Bach - St John Passion - Wer hat dich so geschlagen (chorale)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750):
WER HAT DICH SO GESCHLAGEN

This is chorale no. 3 from the St. John Passion.

Bach's chorales for the St John Passion are in my humble opinion the best he ever wrote. And I think that Bach's pupil Johan Philipp Kirnberger was right when he pointed out "how difficult it is not only to give each of the four voices its own flowing melody, but also to keep a uniform character in all, so that out of their union a single and perfect whole may arise. In this the late Capellmeister Bach in Leipzig perhaps excelled all the composers in the world".

Wer hat dich so geschlagen,
Mein Heil, und dich mit Plagen
So übel zugericht'?
Du bist ja nicht ein Sünder
Wie wir und unsre Kinder,
Von Missetaten weißt du nicht.

Ich, ich und meine Sünden,
Die sich wie Körnlein finden
Des Sandes an dem Meer,
Die haben dir erreget
Das Elend, das dich schläget,
Und das betrübte Marterheer.

Who hath thee now so stricken,
My Savior, and with torments
Such ill upon thee laid?
For thou art not a sinner
Like us and our own children,
From evildoing thou art free.

I, I and my transgressions,
Which to the grains are likened
Of sand beside the sea,
These have in thee awakened
The sorrow that doth strike thee
And this most grievous host of pain.

(Paul Gerhardt, 1647)

The Monteverdi Choir
The English Baroque Soloists
Directed by John Eliot Gardiner

Recording: London, All Saints' Church, Tooting, 3/1986 (Archiv)

Next chorale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGUavIC85BE

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