehen hin” (No. 182), “Essaia dem Propheten” (German Sanctus), No. 183), and “Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeit” (No. 185).

FOOTNOTES

¹ Robin A. Leaver, Chapter 18, Luther’s Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmanns Publishing, 2007, 297).
² Source, Martin Petzoldt, “Liturgy and Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches,” translated by Thomas Braatz © 2013, Bach Cantata Website, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Leipzig-Churches-Petzold.pdf.
³ Günther Stiller, Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical, ed. Robin A, Leaver (St. Louis MO: Concordia Publishing, 1985: 113).
⁴ Publication, Atlanta GA: Pitts Theology Library, Fall 2015-Winter 2016, http://pitts.emory.edu/exhibits/commandments2015/index.cfm
⁵ David Humphreys “The Esoteric Structure of Bach’s Clavierübung III” (Cardiff GB: University College Cardiff Press, 1983: 68) uses the German text found in the Schmelli songbook with Humphreys’ English translation.
⁶ See Henry V. Gerike, Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth (St. Louis MO: Concordia: 23)
⁷ Mark S. Bighley, The Lutheran Chorales in the Organ Works of J. S. Bach St. Louis MO: Concordia, 1986: 72f).
⁸ Charles S. Terry, Bach’s Chorals. Part III: The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works, Vol. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2057.
⁹ Peter Williams, The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2003: 407f).
¹⁰ Russell Stinson, Bach: The Orgelbüchlein (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999: 95).
¹¹ See Karl Geiringer, The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954: 46).
¹² See Christoph Wolff, “The Neumeister Collection of Chorale Preludes from the Bach Circle,” in Bach: Essays on His Life and Music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 114ff).
¹³ See, Orgelbüchlein Project, Missing Chorales, http://www.orgelbuechlein.co.uk/the-missing-chorales/. The project, “completing Bach’s plan,” solicits organ chorale prelude settings of these chorales which Bach did not set for the organ but many of which he did set as plain chorales, BWV 253-438. Thus the incomplete Orgelbüchlein collection is Bach’s template of “a well-regulated church music.”
¹⁴ Source, Robin A. Leaver’s “Bach’s “Choral-Buch” The Significance of a manuscript in the Sibley Library,” in Bach and the Organ (Bach Perspectives 10), ed. Matthew Dirst (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2016, 33).
¹⁵ See Luther’s hymn and its use by other composers, https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Vater%20unser%20im%20Himmelreich&item_type=topic).
¹⁶ See Ulrich S. Leupold, “The hymns: “Our Father in the Heaven who Art,” in Luther’s Works, Vol. 53, Liturgy and Hymns, trans. George MacDonald (Philadelphia PA: Fortress Press, 1967: 295).
¹⁷ See Reinhard Strohm, “Michael Weisse transmitting Medieval Songs to Bach” Understanding Bach, 6, 56–60 © Bach Network UK 2011, http://www.bachnetwork.co.uk/ub6/Strohm%20UB6.pdf; also see, Michael Weisse, Gesangbuch der Böhmischen Brüder 1531, facs., ed. Konrad Ameln (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1957). See also, “Michael Weiss Advent Texts” and “Other Michael Weisse Chorales,” in “Motets & Chorales for Sundays in Advent,” BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/LCY/M&C-Advent.htm.
¹⁸ Both versions of the melody are printed in Leaver 2007: 132, Example 7.1, Luther’s melodies for Vater unser im Himmelreich, and in Leupold: 296f with text in English translation.
¹⁹ Peter Williams, Chapter 6, “Leipzig, the middle years,” in Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016: 382).
²⁰ Cited in Robin A. Leaver, Part VI, Chronology, Chapter 20, “Life and Works 1685-1750,” in The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Leaver (London UK, New York: Rutledge, 2017: 531).

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Next BCML Discussion: Luther’s Main Service Deutsche Messe and other Liturgical Chorales.

Clavier-Übung III BWV 552, BWV 669-689: Details
Recordings:
Reviews of Individual Recordings: Bach Great Organ Mass by L.v. Doeslaaar | Bach Great Organ Mass by K. Johannssen | Bach’s Clavier-Ubung III from M. Suzuki (2 Parts)
General Discussions: Part 1