Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten

Twenty other melodies have since been written for the text, though none have reached the same popularity as the original, Zahn No. 2778.[2] The original melody has a wide usage in Protestant hymnody, including several other texts. Neumark's original is in the dorian mode, although later settings, such as by Bach, render this into G harmonic minor.

Melody in 3/2 time by Georg Neumark 1657

Version of melody in 4/4 time used by J. S. Bach

Below is Neumark's original German text with the English translation of Catherine Winkworth.[3]

In his 1657 hymnbook, Fortgepflantzter musikalisch-poetischer Lustwald, Neumark devoted five pages to the text, a prelude, melody and accompaniment of the hymn "Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten".[1]

• 
  1st page, instrumental introduction, violin 1, beginning of violin 2
• 
  2nd page, violin 2 continued, figured bass
• 
  3rd page, melody with text of the first stanza, figured bass
• 
  4th page, text of stanzas 1–4
• 
  5th page, text of stanzas 5–7

After it was written, the hymn tune has frequently been used by baroque composers. These include cantatas by Johann Samuel Welter and Georg Philipp Telemann as well as chorale preludes by Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, Johann Gottfried Walther and Georg Böhm.[4] Christoph Graupner, a close colleague of Telemann,[5] composed numerous cantatas based on the chorale, including GWV 1148/44 and GWV 1156/09.[6]

Johann Sebastian Bach repeatedly used the hymn tune in his compositions, most notably in BWV 93, his cantata of the same name, for the fifth Sunday after Trinity, composed for 9 July 1724. Its text is based on Neumark's original, which is retained verbatim in the first and last verses and rewritten elsewhere. The same melody was set to different words in other hymns, notably "Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende" ("Who knows how near is my end?"). Cantatas BWV 21, BWV 27, BWV 84, BWV 88, BWV 166, BWV 179 and BWV 197 use the original melody, with words taken from one or other of the texts.[7] Cantata 21 links two stanzas with a three-part fugue (Sei nun wieder zufrieden, meine Seele); the tenor and soprano sing the cantus firmus.[8]

BWV 642 in the Orgelbüchlein is an organ chorale prelude, with the hymn tune as its cantus firmus; whilst BWV 647 in the Schübler Chorales is an organ transcription of the fourth movement of the cantata BWV 93.[9] In addition, two organ adaptations of the hymn are included in the Kirnberger Collection - BWV 690 (with a following figured basso-chorale) and BWV 691 (with an interesting variant and additional interludes). Another variant BWV 691a can be found in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.[10]

"Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten", Op. 67, No. 45, by Max Reger

After Bach and his forebears, there have been numerous arrangements of the hymn, in the eighteenth century and beyond. Organ preludes on the theme have been composed by Johann Peter Kellner, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Gottfried August Homilius and Johann Philipp Kirnberger.[4]

Amongst later generations, Felix Mendelssohn adapted the text and melody for a cantata,[11] while Johannes Brahms used it as a theme at various points in his Deutsches Requiem. Franz Liszt arranged the melody for piano as No. 11 of his Zwölf alte deutsche geistliche Weisen, S. 504b (1878-1879).[4] Max Reger composed three organ preludes on the hymn: Nos. 45 and 46 of his 52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67 (1902); and No. 28 of his 30 Short Chorale Preludes, Op. 135a (1914).[12]

The hymn is No. 369 (EG 369) in the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, and No. 367 in the hymnbook of the Evangelisch-methodistische Kirche in Germany, though in the latter verse 5 is omitted. In the German hymnbook of the Neuapostolische Kirche, stanzas 1–5 and 7 appear as number 154.

The hymn became part of the 1938 Kirchenlied.[1] Three stanzas were included in the first edition of the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 295.[1] The same stanzas (1, 2 and 7) are number 451 in the Swiss Katholisches Gesangbuch der deutschsprachigen Schweiz. In the Gotteslob of 2013, stanzas 1–3, 6 and 7 appear as GL 424.

The tune of "Wer nur den lieben Gott" has also been used for a variety of other texts.[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten.

• Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten Bach Cantatas Website 2013
• Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten on mutopiaproject.org