Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV Anh. 159

Ich lasse dich nicht BWV Anh. 159
Motet by J. S. Bach
Bible text
Chorale	Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz
Vocal	Double choir SATB
Instrumental	unspecified

Ich lasse dich nicht, also Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn (I will not let you go unless you bless me),BWV Anh. 159, is a motet set for double choir. Recent scholarship assumes Johann Sebastian Bach as the composer who possibly wrote it during his Weimar period around 1712.

The piece, as it is known since the rediscovery of the collection Altbachisches Archiv in 1999, contains two movements, one for double chorus based on a text from the book Genesis in which the patriarch Jacob asks God for a blessing, followed by a closing chorale. The first movement is known as a score without author, partly in J. S. Bach's handwriting. It was attributed by Bach authorities to Johann Christoph Bach since the 19th century, while others including Philipp Spitta doubted that attribution. The chorale is one of J. S. Bach's chorale settings and was possibly added in 1802 when the motet was first printed.

Bach wrote his motets in the tradition of the Evangelienmotetten (motets on gospel texts) of the 17th century by composers such as Melchior Franck, Melchior Vulpius and Heinrich Schütz. When he composed these works, music without an independent orchestra on texts limited to biblical words and a chorale without contemporary poetry, the genre was already out of fashion, but there was evidently a demand for such works at funerals, a ceremony for which at least some of Bach's motets were written.

There is scholarly debate about the exact number of motets attributable to Bach, and, as in some cases the circumstances of the first performance are not known, nor their function.

Ich lasse dich nicht, then known as only the first movement, was attributed in the 19th century to both Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Christoph Bach, his father's cousin. In the Bach-Ausgabe, the editor Fritz Wüllner described the piece as "one of the most beautiful works of German church music" but not "authentic", therefore gave Johann Christoph Bach as the composer. When Wolfgang Schmieder created the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis in 1950, he followed Wüllner, placing the motet in the appendix and assigning "presumably by Johann Christoph Bach". When Konrad Ameln edited Bach's motets for the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, he consequently omitted it, but it was printed in the appendix. Other authorities had doubted this attribution, for example Philipp Spitta, who in the first edition of his Bach biography mentioned Johann Christoph Bach as the composer, but in the second added that "the source evidence didn't permit a definite attribution".

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