Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227


Jesu, meine Freude, BWV227, is a motet for five-part choir composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in E minor, it is titled after the Lutheran hymn "Jesu, meine Freude", with poetry by Johann Franck and a chorale melody by Johann Crüger. Movements based on the six stanzas of the hymn are interspersed with five movements based on passages from the Epistle to the Romans. The Biblical text, which contains key Lutheran teaching, is contrasted by the hymn, written in the first person with a focus on emotion, and Bach set both with attention to dramatic detail in a symmetrical structure of eleven movements. Bach set the chorale tune in various ways, from a four-part setting which begins and ends the work, to a chorale fantasia and a free setting which only paraphrases the tune. Four verses from the Epistle are set in motet style, two for five voices, and two for three voices. The central movement is a five-part fugue. Bach used word painting to intensify the theological meaning of both hymn and Epistle texts.
Jesu, meine Freude is one of the few works by Bach for five vocal parts. It may have been composed for a funeral, but scholars doubt a 1912 dating to a specific funeral in Leipzig on 18 July 1723. Chorale settings from the motet were included in the Dietel manuscript, a collection of Bach's chorales from. At least one of the eleven movements seems to date to a period before Bach's post in Leipzig. Christoph Wolff suggested that the motet may have been composed for education in both choral singing and theology. Unique in its complex symmetrical structure juxtaposing hymn text and Bible text, it has been regarded as one of Bach's greatest motets. It was the first of his motets to be recorded, in 1927.

History

Members of the Bach family of the generations before Johann Sebastian wrote motets in late 17th-century Protestant Germany. Several of these motets are preserved in the Altbachisches Archiv. In that context, motets are choral compositions, mostly with a number of independent voices exceeding that of a standard SATB choir of soprano, alto, tenor and bass and with a German text from sacred scripture and/or based on a Lutheran hymn. In the latter case, the corresponding chorale tune was usually adopted into the composition. Instrumental accompaniment was often limited to basso continuo and/or instruments playing colla parte. By the time Bach started to compose his motets in the 1710s or 1720s along the principles of these older compositions, motets were regarded as an antiquated genre. According to Philipp Spitta, Johann Michael Bach's motet, ABA I, 10, which contains a setting of the "Jesu, meine Freude" chorale, may have been on Johann Sebastian's mind when he composed his motet named after the chorale, in E minor like his ancestor's.
Bach composed most of his church cantatas for occasions of the Lutheran liturgical calendar of the time and place where he was occupied. Church cantatas for weddings and funerals fall outside such scheme, and also his motets appear to belong in this latter category. Among around 15 extant compositions which at some point or another were designated as a motet by Bach, Jesu, meine Freude is one of only five which, without exception, have always been considered as belonging in that category. In eleven movements, Jesu, meine Freude is the longest and most musically complex of Bach's motets. It is scored for SSATB voices. Bach composed only very few works for a five-part choir: most of his other motets are for double SATB choir, while the large majority of his vocal church music is to be performed with one SATB choir. Like for most of his other motets, no continuo or other instrumental accompaniment has survived for BWV 227, but it is surmised there used to be one.

Epistle text and chorale

The text of Jesu, meine Freude is compiled from two sources, the 1653 hymn of the same name with words by Johann Franck, and Bible verses from the Epistle to the Romans, 8:1–2 and 9–11. In the motet, the six hymn stanzas form the odd movement numbers, while the even numbers each take one verse from the Epistle as their text. The hymn's first line, which Catherine Winkworth translated as "Jesu, priceless treasure" in 1869, is repeated as the last line of its last stanza, framing the poetry.
Johann Crüger's chorale melody for the hymn, Zahn 8032, was published for the first time in his Praxis pietatis melica of 1653, after which several variants of the hymn tune were published in other hymnals over the ensuing decades. The tune is in bar form. In the version of Vopelius's Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch of 1682, the hymnal used in Leipzig, the melody of the first line is the same as that of the last line. The hymn tune appears in several variants in the uneven movements of the motet.
As a key teaching of the Lutheran faith, the Gospel text reflects on Jesus Christ freeing man from sin and death, focused on the contrast of living "in the flesh" or "according to the Spirit". The hymn text is written from an individual believer's point of view, addressing Jesus as joy and support, against enemies and the vanity of existence, which are expressed in stark images. The hymn adds a layer of individuality and emotions to Biblical teaching.

Time of origin

Most of Bach's motets are difficult to date, and Jesu, meine Freude is no exception. Spitta, Bach's early biographer, assigned the motets, including Jesu, meine Freude, to Bach's Leipzig years. In 1912, Bernhard Friedrich Richter wrote that Jesu, meine Freude was likely written in Bach's first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, for the funeral of Johanna Maria Kees, the wife of the Leipzig postmaster, on 18 July 1723, because a scripture reading of verse [|11] from the Epistle passage set in the motet, in the tenth movement, is documented for the funeral. The Cambridge musicologist Daniel R. Melamed wrote in his 1995 book about Bach's motets that this is not conclusive evidence for a motet performance, but that the date was still "nearly universally accepted". The order of that particular service was found in 1982, mentioning neither a motet nor even the chorale.
was the first to analyse the motet's symmetrical structure, a feature which can also be found in Bach's St John Passion of 1724 and St Matthew Passion of 1727, which led Smend to suggest that the work was composed in the 1720s. Looking at the four-part settings of the chorale movements [|1], [|7] and 11, which seem unusual for a five-part work, and at the older version of the chorale melody used as the cantus firmus in the ninth movement, which suggests an origin of that movement in Bach's Weimar period, or even earlier, Melamed thought that the motet was likely in part compiled from music Bach had composed before his Leipzig period.
Christoph Wolff suggested that the motet might be intended not for a funeral but the education of the Thomanerchor, as also Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225. According to Richard D. P. Jones, several movements of the motet show a style too advanced to have been written in 1723, so that the final arrangement of the work likely happened in the late 1720s, around the time when two other motets which can be dated with more certainty, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied and the funeral motet Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226, were written. The Dietel manuscript, written around 1735, contains three chorales extracted from the motet: the composition of the motet is supposed to have been completed before that time.

Structure and scoring

The motet is structured in eleven movements, with text alternating a chorale stanza and a passage from the Epistle. Bach scored it for a choir of two soprano parts, alto, tenor, and bass. The number of voices in the movements varies from three to five. Only the alto, the middle voice in the motet's SSATB setting, sings in all movements. The motet was possibly meant to be accompanied by instruments playing colla parte in the practice at the time, but no parts for them survived.
The music is arranged in different layers of symmetry around the sixth movement. The first and last movements are the same four-part setting of two different hymn stanzas. The second and penultimate movements use the same themes in fugal writing. The third and fifth movements, both five-part, mirror the seventh and ninth movements, both four-part. The fourth and eighth movements are both trios, the fourth for the three highest voices, the other for the three lowest voices. The central movement is a five-part fugue.

Movements

In the following table, the movement number is followed by the beginning of the text, its source, the voices, and key and time signatures.
No.TitleText sourceVoicesKeyTime
1Jesu, meine Freudeverse 1SATB
[|2]Es ist nun nichts VerdammlichesSSATBE minor3/2
[|3]Unter deinen Schirmenverse 2SSATBE minor
[|4]Denn das GesetzSSAG major3/4
[|5]Trotz dem alten Drachenverse 3SSATBE minor3/4
[|6]Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlichSSATBG major
7Weg, weg mit allen Schätzenverse 4SATBE minor
8So aber Christus in euch istATBC major12/8
[|9]Gute Nacht, o Wesenverse 5SSATA minor2/4
[|10]So nun der GeistSSATBE minor3/2
11Weicht, ihr Trauergeisterverse 6SATBE minor

1

The motet begins with a four-part setting of the first stanza of the hymn "Jesu, meine Freude". This and most other movements related to the hymn are in E minor. The text, in the first person, speaks of longing for Jesus. Jones noted that the tenor part is particularly expressive. The last movement has exactly the same music to the different text of the last stanza, creating a frame which encloses the whole work:

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2

The second movement begins with excerpts from the Epistle to the Romans with "Es ist nun nichts Verdammliches an denen, die in Christo Jesu sind". The difference of living in the flesh and the spirit is an aspect that will be repeated throughout the motet. The movement is also in E minor, but for five voices. The text is rendered first in rhetorical homophony.
In setting the first sentence, Bach accented the word "nichts", repeating it twice, with long rests and echo dynamics. Jones noted that dramatic word painting of this kind was in the tradition of 17th-century motets, such as by Johann Christoph Bach and Johann Michael Bach.

3

The third movement is a five-part setting of the second stanza of the hymn, "Unter deinen Schirmen bin ich für den Stürmen aller Feinde frei". While the soprano provides the chorale melody, the lower voices supply vivid lines expressing the text.

4

The fourth movement sets the second verse from the Epistle, "Denn das Gesetz des Geistes, der da lebendig machet in Christo Jesu, hat mich frei gemacht von dem Gesetz der Sünde und des Todes". The thought is set for the two sopranos and alto, beginning in G major. The sopranos often move in "beatific" third parallels.

5

The fifth movement is a setting of the third stanza of the hymn, "Trotz dem alten Drachen". The defiant opposition, also to death, fear and the rage of the world, is expressed in a free composition. The soprano melody quotes short motifs from the chorale, while keeping the bar form of the original melody. Five voices take part in dramatic illustration of defiance, in the same rhetorical style as the beginning of the second movement, here often expressed in powerful unison. The voices also depict standing firmly and singing, again in rhetorical homophony and reinforced in unison. John Eliot Gardiner noted that the firm stance against opposition could depict Martin Luther's attitude and also the composer's own stance.

6

The central sixth movement sets verse 9 from the Epistle, "Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich, sondern geistlich". Again beginning in G major, the tenor begins with a fugue theme that stresses the word "geistlich" by a long melisma in fast notes, while the opposite "fleischlich" is a long note stretched over the bar-line. The alto enters during the melisma. All five voices participate in a lively fugue, the only one within the motet. It is a double fugue, with a first theme for the first line, another for the second, "so anders Gottes Geist in euch wohnet", and then both combined in various ways, parallel and in stretti. By contrast, the third line of verse 9, "Wer aber Christ Geist nicht hat, der ist nicht sein" is set in a homophonic adagio with deeply unsettling harmonies: "not of Christ".

7

The seventh movement is a four-part setting of the fourth stanza of the hymn, "Weg mit allen Schätzen". While the soprano sings the chorale melody, the lower voices intensify the gesture dramatically: "weg" is repeated several times in fast succession. Throughout the movement, the lower voices intensify the expressiveness of the text.

8

The eighth movement sets verse 10 from the Epistle, "So aber Christus in euch ist, so ist der Leib zwar tot um der Sünde willen; der Geist aber ist das Leben um der Gerechtigkeit willen". As in the fourth movement, it is set as a trio, this time for alto, tenor and bass, beginning in C major. Third parallels in the upper voices resemble those in the fourth movement.

9

The ninth movement is a setting of the fifth stanza of the hymn, "Gute Nacht, o Wesen, das die Welt erlesen". For the rejection of everything earthly, Bach composed a chorale fantasia, with the cantus firmus in the alto voice and two sopranos and tenor repeating "Gute Nacht" often. Jones pointed out that the absence of a bass may depict that "the world" lacks a firm foundation in Christ. The chorale melody used in this movement is slightly different from the one in the other settings within the motet, a version which Bach used mostly in his earlier time in Weimar and before. For Gardiner, the "sublime" music suggests the style of Bach's Weimar period. Jones, however, found that the "bewitchingly lyrical setting" matched compositions from the mid-1720s in Leipzig, comparing the music to the Sarabande from the Partita No. 3, BWV 827.

10

The tenth movement sets verse 11 from the Epistle, "So nun der Geist des, der Jesum von den Toten auferwecket hat, in euch wohnet". In symmetry, the music recalls that of the second movement.

11

The motet ends with the same four-part setting as the first movement, now with the text of the last stanza of the hymn, "Weicht, ihr Trauergeister". The final line repeats the beginning, on the same melody: "Dennoch bleibst du auch im Leide, / Jesu, meine Freude".

Reception

The structure of Jesu, meine Freude has been regarded as unique in its complex symmetrical structure juxtaposing hymn text and Bible text. Bach's vivid setting of the contrasting texts, even illustrating single words, results in music of an unusual dramatic range. Wolff summarised:
Performers of Jesu, meine Freude have to decide if they will use a boys' choir or a mixed choir, a small vocal ensemble or a larger choir, a continuo group, and instruments playing colla parte.

18th and 19th centuries

As for most of Bach's motets, there is no extant autograph of Jesu, meine Freude. The motet's SATB chorales were copied in several 18th-century manuscripts collecting chorale harmonisations by Bach. The earliest extant of such chorale collections, the Dietel manuscript, also contains a SATB version of the motet's five-part third movement: Dietel's copy omitted the second soprano part of that movement. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach retained the two other chorales, based on the motet's first and seventh movements, in the third volume of Breitkopf's 1780s edition of Bach's four-part chorales.
After Bach's death, the motets, unlike much of his other music, were kept continuously in the repertoire of the Thomanerchor. A choral version of the entire motet, that is without any indication of instrumental accompaniment, was first published in 1803, in the second volume of Breitkopf & Härtel's first edition of six motets by Bach. Together with other motets edited by Franz Wüllner, Jesu, meine Freude was published in 1892 in volume 39 of the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe.

20th and 21st centuries

In the 1920s, the large Bach Choir in London performed Bach's works conducted by Ralph Vaughan Williams, while Charles Kennedy Scott performed Jesu, meine Freude with his Bach Cantata Club in chamber formation, which prompted a reviewer to write: Scott and the Bach Cantata Club made the first recording of it, which was the first of any motet by Bach, in 1927, sung in English.
The New Bach Edition published the motet in 1965, edited by Konrad Ameln, with critical commentary published in 1967. In 1995, Bärenreiter published the vocal parts of the six motets BWV 225–230 from the NBA in one volume, with a preface by Klaus Hofmann. The motets were published by Carus-Verlag in 1975, edited by Günter Graulich, and again in 2003, edited by Uwe Wolf, as part of the Stuttgarter Bach-Ausgaben, a complete edition of Bach's vocal works. Modern editions of the motet may supply a reconstructed instrumental accompaniment, such as a continuo realisation, and/or a singable translation of the lyrics, as for instance in Carus's 2003 publication of the motet.
Jesu, meine Freude has been recorded more than 60 times, mostly in combination with other motets by Bach. These recorded sets of motets are partially listed at Motets by Johann Sebastian Bach, discography and include:
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