Johann Sebastian Bach
Christus, der ist mein Leben
“Christ is my life”
(Cantata BWV 95) 

“You cannot avoid being struck in this cantata by Bach’s most unusual use of four successive funeral hymns as the supporting pillars of his structure, giving encouragement to the (tenor) believer as he contemplates his own death.” So writes conductor John Eliot Gardiner about this cantata composed by J. S. Bach for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Gospel text for this Sunday is the story of the raising of the widow’s son (St. Luke 7:11–17) and the four cantatas that Bach composed to be sung on this Sunday (BWV 8, 27, and 161 in addition to the present work) present an detailed musical picture of a Christian perspective on death and dying.

It was not uncommon in Bach’s time for the liturgy on the Sundays in the second half of the post-Trinity season to include hymns reminding believers of their death, presenting messages of comfort as much as of warning. The first of the four “funeral hymns” employed in this cantata — from which the work takes its name — is a late 16th or early 16th anonymous hymn with eight stanzas (you can read all of them by scrolling down on this page).

Here is a recording of the first seven stanzas of this hymn sung (in German) by the ensemble Stimmwerk.

The opening chorus in Bach’s setting takes its text from the first stanza of this hymn:

Christ is my life,
to die is my gain,
to him I surrender myself,
with joy I depart,

After that last line is sung by the entire choir, a tenor soloist sings a joyous and reflective recitative with this text:

With joy, indeed with delight in my heart I shall depart from here and if this very day the call came: You must depart! then I am willing and ready. My poor body, my emaciated limbs, the clothing of mortality [I am willing] to return back into the bosom of the earth My death song has already been made; Ah, if only I might sing it today!

“With joy I depart.” That confident declaration is reminiscent of Martin Luther’s paraphrase of the Nunc dimittis, Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (“In peace and joy I now depart,” a hymn which our parish has sung in the past). Bach made the connection between the two hymns very clear: just as the tenor completes his recitative, we here the instruments play a short snatch of the melody of Luther’s hymn, after which the entire choir sings its first stanza with a remarkable instrumental accompaniment.

With peace and joy I travel from here according to God’s will,
My heart and mind are comforted, calm and quiet.
As God has promised me: death has become my sleep.

This chorus is followed by a soprano recitative and aria, the later a lilting triple-meter presentation of another early-17th-century funeral hymn, Valet will ich dir geben (“I want to bid you farewell”). The melody is the tune known as ST. THEODULPH, to which we sing — on Palm Sunday — “All glory, laud and honor.”

A tenor recitative and aria follow, again in triple meter, the soloist accompanied by a pair of oboe d’amore and gently plucked strings. The musical texture evokes a sense of happy anticipation.

Ah, strike soon, blessed hour,
the very final stroke of the bell!
Come, come, I reach my hands towards you
come, make an end to my distress,
you day of death for which I have long sighed!

A brief bass recitative precedes the final movement, a chorale featuring stanza from a fourth funeral hymn, Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist. In this text, the believer addresses the ascended Christ:

Since you have risen from death,
I shall not remain in the grave;
my greatest consolation is your ascension,
it is able to drive away the fear of death.
For where you are, there I shall come
so that with you I shall always live and be;
therefore I go from here with joy.

Here is a complete performance of Christus, der ist mein Leben. Philippe Herreweghe conducts the Collegium Vocale, with soloists Dorothee Mields, soprano; Hans Jörg Mammel, tenor; and Thomas Bauer, bass. The text for the cantata is here.

One of Bach’s notable predecessors at Thomaskirche in Leipzig was Johann Schelle (1648—1701). He also composed a work based on the funeral hymn Christus der ist mein Leben. Bach would almost certainly have been familiar with this work, as would have many of the congregation who first heard his new cantata on September 12, 1723. Schelle’s work is sung here by The King’s Consort, conducted by Robert King.

A contemporary of Schelle’s, Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) — wrote a set of organ variations on the tune Christus der ist mein Leben. It is performed here by Antoine Bouchard.