was Johann Sebastian Bach's predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. Philipp Spitta's 19th century biography of the latter contains the following: More recently the attribution to Kuhnau has been doubted. By then it proved impossible to ascertain authorship on source-critical grounds.
Text
The motet is set to the Latin text of the second Tenebrae responsory for Maundy Thursday. The theme of that text is Jesus in the garden Gethsemane, addressing his disciples. Its first two lines are quoted from. The first words of the text, told in the first person, are translated as "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" in the King James Version. While the first two lines are quoted from the Bible, the next two are anonymous poetry, Jesus predicting that the disciples will see a crowd, they will take flight, and he will go to be sacrificed for them.
Music
The composer set the motet for five parts, two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass. He followed an example by Orlande de Lassus of the same text also for five parts, indicated depending on edition as SAATB or SATTB. Both works open in a similar way, with "closely overlapping vocal entries, and both shift to homophonic declamation at the words "Iam videbitis turbam". The composer follows Italian models. John Butt describes his approach as "conservative in texture but extremely expressive". The first eight measures are devoted exclusively to the word "tristis", with the voices entering one after the other, each beginning with a long note, from the lowest to the highest which sings only a short sighing motif. Only then comes the complete first line, expressed in polyphony until measure 20, ending with "ad mortem", which the bass sings in a chromatic downward line of long notes. "ad mortem" is repeated, mirroring the beginning: the voices enter again one after the other but beginning with the highest voice. The harmonies are intensified, resolved in measure 30. After a short rest, the second line of the text is presented in similar building, this time in the sequence from inside out: alto, soprano II and tenor together, soprano I and bass almost together, all arriving in measure 50 in homophony on the last word "mecum", which marks the end of the biblical text and is followed by a long rest with a fermata. The predictions follow each other without a rest. The first one begins in homophonic declamation, the second building with entrances in the sequence tenor, alto, soprano II, bass, soprano I, the third in denser texture with two voices entering together and a repeated motif of a faster descending line. In the fourth prediction "Et ego vadam", Jesus speaks of himself, and the composer expresses it by the voices entering one after another, but with exactly the same motif, in the first four voices even from the same pitch, followed by a second long rest with a fermata. The word is repeated and intensified, with a climax of the soprano ascending step by step to G, their highest note. The words "pro vobis" follow within the polyphony, first by the alto, followed immediately by soprano II, soprano I and bass together, tenor. In the last phrase, the ascending steps appear in the bass. Throughout the piece, the composer keeps the same tempo and mood, with subtle attention to different parts and even individual words of the text. It has been described as a "serenely reflective" work. Butt concludes:
''''
Around 1750 the pasticciopassion oratorioWer ist der, so von Edom kömmt was assembled in the circle around Johann Sebastian Bach and his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol. Its basis was the then popular passion cantata Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld by Carl Heinrich Graun, which was expanded with compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann and others. Nos. 19 and 20 of the pasticcio appeared to be composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. On stylistic grounds scholars such as Diethard Hellmann see chorus No. 39 of the pasticcio, an orchestrated version of the Tristis est anima mea motet on a parody text, as an arrangement by Bach. The music is transposed half a tone down to E minor. The German text of the chorus, Der Gerechte kömmt um, is translated from. Ecce quomodo moritur justus, a Latin version of that text, is another responsory for Holy Week. The arrangement with the German text may have been a stand-alone motet performed in Leipzig in Bach's time. The orchestral accompaniment consists of two characteristic woodwind parts, strings and continuo. If both attributions are correct this seems the only instance of Bach adopting music of his predecessor. Kuhnau's ideas were however more easily adopted by his successor: there is the imitation of Kuhnau's style in the final chorus of Bach's very first cantata for Leipzig, there are the links to Kuhnau in Bach's Magnificat and there are the similarities in both their Clavier-Übung publications. Harsh judgements have been passed on the quality of Kuhnau's music: Spitta, after describing various aspects of where he sees Kuhnau's choral music wanting, concludes: "Kuhnau did not understand the world, nor did the world understand him..." The musical quality of Tristis est anima mea appears to rise above this, which is why the attribution to Kuhnau is considered doubtful, and why it seems reasonable to assume that Bach, judging on quality, reused it. Bach was known for "signing" many of his works with the notes B-A-C-H in key places. In bars 36–38 the alto, as the only syncopated voice, sings B-A-C-H in a harmonically complicated cadence ending the first main phrase, followed by the text und niemand achtet darauf. The same passage in Tristis est anima mea is much simpler harmonically, both together offering a further indication of an arrangement of the piece by Bach.
Publication
Tristis est anima mea was published by the Carus-Verlag in a version with basso continuo. The motet appears in a critical edition named The Kuhnau-Project, edited by David Erler in the Pfefferkorn Musikverlag.
Recordings
Tristis est anima mea was frequently recorded, including by the Dresdner Kreuzchor conducted by Rudolf Mauersberger in 1957, and by the Windsbacher Knabenchor conducted by Hans Thamm in 1967. A collection of Kuhnau's sacred music was performed by The King’s Consort, conducted by Robert King, in 1998. The Kammerchor Joaquin des Préz, conducted by Ludwig Böhme, sang it in 2012 as part of a collection of music by Bach and his predecessors as Thomaskantor. A reviewer notes: "The setting Tristis est anima mea is not wholly authenticated as being by Johann Kuhnau... Yet whoever wrote it, this Motet, so sure, direct and moving, is one of the most ear-catching in this selection."
