Von Gott will ich nicht lassen
BWV 418 performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Sint-Gertrudiskerk, Bergen op Zoom
Behind the music
Story
Story
Texts
Texts
Credits
Credits
A gem
Like a musical diamond cutter, Bach combines text and harmony
After Bach’s death, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel took the initiative of compiling and publishing hundreds of four-part chorale harmonisations by his father. The compilation is like a jewellery box full of little gems. It shows how you can harmonise chorale melodies with endless creativity, or add four-part accompaniment to them.
If you sing just one strophe, a chorale lasts no more than around one and a half minutes. But that ‘singing’ is already an interpretation choice from the start, as the chorales appeared in the aforementioned compilation of chorale harmonisations only by title, and without any text. The edition was intended primarily for ‘enthusiasts of the organ and the clavier’, as suggested by Carl Philipp in the preface.
The edition, according to Carl Philipp, is a collection of inventive, yet natural sounding harmonisations. In this chorale, published under the title of Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, the melody of the first line is repeated straight away (as in many chorales). Often, Bach then repeats the harmonisation as well, but in this case the harmony is different for the repeat. On closer listening, Bach even goes one step further, as despite the different harmony, below the second half of that first line you nevertheless hear a chromatically rising line in the bass twice… but then at two different pitches. Maybe this chromaticism and the rambling character of the harmonies are inspired in this instance by the first strophe of the chorale text, which refers to ‘traversing all the paths’ where you would lose your way without God.
Like a musical diamond cutter, Bach combines extreme precision in expressing the text with harmonic inventiveness, to produce a gem with many facets. It is not necessary ‘that I come up with anything to praise the harmony of these songs’, wrote Carl Philipp. Father Bach ‘does not need my recommendation’. Maybe not a recommendation, but possibly a magnifying glass now and then.
- BWV
- 418
- Title
- Von Gott will ich nicht lassen
- Genre
- chorales
- Lyricist
- Ludwig Helmbold (1563)
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen,
denn er lässt nicht von mir,
führt mich auf rechter Straßen,
da ich sonst irret sehr.
Er reicht mir seine Hand;
den Abend wie den Morgen
tut er mich wohl versorgen,
sei wo ich woll im Land.
Lobt ihn mit Herz und Munde,
welch’s er uns beides schenkt!
Das is ein’ sel’ge Stunde,
darin man sein gedenkt.
Sonst verdirbt alle Zeit,
dir wir zubring’n auf Erden,
wir sollen selig werden
und bleib’n in Ewigkeit.
Translation
My God I’ll not abandon;
He’ll not abandon me.
He leads me on life’s pathways,
From straying sets me free.
He reaches out his hand,
By morning and by evening;
His care is never-ceasing,
No matter where I am.
Praise him with heart and singing,
For both are gifts divine!
We’re blest when we are thinking,
Of God with all our mind.
All other time will flee
In our short earthly burden
For we will go to heaven
To live eternally.
translation © Ruth van Baak Griffioen, 2025
Credits
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- Release date
- 6 February 2025
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- Recording date
- 6 May 2024
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- Location
- Sint-Gertrudiskerk, Bergen op Zoom
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- Soprano
- Amelia Berridge
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- Alto
- Tim Braithwaite
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- Tenor
- Adriaan de Koster
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- Bass
- Donald Bentvelsen
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- Theorbo
- David Mackor
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- Director and editor
- Onno van Ameijde
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Jesper Blok, Jorne Tielemans
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- Focus pull
- Glenn van Neerden
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- Lights
- Jorne Tielemans, Patrick Galvin
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- Project manager nep
- Ron Vermeulen
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok, Stephan Esmeijer
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