Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (With peace and joy
I depart), BWV 125, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in
Leipzig in 1725 for the Feast of the purification of
Mary and first performed it on 2 February 1725. The
text is based on the chorale in four stanzas by Martin
Luther, a paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis, published in
1524.
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in
Leipzig for the Feast of Purification. The prescribed
readin...(+)
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (With peace and joy
I depart), BWV 125, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in
Leipzig in 1725 for the Feast of the purification of
Mary and first performed it on 2 February 1725. The
text is based on the chorale in four stanzas by Martin
Luther, a paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis, published in
1524.
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in
Leipzig for the Feast of Purification. The prescribed
readings for the feast day were from the book of
Malachi, "the Lord will come to his temple" (Malachi
3:1–4), and from the Gospel of Luke, the purification
of Mary and the presentation of Jesus at the Temple,
including Simeon's canticle Nunc dimittis (Luke
2:22–32).
Luther's chorale in four stanzas is a paraphrase of
this canticle, "With peace and joy I depart in God's
will". Luther phrased each verse of the canticle in one
stanza. An unknown librettist kept the first and the
last stanza and paraphrased the inner stanzas in four
movements. Movement 2 takes Luther's second stanza as a
starting point and relates Simeon's view as an example
on how to look at death. Movement 3 comments the
complete text of Luther's second stanza in recitative.
The allusion to "light for the heathen" from the Gospel
and the hymn is seen related to "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Movements 4
and 5 are derived from the third stanza, 4 relates to
Paul's teaching about God's grace, "Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Romans
3:25), thus declaring the Lutheran teaching of
justification "by grace alone through faith alone
because of Christ alone" even more clearly than
Luther's song.
The opening chorus begins with a concertante
ritornello, in which the flute and the oboe play
opposed to the strings. A motif in triplets rises a
fifth, related to the first interval of the chorale
tune. The soprano sings the cantus firmus in Phrygian
mode in long notes. The lower voices participate in the
instrumental motifs for lines 1, 2, 3 and 5, but lines
4 and 6 are treated differently. In accordance to the
text, "sanft und stille" (calm and quiet) and "der Tod
ist mein Schlaf worden" (death has become my sleep),
they are performed softly (piano), in homophony,
chromatic, and modulating to distant keys.
The alto aria is richly ornamented and accompanied by
the flute and oboe d'amore, on a calm foundation of
repeated notes in the continuo, marked "legato". The
phrase "gebrochene Augen" (broken eyes) is pictured by
a broken vocal line, flute and oboe d'amore play dotted
rhythm to the "almost trembling declamation" of the
voice. In the bass recitative with chorale, the chorale
tune is unadorned but for the last line, "im Tod und
auch im Sterben" (in death and also in dying), where
the music is extended by two measures and coloured in
chromatic and rich ornamentation. The elements
recitative and chorale are unified by a motif in the
strings, called "Freudenmotiv" by Alfred Dürr, which
"always indicates an underlying mood of happiness". The
closing chorale is a four-part setting.
Julian Mincham relates the opening movement to that of
Bach's later St Matthew Passion. It is similar in its
motifs in triplets, density of counterpoint, and is in
the same key of E minor, shared by the Crucifixus of
his Mass in B minor which he derived from the 1714
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (Weeping,
lamenting, worrying, fearing). Mincham concludes:
"death, sleep, a journey of departure, peace and
consolation are some of the intertwined themes and
images. Bach is always at his most creative and
imaginative when dealing with such complexities".
Although the Cantata wa originally scored for three
vocal soloists (alto, tenor, and bass), a four-part
choir, horn, flauto traverso, oboe, oboe d'amore, two
violins, viola, and basso continuo, I created this
arrangement for Flute, Oboe & Pipe Organ.
