Johann Sebastian Bach
Was willst du dich betrüben
“Why do you want to distress yourself”
(Cantata BWV 107)

Composed for use on the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, the text and a prominent melody used in this cantata are based on a hymn. Before it was sung as a hymn, the melody was first published in France and originally sung with a secular text about the plight of an innocent young girl. The earliest known publication of that folk song was in Lyon in 1557. As early as 1563, poet and composer Ludwig Helmbold (1532–1598) adapted it for use as a hymn.

Bach employed the melody in three of his cantatas, including BWV 107, where it is used in the 1st, 5th, and 7th movements. Many other composers — including Orlando de Lassus, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Hermann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, and Dietrich Buxtehude — wrote works employing this tune before Bach got hold of it.

Perhaps the best way to introduce the melody is with this chorale setting by Bach published after his death in a compilation of similarly short works edited by one of his sons (Carl Philipp Emanuel). It is sung here with two stanzas from the hymn that first introduced it to Lutheran worshipers: Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (My God I’ll not abandon). The singers and theorboist are members of the Netherlands Bach Society.

Bach composed a chorale prelude based on this melody as well (BWV 658). Here is a performance (recorded in 1963) by French organist Marie-Claire Alain (1926–2013).

For comparison, here is a chorale prelude on this melody composed by Dieterich Buxtehude (1637–1707), played by Ton Koopman.

And now, on to the cantata!

The Gospel for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity was (and, in our Lectionary, still is) St. Mark 8:1–9, the story of the miraculous feeding of the multitude. The hymn text that Bach chose as the point of departure for this Sunday’s cantata has a very general relationship with this text (and perhaps even less of a connection with the Epistle for the Sunday (Romans Romans 6:19–23). As is evident from the seven stanzas of the hymn — all of which Bach set to music in this “chorale” cantata — the theme of Gospel and Bach’s musical sermon is the Christian’s trust in God.

As Klaus Hofmann has explained, “The hymn text, seven strophes in all, was written by the clergyman Johann Heermann (1585–1647) from Silesia, probably the most important writer of song texts between Martin Luther and Paul Gerhardt.” And the melody that Hermann selected was already being sung to Ludwig Helmbold’s hymn, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen. (Nobody was fussy about intellectual property rights in those days.)

To this day, some Lutheran hymnals still include the hymn, sometimes with as many as nine stanzas. Here are the seven that Bach used in his cantata:

CHORUS
Why do you let yourself be distressed
O my dear soul?
Yield yourself to loving him
Whose name is Immanuel!
Trust in him alone,
He will make all things well
And will take care of your concerns
So that you become blessed!

RECITATIVE (Bass)
For God forsakes no one
Who puts his trust in him.
He remains faithful to his people
Those who firmly trust in him.
However strange life is,
Do not let it frighten you!
You will look with delight
At how God saves you.

ARIA (Bass)
You dare to rely on him,
With undaunted courage,
He will demonstrate to you
What is beneficial to you.
What God decides to do,
Cannot be prevented,
By anyone of human kind;
His word is law.

ARIA (Tenor)
Even if out of hell
The devil should want
To rise against you
And to threaten you with his rage,
Yet he will be so scored,
As to cease from the intrigues,
With which he hopes to catch you;
For God is your helper.

ARIA (Soprano)
All is ordered in his honour
And for your blessedness;
No man can oppose his will,
Even though he should suffer greatly.
But what God does not want,
No one can continue with.
It must remain unfinished,
For what God wills is done.

ARIA (Tenor)
And so I give myself to him,
I put my trust in him;
Henceforth I shall struggle for nothing
Except what pleases him.
And so I wait and am calm,
For his will is the best way,
I strongly and firmly believe this,
Let God act as He wishes!

CHORALE
Lord, grant that I your honour,
Throughout the course of my life,
May, from the roots of my heart,
Give you praise and thanks!
O Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Who with purest grace
Turns away need and danger,
Be praised eternally!

Before listening to the performance of the entire cantata below, you may want to download the German text with an interlinear English translation here. This performation is by the Chorus and Orchestra of Collegium Vocale Gent, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. The soloists are Agnès Mellon, soprano Charles Brett, alto; Howard Crook, tenor; and P eter Kooy, bass.