Johann Sebastian Bach Oratorio de l’Ascension

Praise to God on high in heaven,
praise him all ye earthly creatures,
sing his praise with loud acclaim!
Praise him all ye hosts of heaven,
men and angels join in chorus,
sing and praise his holy name.

Then did Jesus lift up his hands on high and gave unto them his blessing; it came to pass, that as he blessed them, he rose to heaven.

Ah, Jesus must thou go away so soon?
Ah, is the hour already come,
when thou and I must needs be parted?
Ah, look now, see the bitter teardrops
that down our pallid cheeks are rolling,
’tis thee for whom we’re yearning,
’tis thou who dost our cares allay.
Ah, go thou not away!

Ah, leave me not, my dearest Saviour,
ah, linger yet a while with me.
Thy farewell and the empty morrow
bring to me deepest, darkest sorrow;
ah, Lord abide a while with me;
with thee away is all disaster.

And before their eyes he was taken away up to heaven, and the clouds of heav’n from out their sight received him; there he reigns with the Father Almighty!

Ruler art

...

Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen,
preiset ihn in seinen Ehren,
rühmet ihn in seiner Pracht!
Sucht sein Lob recht zu vergleichen,
wenn ihr mit gesamten Chören
ihm ein Lied zu Ehren macht!

Der Herr Jesus hub seine Hände auf und segnete seine Jünger, und es geschah, da er sie segnete, schied er von ihnen.

Ach, Jesu, ist dein Abschied schon so nah?
Ach, ist denn schon die Stunde da,
da wir dich von uns lassen sollen?
Ach, siehe, wie die heißen Tränen
von unsern blassen Wangen rollen,
wie wir uns nach dir sehnen,
wie uns fast aller Trost gebricht.
Ach, weiche doch noch nicht!

Ach, bleibe doch, mein liebstes Leben,
ach, fliehe nicht so bald von mir!
Dein Abschied und dein frühes Scheiden
bringt mir das allergrößte Leiden,
ach ja, so bleibe doch noch hier;
sonst werd ich ganz von Schmerz umgeben.

Und ward aufgehoben zusehends und fuhr auf gen Himmel, eine Wolke nahm ihn weg vor ihren Augen, und er sitzet zur rechten Hand Gottes.

Nun lieget alles unter dir,

...

Ulrich Leisinger
Translation: Ulrich Leisinger, John Coombs

“A sacred oratorio [... ] is nothing other than a poem intended to be set to music which presents a certain sacred action or virtue in a dramatic manner.” These words are found in issue 20 of the Critischer Musikus, a weekly magazine about music, by which, between 1737 and 1740, Johann Adolph Scheibe, a student and sometimes rebellious critic of Johann Sebastian Bach, intended to introduce a wider audience to the music of his time. According to Scheibe, “the arrangement of the words consists of biblical sayings, arias, cavatas, recitatives, chorales, or short excerpts from psalms and songs of praise.” Oratorios can be either dramatic, if they include personages, which may be taken either from the bible or be freely invented, with regard to poetic considerations; but at the same time they can also be “poetic and prosaic”, namely when the text is based on the narrative accounts of the Evangelist from the Bible, for example in the Passion or the Resurrection histories. One could object, says Scheibe, that such an oratorio shows a certain tendency towards the epic, “but since the Evangelist, who in

...