The Bach Motet: Jesu, meine Freude

A colleague sent me a new recording of a Bach motet. Aside from the anti-coronavirus masks worn by all the singers, as they stand and perform in a church in Prague for the Spring Festival, on May 18th this year; and aside from the quality of the singing of music, which had been unknown to me before; what struck me was the lyrics.

J.S.Bach - Motet: Jesu, meine Freude BWV 227 - Collegium 1704
[YouTube: Bachology,
May 22, 2020]

While Baroque-era Christianity had its fanatic aspects, and the wars of religion were terrible, I find hymns like the ones that were incorporated in the motet touching and sympathetic. They attempt to come to terms with the worst of humanity and the best of existence, all in one. To me they seem like an example of the massive efforts that men made in the 17th century, perhaps more than we do today.

Written by Johann Franck, the hymns in the motet were written in the middle of the 1600s. They are simple in construction: an aab ccb dee rhyme scheme, for example, mostly emphasized in trochees.

I tend to like the first two or three lines of each hymn best. For example, at the beginning of the motet:

Jesu, meine Freude,
Meines Herzens Weide,

The 'pasture of the heart' is tranquil and idyllic, insofar as it makes me think of a landscape painting with a grazing cow shaded by tall, old-growth trees. Why the thought of a cow should feel poetic, rather than reminiscent of milk and steak, I don't know.

Unter deinem Schirmen
Bin ich vor den Stürmen
Aller Feinde frei.

is also pleasant. (To translate roughly: 'Beneath your shelters, I am free of the storming of all foes.' The Bachology YouTube video presents a more elegant translation: "Beneath your protection/I am free from the attacks/of all my enemies.")


From a literary standpoint, I feel the hymns are unpolished, however.

"Denen, die Gott lieben,/ Muss auch ihr Betrüben/Lauter Zucker sein" means, more or less, 'To those who love God, also their sorrows must be as so much sugar.' It's not the best metaphor I've ever read.

It's also not the most convincing exhortation I have read. If we take Christ's crucifixion as an example, even in the Bible the figures did not draw upon God's love so that they soon found their problems rather a lark. Suffering is, in the moment, just suffering; and "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" is not what anyone would say when they are eating a fine dessert.

But I also think that, in suggesting that one could learn to enjoy one's sufferings, Franck meant to illustrate the miraculous power of Christian faith, leaping over the limitations of the human spirit. Maybe he also wanted to seize the attention of the reader because it is such a striking paradox.

It reminds me of something an English teacher told my high school class when we were reading the old poem "The Rood." If I remember correctly, he said that early Christian evangelists to Anglo-Saxon countries, endeavouring to be more appealing, adapted the Bible to suit the logic of their audience. Rather than speaking to macho warriors of a man who let himself be bound and crucified in helplessness against superior military force, they spoke of a Jesus who embraced the cross voluntarily, as an act of manly bravado.

Either way, perhaps Franck, by writing with more vigour of feeling than perfection of art, is interested in making sure that the message (not the messenger) stands in first place.

"Destruction of Leviathan"
1865, Gustave Doré (1832-1883)
via Wikimedia Commons

But, lastly, I also like the rude energy of the third hymn. It is one of the less peaceful and more energetic ones:

Trotz dem alten Drachen,
Trotz des Todes Rachen,
Trotz der Furcht darzu!
Tobe, Welt, und springe,
Ich steh hier und singe
In gar sichrer Ruh.
Gottes Macht hält mich in acht;
Erd und Abgrund muss verstummen,
Ob sie noch so brummen.

I defy the old dragon,
I defy the jaws of death,
I defy fear as well!
Rage, World, and spring to attack:
I stand here and sing
in secure peace.
God’s might takes care of me;
earth and abyss must fall silent,
however much they rumble on.

Jesu, meine Freude [Wikipedia]
King James Bible (1769 version): Mark 15:34 [Wikisource]