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It Is Well With My Soul "O grosse Lieb"
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Duration: 4 minutes
Premiere: Bethel Christian Reformed Church, Waupun, WI - April 2015
Jonathan Posthuma, piano
Tunes:
HERZLIEBSTER JESU, Johan Crüger, 1640
from Johannes-Passion, Johann Sebastian Bach
VILLE DU HAVRE, Philip P. Bliss, 1876
arr. Jonathan Posthuma
Texts:
Johann Heermann, 1630
Horatio Gates Spafford, 1873
Score and Recording
Program Note and Lyrics
Written while as a student at University of Wisconsin – Madison and performed at Bethel CRC in Waupun WI, this setting combines a verse from the Lutheran chorale HERZLIEBSTER JESU as it appears in J. S. Bach’s Saint John Passion. At the time, I was singing this monumental work with the university chorus and orchestra and this chorale particularly moved me with its beautiful harmony and words. The passion invites us to contemplate Christ’s sacrifice and this chorale evokes the weariness and weight of our guilt. The third verse of “When Peace Like a River,” emotionally matches the text of this chorale:
“My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
—My sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
Fragmented reminders of that “glorious thought” are hinted at throughout the dark chorale setting. The refrain, “It Is Well,” fully appears suddenly (surprisingly!) when the entire piece shifts to a new key at the end. The traditional resolution of the chorale should be from G minor to G major, but this shift is to an entirely new dimension in a new key with a new hymn tune in C major and linked by three repetitions of the pitch G – a pivot from guilt to grace to gratitude.
O große Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Maße,
Die dich gebracht auf diese Marterstraße!
Ich lebte mit der Welt in Lust und Freuden,
Und du mußt leiden.
O wondrous love,
O love all loves excelling,
[It is well…]
Wherefor thou made this vale of tears thy dwelling
[It is well with my soul…]
The joys and pleasures of the world we cherish,
[It is well, it is well with my soul]
Yet thou must perish.
[It is well with my soul]
[It is well, it is well with my soul]
“My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
—My sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
Fragmented reminders of that “glorious thought” are hinted at throughout the dark chorale setting. The refrain, “It Is Well,” fully appears suddenly (surprisingly!) when the entire piece shifts to a new key at the end. The traditional resolution of the chorale should be from G minor to G major, but this shift is to an entirely new dimension in a new key with a new hymn tune in C major and linked by three repetitions of the pitch G – a pivot from guilt to grace to gratitude.
O große Lieb, o Lieb ohn alle Maße,
Die dich gebracht auf diese Marterstraße!
Ich lebte mit der Welt in Lust und Freuden,
Und du mußt leiden.
O wondrous love,
O love all loves excelling,
[It is well…]
Wherefor thou made this vale of tears thy dwelling
[It is well with my soul…]
The joys and pleasures of the world we cherish,
[It is well, it is well with my soul]
Yet thou must perish.
[It is well with my soul]
[It is well, it is well with my soul]