O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118

History and text#

This work was written around 1736 or 1737, and so may have been premiered before the first known performance at the grave-side ceremony for Count on October 11, 1740. The Count was Governor of Leipzig and known to Bach who had presented a couple of congratulatory works to him. The fact that the accompaniment exists in two versions suggests that there was a subsequent revival of the work in the 1740s. The text is a 1610 hymn by Martin Behm.

Music#

“O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht” has been characterized as something between a cantata and a motet. This work is a motet version of the chorale Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid. The lower voices of the choir sing counterpoint to the chorale melody line in the soprano. The accompaniment includes an ascending string motive.

Scoring and structure#

The piece is scored for four-part choir. It is structured as a chorus, O Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht, comprising chorale strophes separated by repeated instrumental interludes. The number of strophes sung would likely correspond to the length of the procession for which the work was used. There are two versions of the instrumental scoring: * The first version is unique among the Bach cantatas in not including strings, cornett, three trombones, and organ; * The second version is for two litui, strings, organ continuo, and optionally three oboes and bassoon.

Publication#

The work was published in 1876 in the first complete edition of Bach’s works, the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe. The volume in question consisted of cantatas rather than motets and was edited by Alfred Dörffel. It was subsequently included among the motets in the New Bach Edition in a volume edited by Konrad Ameln.

Recordings#

• Greifswalde Bach Tage Choir / Bach-Orchester Berlin. J.S. Bach: Soli Deo Gloria. Baroque Music Club, 1950s–1960s?
• Amor Artis Chorale. Choral Masterpieces of the Baroque. Decca, 1965.
• Monteverdi Choir. “Funeral Cantatas (cantatas BWV 106, BWV 118b & BWV 198)”. Archiv, 1989
• Theatre of Early Music. The Voice of Bach. Sony BMG, 2007.
• Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas, Vol. 21. Antoine Marchand, 2007.
• Bach Collegium Japan. Bach: Motets. BIS, 2009.

Further reading#

• Hochreither, Karl. 2002. Performance Practice of the Instrumental-Vocal Works of Johann Sebastian Bach, translated by Melvin P. Unger. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. .
• Schulze, Hans-Joachim. 1993. “O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht: On the Transmission of a Bach Source and the Riddle of Its Origin”. In A Bach Tribute: Essays in Honor of William H. Scheide, edited by Paul Brainard and Ray Robinson, 209–20. Kassel and New York: Bärenreiter; Chapel Hill: Hinshaw Music. .

External links#

• O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)
• O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht BWV 118; BC B 23a, 23b / Motet Leipzig University
• Cantata BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht: history, scoring, sources for text and music, translations to various languages, discography, discussion, bach-cantatas website
• BWV 118 – “O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht”: English translation, Emmanuel Music
• BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht: English translation, University of Vermont
• BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht: text, scoring, University of Alberta