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Es ist das Heil uns kommen her
On this day upon which our nation sets off in a new direction, I'd like to share a chorale which I associate with optimism and renewal. It's called 'Es ist das Heil uns kommen her', and it's one of the oldest of Lutheran chorales.

1524 was a big year for Lutheran music, with the contemporaneous publication of several chorale collections. The very first of these, published in Wittenberg, was the 'Etlich Cristen Lider' ('Several Christian Songs'), which contained eight songs; it thus became known as simply the 'Achtliederbuch' ('Book of Eight Songs').

Martin Luther contributed four songs to the collection; his colleague and collaborator Paul Speratus contributed three, including today's chorale; and one, published anonymously, has been attributed to Justus Jonas,
a theologian and hymn-writer.

The 14 verses of 'Es ist das Heil uns kommen her', one of Speratus' contributions, is based upon the Epistle of Paul to the Romans 3:28. The theme is salvation, and that we do not earn it: it is conferred by Christ. My take on it is not that we should stop doing good works, but rather that we should be grateful to God--the Higher Power--the Universe--
for any blessings received.

Speratus borrowed a tune from an 15th-century Easter hymn, 'Freu dich, du werte Christenheit', and I think that the exhortation to be joyful of the original text shines through in the melody. It's in the so-called 'bar form', with a repeating A section and a contrasting B section. Check it out as it appears on this website. (Scroll down a bit to see the music. The tune as it appeared in the Achtliederbuch is attached herewith.)

As you can see, it begins, with several repeated notes, on the dominant rather than the tonic. The first phrase rises, not to the tonic but to the flat-7. The second phrase reaches the low tonic D, but bounces right back up, through G#, to the dominant. What the heck key are we in anyway? The B section is much less ambiguous, with its three phrases successively ending on A, F# and the tonic D (with a cool plagal riff just before the end.)  The whole thing just sounds...well...active...
and somehow cheerful.

Aside from this inherent buoyant quality, I think my positive associations with the chorale arise from where I first learned it: As the first of Brahms 'Two Motets' (Opus 29) of 1860, which SSU Chamber Singers performed in 2010. Brahms presents the tune in a five-part Bach-chorale style, and then launches into an extended Bachian contrapuntal exploration and celebration of the tune, with the baritones coming in (very much à la Bach) at the end of each passage in bell-like long notes. It's the best! You can check it out in this wonderful recording; the score is attached.

Bach wrote a cantata on this chorale, which I 'discovered' as I was preparing today's project. (It had been hiding in plain sight.) It is a late add to the famous 1724-25 cycle of chorale-cantatas, filling in a hole in which Bach had taken a trip up to Köthen and missed that Sunday in 1724. He (or his librettist, anyway) actually engages with all 14 verses, but in an interesting way: In the first and last movements, the tune and the first and last verses appear intact, while the central 12 verses are paraphrased in movements 2-7 (three bass recitatives, a tenor solo and a soprano-alto duet). You gotta check out the first movement, scored for the delightful orchestra of strings, flute and oboe d'amore. (Think Cantata 99: 'Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan', in which we get an entire sinfonia before the winds finally come in and we realize it's a concerto; oops, no, then the voices come in: oh yeah, it's a cantata!) The score of Cantata 9 is attached herewith.

And finally, for dessert, here's Bach's joyous Orgelbüchlein setting of the chorale.
​Again, a score is provided (this time Bach's original manuscript), as well as a text-translation sheet for the chorale.
Click here to download learning materials
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