Tristis est anima mea (attributed to Kuhnau)
| Tristis est anima mea | |
|---|---|
| Sacred motet by Johann Kuhnau (attrib.) | |
Christ and His Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane (Rembrandt)
|
|
| English | My soul is exceedingly sorrowful |
| Key | F minor |
| Occasion | Maundy Thursday |
| Text | |
| Language | Latin |
| Vocal | SSATB |
| Der Gerechte kömmt um | |
|---|---|
| by Johann Sebastian Bach (attrib. arranger) | |
| English | The righteous perishes |
| Key | E minor |
| Genre | (Funeral) motet? |
| Text | |
| Language | German |
| Based on | Tristis est anima mea attributed to Johann Kuhnau |
| Performed | 18th century: Leipzig |
| Vocal | SSATB |
| Instrumental | Woodwind I/II (traverso/oboe), Violin I/II, Viola, Continuo |
Tristis est anima mea (Sad is my soul) is a sacred motet for five voices attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The text is the second responsory at Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday, one of the Latin texts kept in the liturgy after the town converted to Lutheranism.
Kuhnau's successor at the Thomaskirche, Johann Sebastian Bach, adapted the music to a German text, Der Gerechte kömmt um, and added an instrumental accompaniment.
Johann Kuhnau was Johann Sebastian Bach's predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. Philipp Spitta's 19th century biography of the latter contains the following:
[Kuhnau] was better versed in the technicalities of vocal writing than most other German composers of the time. His five-part motett for Holy Thursday, Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem,288 may be reckoned among the more prominent works of the kind; if it is not of equal merit with the motetts of Joh. Christoph and Joh. Ludwig Bach even in technical qualities, it has a breadth of conception which betrays the study of the classical Italian models.
288 It exists in the separate parts in the library of the Leipzig Singakademie and is numbered 362.
More recently the attribution to Kuhnau has been doubted. By then it proved impossible to ascertain authorship on source-critical grounds (among other reasons while the Leipzig parts mentioned by Spitta could no longer be traced).
The motet is set to the Latin text of the second Tenebrae responsory for Maundy Thursday. The theme of that text is Jesus in the garden Gethsemane, addressing his disciples. Its first two lines are quoted from . The first words of the text, told in the first person, are translated as "My soul is exceeding sorrowful" in the King James Version (KJV). While the first two lines are quoted from the Bible, the next two are anonymous poetry, Jesus predicting that the disciples will see a crowd ("Iam videbitis turbam"), they will take flight ("Vos fugam capietis"), and he will go to be sacrificed for them ("et ego vadam immolari pro vobis").
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