Johann Sebastian Bach Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis

Lord my God: my heart and soul were sore distressed,
my spirit troubled;
but Lord, by thy comforting my spirit is delighted.

Sighing, weeping, sorrow, grief,
sighing, weeping, anxious yearning,
fear and death, nag and gnaw my aching heart,
tear my troubled soul apart.

Why hast thou, Lord my God, in this my need,
my fear and trepidation, thus so forsaken me?
Ah! Know’st thou not thy child?
Ah! Hear’st thou not the wailing
of those whose hearts ar bound
in faith and truth to thee?
For thou wast all my joy,
but now hast turned against me.
In ev’ry place I vainly seek thee;

...

Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis in meinem Herzen;
aber deine Tröstungen erquicken meine Seele.

Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not,
Seufzer Tränen, ängstlichs Sehnen,
Furcht und Tod
nagen mein beklemmtes Herz,
ich empfinde Jammer, Schmerz.

Wie hast du dich, mein Gott,
in meiner Not,
in meiner Furcht und Zagen
denn ganz von mir gewandt?
Ach! kennst du nicht dein Kind?
Ach! hörst du nicht das Klagen
von denen, die dir sind
mit Bund und Treu verwandt?
Du warest meine Lust

...

Klaus Hofmann
Translation: John Coombs / David Kosviner

The cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21, has won the l asting appreciation of music lovers during nearly a century and a half since its publication, edited by Wilhelm Rust, in Volume 5/1 of the Complete Edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft (1855). At the same time it has posed various problems for musicologists. The work survived in the form of a set of 28 original vocal and instrumental parts kept at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin; there is no score. That set of parts, not quite complete, had been used for at least three performances, one each during the periods which Bach spent at Weimar, Cöthen and Leipzig, and each performance was marked by particular circumstances: at Weimar there was no solo soprano, the solos for a high voice (movements Nos. 3–5, 7–8, 10) all being allotted to the tenor. The key was C minor chamber pitch. At the performance given during Bach’s years at Cöthen, too, there were only two solo singers, but on that occasion a soprano replaced the tenor. In this instance the tonality was D minor chamber pitch. For the Leipzig performance Bach divided the high solo parts between soprano (movements Nos. 3,

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