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Johann Leon’s hymn, “Ich hab’ mein Sach’ Gott heimgestellt,” was first published in Psalmen, geistliche Lieder und Kirchengesäng (Nürnberg, 1589). The author was born at Ohrdruf, near Gotha, and after service as an army chaplain became pastor at Königsee and Wölfis. He died at Wölfis in 1597.
The melody was originally a secular folksong documented 1500 with the original title: “Es ist auf Erd kein schwerer Leidn”. Associated with J. Leon's hymn are two melodies, both of which are used by J.S. Bach, and are traced to the same origin, a contrafact of the secular song as religious song/four-part setting (supra) chorale "Ich weiß mir ein Röslein hübsch und fein" (which is an allegorical reference to the Gospel - not a pretty young girl as one might otherwise expect) as such it was contained in a hymnal by Johann Rau, Frankfurt am Main, 1589. Precisely when the melody became associated with Leon’s text is not known, but probably this occurred at the very end of the 16th century. The Tenor of the setting becomes the melody of J. Leon's hymn in a Hymn-book dated 1609 and in Witt (No. 317). J.S. Bach introduces it into the orchestral accompaniment of Cantata BWV 106 (1711). Meanwhile, the descant melody of the 1589 four-part setting also became attached to J. Leon’s hymn in David Wolder’s Hymn-book, published in 1598. J.S. Bach uses this tune in the Organ movements infra, and there is a four-part setting of it among the Choralgesänge, No. 182 (BWV 351). J.S. Bach’s text is practically invariable. The D natural which he substitutes for F natural as the fourth note of the melody (supra) has early (1611) sanction. His variant of the opening of the second line of the stanza (notes 3-5 of line 2 supra) follows a reconstruction of the melody which became the accepted form of the tune in Hymn-books after 1601, when it first appears.
Source: Charles Sanford Terry: Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 3 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Organ Works [1921], pp 190-192 , with additions by Thomas Braatz (January 2005) |
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"Ich hab mein Sach Gott heimgestellt". Wackernagel, iv. p. 519, gives this, in 18 stanzas of 5 lines, from the Psalmen, geistliche Lieder und Kirchengesäng, Nürnberg, 1589; with a long note, in which he traces all the stanzas save xi., xiv., xv., viii., to Leon's Trostbüchlein, and to his Leich-Predigten [i.e. "Funeral Sermons"], 1581-82. Mützell, No. 347, cites it as in the Psalmen, geistliche Lieder und Lobgesänge, Strassburg, n.d., but apparently before 1587. In the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder Schatz, ed. 1863, No. 1460.
This hymn has been frequently ascribed to Dr. Johann Pappus [b. Jan. 16, 1549, at Lindau on the Lake of Constanz; 1571, professor of Hebrew at the University of Strassburg; d. at Strassburg, July 13, 3610]; but this ascription has not been traced earlier than about 1640, e.g. in the Cantionale sacrum, Gotha, pt. iii., 1648, No. 18, and the Königsberg Gesang-Buch, 1650, p. 530. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 609, thinks that Pappus may have arranged the hymn in its present form. It was probably suggested by a song beginning, "Ich hab meine Sach zu Gott gestellt," which Wackernagel iii., Nos. 1242, 1243, quotes from a Leipzig broadsheet of 1555, and other sources.
This hymn has been translated as:
1. My Life I now to God resign. By J. O. Jacobi, in his Psalter Germanica, pt. ii., 1725, p. 56 (1732, p. 199), omitting st. vii., xv., xvi. Repeated in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754, pt. i., No. 313 (1886, No. 1242, beginning with the translation of st. viii., "Teach us to number so our days"), and in J. A. Latrobe's Collection, 1841 and 1852. In the Bible Hymn Book 1845, it begins with st. iii., "What is this life? a constant scene."
2. My all I to my God commend. A very good translation of stanzas i., iii., vi., viii., x., xi., xiv., xvii., by A. T. Russell, as No. 246, in his Psalms & Hymns 1851; repeated, abridged, in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864, and Kennedy, 1863, No. 156. Dr. Kennedy, also gives a cento, beginning with the translation of stanza x., "Few are our days and sad below."
3. My cause is God's, and I am still. A good tr. of stanzas i., xi.-xiv., xvi.-xviii., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 210; repeated, omitting the translations of stanzas xii., xvii., in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 127. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
Source: Hymnary.org (from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907) |
