Bach and Heaven
THE PROMISE OF AFTERLIFEIN THE TEXT OF THE CANTATAS
By John A. Sarkett
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Today’s church has become almost exclusively focused on this life.
As a consequence, we tend to forget what the old school knew so well: that the focus of the Bible is on the next life.
That focus – the next life to come -- is very strong in the texts of the Bach Cantatas. So strong, it seems to leap from the page at the reader. Bach knew and assimilated these passages about the life to come right down into the marrow of his bones, and it was a source of constant strength and refuge for him personally, whether burying family members and striving to overcome grief, or simply contending with mundane matters such as employment. Bach was a man of faith; is it any wonder, his art manifested it.
Consequently, we put a concentrated focus on faith and afterlife here.
Just as Bach did himself.
We should be quick to point out, like Bach, the glory does not come without the suffering (see the first appendix, The Crown of Thorns), and we do not mean to imply otherwise by isolating these texts on afterlife. We also recommend reading the full text of all 200 cantatas that so ably cover the vast realm of spiritual themes. But the texts on faith and afterlife here cited are, however, absolutely striking in their intensity: a revelation of burning faith and vision.
For many, they will be nothing less than therapeutic.
Faith was paramount to Bach. After all, disseminating and building up faith in others was part of his job. Bach’s post, Kantor, St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, called for him to expound the ideals of Lutheran doctrine – through music. In that order, doctrine, then music. For Bach, this was serious business, and the dictate – doctrine, through music, in that order -- impacted how he worked. Some Bach researchers believe he set the final chorales first, using the sarabande quite consciously. Why use a dance form, the sarabande? Precisely because it was popular, a pop music of the day, if you will, and would resonate with the audience.
The point being: Bach was writing for the people, in the best possible way to reach them where they were. He was not writing for professional musicians or theologians or music theorists of that day or 300 years into the future.
Put another way: as great as the music was, as unsurpassable as we have come to find out 300 years hence, the meaning was paramount, not the music. The meaning was faith, hope, new lif
e in Christ here and in the hereafter.
These cantatas fairly bristle with that vibrant, red-hot faith and vision. In some ways, these cantata texts are a distillation of Bible texts, as brandy is to wine. So here is the Bachian brandy, and it is magnificent in both text and sound.
The cantatas are full of this hope of a new life, in the presence of God himself, a life that does not end. We submit the following extracted, excerpted texts that deal with afterlife and faith for your encouragement and edification with profound gratefulness to the One who stopped sending serpents and became one himself on the pole himself, as he prophesied, in order that millions would live. (John 3).
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3)
John A. Sarkett
Winnetka, Illinois
August 21, 2013
See sarkett.com for more of our titles.
Sample chapter:
1a. Chorale (S, A, T, B)
Lord Christ, he is my being,
My death is my reward;
To it I will surrender,
With joy will I depart.
1b. Recit. (T)
With gladness,
Yea, with joyful heart,
I'll take hence my departure.
E'en if today were said: “Thou must!”,
Yet am I willing and prepared
My wretched flesh, my fully wasted members,
The dress of mortal rank,
To earth returning,
Into her lap to offer.
My dying song e'en now is made;
Ah, I today would sing it!
1c. Chorale (S, A, T, B)
With peace and joy do I depart,
As God doth will it;
Consoled am I in heart and mind,
Calm and quiet,
As God me his promise gave:
My death is to sleep altered.
2. Recit. (S)
Now, treach'rous world!
Now I'll have nothing more with thee to do;
My house is now prepared,
I'll much more softly rest
There than I could with thee,
Beside thy Babel's waters,
Where passion's salt I'm forced to swallow,
And when within thy paradise
Mere Sodom's apples I could gather.(1)
No, no! I can now with collected courage say it:
3. Chorale (S)
“Valet”(2) would I now give thee,
Thou wicked, treach'rous world;
Thy sinful, evil, living
Doth fully me displease.
In heav'n is my fair dwelling,
Whereto my hopes arise.
There will God ever favor
Those who have served him here.
4. Recit. (T)
Ah, if it could for me now quickly come to pass
That I my death,
The end of all my woe,
Within my body could behold,
I would, indeed, for my own body's dwelling(3) choose it
And ev'ry moment by it number.
5. Aria (T)
Ah, strike thou, then, soon, happy hour,
That last and final tolling stroke!(4)Come, come, to thee I reach my hands out,
Come, set to all my woe an ending,
Thou long desire'd day of death.
6. Recit. (B)
For I know this
And hold it ever true,
That from my very grave I
Have a most certain entrance to my heav'nly Father.
My death is but a sleep
Through which my flesh, which here by sorrow was diminished,
To rest might journey.
If here the shepherd seeks his errant sheep,
How could then Jesus once again not find me,
For he's my head, and I his form possess!
So I can now with happy spirit
My blessed resurrection ground upon my Savior.
7. Chorale (S, A, T, B)
Since thou from death arisen art,
I'll in the grave not tarry;
Thy final word my rising is,
Death's fear canst thou now banish.
For where thou art, there will I come,
That I e'er with thee live and be;
So I depart with pleasure.
1. Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, IV. 8. 4, writes that the apples of Sodom, though appearing to be edible, turned to smoke and ashes when picked. Cf. Dürr, p. 363, and BWV 179/3.
2. Valet, `he fares well' in Latin, in German is used as a noun meaning 'a farewell.'
3. Leibgedinge = Leiberente 'rent for a lifetime.'
4. Bach expresses the knell of death as the ticking of a clock rather than a tolling bell, here and elsewhere. Cf. BWV 74/4.
Footnotes and translation © Copyright Z. Philip Ambrose Used with permission
Bach manuscripts. The music is powerful; the texts equally or more so....
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