BWV 157 Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn!

The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (The Presentation of Christ in the Temple); originally for a funeral?

Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander), Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte, Teil I (Leipzig, 1729; 2nd ed., 1732, 3rd ed., 1736); Facs: Neumann T, p. 316; PT (1727); Facs: Neumann T, p. 390

1. Gen. 32:27; 5. Christian Keymann, verse 6 of "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht," 1658 (Fischer-Tümpel, IV, #13).

6 February 1727, Pomßen, for the funeral of Johann Christoph von Ponickau?

BG 32; NBA I/32.



1. Duetto [Dictum] (T, B)

I’ll not let thee go, thou must bless me first.

2. Aria (T)

I shall hold to my Jesus firmly,
I’ll leave him now and never not.
He is alone my sure abode,
Thus is my faith now fixed with might
Upon his saving countenance;
For this support is without equal.

3. Recit. (T)

My dearest Jesus thou,
When I with stress and trouble suffer,
Then art thou my true pleasure,
In unrest my true rest,
And in my fear afraid, my bed of comfort.
The fickle world is never true,
The sky, too, must grow older,
The world’s delights are lost like chaff;
If I did not, my Jesus, have thee,
To whom should I besides thee hold to?
Thus I shall never let thee go,
Thy blessing, let then, bide with me.

4. Aria, Recit., and Arioso (B)

Yes, yes, I hold to Jesus firmly,
Thus I'll as well to heaven go,
Where God and his own Lamb’s invited
In crowns are at the wedding feast.
There I’ll not leave, my Savior, thee
Where bides thy blessing, too, with me.

Ah, what delight
To me is my death’s casket,
For Jesus in my arms doth lie!
Then can my soul with joy rest fully!
Yes, yes, I’ll hold to Jesus firmly,
Thus shall I e’en to heaven go!
O land so fair!
Come, gentle death, and lead me hence,
Where God and his own lamb’s invited
In crowns are at the wedding feast.
I am so glad
The suff ’ring of this time
From me today to put aside now;
For Jesus waits for me in heaven with his blessing.
There I’ll not leave, my Savior, thee
Where bides thy blessing, too, with me.
 

5. Chorale (S,A,T,B)

This my Jesus I’ll not leave, I’ll forever walk beside him;
Christ shall let me more and more
To the springs of life be guided. Blessed those who say with me:
This my Jesus I’ll not leave.

© Copyright Z. Philip Ambrose


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