Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend' ("Lord Jesus Christ, turn Thyself to us") is the name of a German Protestant Hymn from Bach's time. The Lutheran hymns of Bach's day were in every way comparable to (and in many cases the very same as) the hymns in the standard hymnals in Protestant churches today, e.g., Come, Thou Almighty King, Holy, Holy, Holy, Nearer, my God, to Thee, America ("My Country `Tisofthee'"/"God Save the Queen"). Literally thousands of these melodies were written by hymnodists (mainly German, in Bach's case) in the century or two before Bach. Some were adapted from popular songs, even love songs. Martin ("There's no reason why the Devil should have all the good tunes") Luther wrote thirty six himself.
In the context of Bach, these melodies are called chorales, or chorale melodies (that's pronounced coral, to rhyme with "morale"). Well-known by nearly everyone in Bach's day, they were sung repeatedly in Church, often for hours of verses at one shot, and Bach expected that his listeners would recognize them when they appeared in his Cantatas and organ works.
Straightforward settings of these hymns in four vocal parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), like the settings in today's hymnals (many of which are by Bach), occur with regularity in Bach's Cantatas and oratorios, and are also (confusingly) known as "chorales." Straightforward though they may be, the art that Bach has applied even to the seemingly simple task of setting these melodies in four voices is so magnificent as to form the foundation of the study of harmony ever since.
Bach and other German organist-composers of his era developed and practiced a form known as the chorale prelude, usually for the organ but often (with wonderful results) as choral and vocal movements, where one of these chorale melodies is used as the basis of a free composition (and becomes known in this context as its cantus firmus), either worked into the texture with its lines sneaking in at carefully-chosen points, proclaimed as a plain or florid solo, buried inside the patterns of freely-dancing lines, and dozens of other techniques. Bach wrote a collection of 45 small chorale preludes called the Orgelbüchlein (Organbooklet), about 70 minutes of music, that displays the full panoply of these techniques, using chorale melodies that all his listeners knew and loved, producing a treasure-chest for composers, organists, and other music-lovers alike.
When a piece of organ music has a German religious title such as Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', it is a chorale prelude "on" (utilizing as a cantus firmus, based upon) that chorale melody.
Note that while neither the chorale melodies nor the words associated with them were ever written by Bach, their settings in Bach's works, either as "simple" four-voiced chorales or florid chorale preludes or choral [sic] fantasies in Bach's compositions, are indeed his creations.
Because of the greatness and influence of Bach's work, many of these chorales are now so closely associated with Bach that many people mistakenly think they actually are by Bach. For instance, Paul Simon's (ironically titled) An American Tune largely quotes the "Passion Chorale" Herzlich tut mich Verlangen by Hans Leo Hassler (1601), used and set by Bach repeatedly in the St. Matthew Passion and elsewhere, and people regularly cite the "Bach Chorale" used by Simon in this work.
The four-voice chorales of Bach, removed from their texts and liturgical context (including many from lost cantatas) have been studied as the paragon and touchstone of voice-leading by incipient as well as skilled composers since they were written. The 371 Chorales are available for study in any number of inexpensive editions. Margaret Greentree has prepared a MIDI resource of the whole set (and more) at http://www.jsbchorales.net/.
For an example of a "Bach Chorale" (setting), Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227.1, with score and MIDI performance of both Bach's setting and the original chorale (by Johann Crüger), please visit our page
Copyright © Bernard S. Greenberg 1996, 1997
Back to J. S. Bach FAQ
Send email about this page.
