Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben

"Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" (lit. 'Dearest God, when will I die') is a late 17th-century Lutheran hymn by Caspar Neumann, with a hymn tune, Zahn No. 6634, by Daniel Vetter. The topic of the hymn, which has five stanzas of eight lines, is a reflection on death. In 1713, Vetter published a four-part setting of the hymn. Johann Sebastian Bach's voice and continuo setting of the hymn, BWV 483, was published in Schemellis Gesangbuch in 1736, and his chorale cantata based on the hymn, BWV 8, was first performed in 1724. The closing chorale of that cantata, BWV 8/6, is a reworked version of Vetter's 1713 setting. Despite it being marked as inauthentic Bach in the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, this chorale was published in several variants in the New Bach Edition.

Caspar Neumann, author of the text of "Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben"

Neumann's text and Vetter's setting

Caspar Neumann wrote "Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" around 1690.[1] It is a Lutheran hymn in five stanzas of eight lines.[2] Its hymn metre is 8.7.8.7.7.7.8.8.[3] The title, which is based on the incipit of the hymn, is spelled in various ways, e.g.:

  • Lieber (lit. 'Dear') instead of Liebster.[2]
  • No comma after Gott.[4]
  • wenn instead of wann.[5]
  • werd' or wird instead of werd.[2][6]
  • Title ending on a question mark.[2]

Translations of the first line of the hymn include "Ah, Lord God, when shall I see Thee?", "Dearest God, when will I die?" and "Dearest God, when shall I die?"[7][8][9] The topic of the hymn text is a reflection on death.[7] Vetter, a native of Breslau, published his four-part setting of the hymn in 1713, in the second volume of his Musicalische Kirch- und Hauß-Ergötzlichkeit.[3][7][10] In the introduction of that publication he wrote:[3][7]

Da nun (...) die Sterbens-Lieder nothwendig hinzu gefüget werden müßten / so ist es nicht weniger durch die Erfahrung beglaubiget / wie erbaulich auf diese Weise die Todes-Gedancken glaübiger Herzen unterhalten werden können. (...) Dergleichen löbwurdige Sterbens-Gedancken hat auch / bey gesunden tagen / der Geistreiche und wegen des / bey allen andächtigen Betern sehr beliebten Büchleins / Kern aller Gebete genannt / besonders wohlbekannte Theologus und Prediger in Breßlau / Herr Mag. Caspar Neumann / in dem schönen Liede: Liebster Gott wenn werd ich sterben &c Mit poetischer Feder entworffen: Dessen Composition mir Herr Jacobus Wilisius, Breßlauischer Cantor zu St. Bernhardi ehemals aufgetragen / immassen derselbe solches bey seiner Beerdigung abzusingen verordnet hatte / wie auch nachgehends Anno 1695. würcklich geschehen / mittlerzeit aber ist dieses Lied / durch so viel Verstimmelung sehr unkäntlich worden / dannenhero ich vor nöthig befunden / demselben seine vorige Gestalt wiederumb zu geben / und vielen andächtigen Gemüthern hier an diesem Orte zu Liebe / welche bey glückseligem zustande zugleich ihres Todes offters ingedenck zu seyn nicht ermangeln / diesem Wercke beyzufügen / auch einen langsamen Tact, so viel nur möglich / dabey zu recommandiren.

While (...) necessarily hymns about death had to be added, it is thus no less confirmed by experience, how faithful hearts can, in this manner, entertain uplifting thoughts about death. (...) Such kind of commendable thoughts about dying, were, when in good health, designed with a poetic pen in the beautiful hymn "Dearest God when will I die" by the Spiritual theologian and preacher from Breslau, Master Caspar Neumann, who is particularly well-known because of the booklet named Core of all Prayers—which is much loved by all who engage in devout prayer. Jacob Wilisius, at the time cantor of St. Bernard in Breslau, commissioned me to set this hymn, and then ordered this to be sung at his funeral: this eventually happened in 1695. In the mean while, the hymn's setting has become unrecognisable by much mutilation, thus I found it necessary to restore its erstwhile form, and present this work, for which I also recommend as much as possible a slow tempo, here for the benefit of many devout souls, who even in a state of bliss don't fail to often ponder their death.

—Daniel Vetter (Leipzig, 24 April 1713)[4] —translation

By the time Vetter wrote this, he had been an organist in Leipzig for around 35 years.[7] In the late 19th century, Philipp Spitta, Johannes Zahn and Max Seiffert retold Vetter's account of the origin of his setting of "Liebster Gott wenn werd ich sterben".[3][6][7] Vetter's SATB setting, which has a figured bass, is in E-flat major.[10][11] According to Spitta it is rather a sacred aria than a chorale in a strict sense.[7] The soprano's melody of Vetter's setting is a hymn tune known as Zahn 6634.[3] It is in bar form, with the stollen comprising two lines of text.[3][10]

Compositions based on Vetter's setting

There was a copy of the 1713 volume of Vetter's Musicalische Kirch- und Hauß-Ergötzlichkeit in the household of Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach.[12] In 1724, Johann Sebastian composed a chorale cantata, Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV 8 (first version), on Neumann's hymn.[13] It is a cantata for the 16th Sunday after Trinity which is part of his second cantata cycle.[14] Its first movement, setting the first stanza of the hymn, is a chorale fantasia on Vetter's hymn tune.[7][13] Its last movement, in E major like the first, is a slightly reworked version of Vetter's four-part setting, for SATB choir, colla parte instruments and figured bass, with the last stanza of Neumann's hymn as text.[7][13][15] By around 1735 the vocal parts of this movement, BWV 8/6, were adopted in the Dietel manuscript.[5][16]

The Dietel manuscript also contains a four-part setting in E-flat major, BWV deest, of Vetter's hymn tune.[1] In 1736, a voice and continuo arrangement of Vetter's hymn tune, attributed to Bach (BWV 483), in the same key, was included in Schemellis Gesangbuch.[3][11][17] In 1747 Bach produced a second version of his BWV 8 cantata: its outer movements are D major transpositions of the same movements of the earlier version of the cantata.[18]

When Bach's pupil Johann Friedrich Doles had become Thomaskantor some years after the composer's death, the BWV 8 cantata was performed again in Leipzig.[19] According to David Yearsley, the widowed Anna Magdalena may have heard such performance, finding consolation in the hymn's text and setting.[20] Some two centuries later, four instances of the BWV 8/6 chorale, deemed spurious while too close to Vetter's 1713 four-part setting,[21][22] were included in the New Bach Edition:

Other hymn tunes

Zahn 6635 is a 1747 setting of the "Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" hymn.[3] A 19th-century hymnal indicates "Freu dich sehr o meine Seele" as hymn tune for Neumann's hymn.[2]

References
  1. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV deest (NBA Serie III:2) at Bach Digital.
  2. Lieber Gott, wann werd ich sterben? at hymnary.org.
  3. Zahn 1891.
  4. Vetter 1713, introduction.
  5. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV 8/6 at Bach Digital.
  6. Seiffert, Max (1895), "Vetter, Daniel", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), 39, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 532–535
  7. Spitta 1899, II, pp. 431–433.
  8. Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 8 – Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. Dürr & Jones 2006, p. 550.
  10. Vetter 1713, No. 91.
  11. Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben (sacred song) BWV 483 at Bach Digital.
  12. Yearsley 2019, p. 219.
  13. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben [1st version] BWV 8.1 at Bach Digital.
  14. Dürr & Jones 2006, pp. 29–30, 550.
  15. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?, BWV 8: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
  16. Ebata 2019.
  17. Schemelli 1736, pp. 595–596.
  18. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben [2nd version] BWV 8.2 at Bach Digital.
  19. Yearsley 2019, pp. 218–219.
  20. Yearsley 2019, pp. 219–220.
  21. Dürr & Kobayashi 1998, p. 468.
  22. Platen 1976.

Sources
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