Johann Sebastian Bach O God, what glut of care and pain

O God, what glut of care and pain,
oppresses me in this hard time!
The narrow way is full of grief
that leads to everlasting life.

How hard it is for flesh and blood
which only looks for vain and earthly pleasure
and scorns both God and heav’nly treasure,
to cleave to the eternal good!
Since thou, O Jesu, art my only prize,
but still my flesh is stubborn and perverse,
where shall I go, where turn, O where?
The flesh is weak, the spirit strong;
so help thou me, to whom I do belong.
For thee, O Christ, is my desire.
Who trusts thy help and thy eternal word
has never yet been cheated or betrayed.
Since our salvation to this world did bring thee
and our poor flesh tou took’st upon thee,

...

Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid,
begegnet mir zu dieser Zeit!
Der schmale Weg ist trübsalvoll,
den ich zum Himmel wandern soll.

Wie schwerlich lässt sich Fleisch und Blut,
so nur nach Irdischem Eitlem trachtet
und weder Gott noch Himmel achtet,
zwingen zu dem ewigen Gut.
Da du, o Jesu,nun mein alles bist,
und doch mein Fleisch so widerspenstig ist,
wo soll ich mich denn wenden hin?
Das Fleisch ist schwach, doch will der Geist;
So hilf du mir, der du mein Herze weißt.
Zu dir, o Jesu, steht mein Sinn.
Wer deinem Rat und Hülfe traut,
der hat wohl nie auf falschen Grund gebaut.
Da du der ganzen Welt zum Trost gekommen
und unser Fleisch an dich genommen,

...

Sven Hiemke
Translation: David Kosviner

The cantata Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (O God, what glut of care and pain) BWV 3 was composed for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany on 14 January 1725 and is part of the so-called annual cycle of chorale cantatas which Bach began in his second year of service as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The objective was to include all the Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year in one cycle of cantatas, each of which was based on a hymn – usually the Hymn of the Day for the Sunday or feast day in question. In the process, the framing verses of the hymn are performed with the text and melody unchanged: In the opening movement of the cantata they appear as a figured chorale arrangement in which three choral voices with imitations prepare the individual hymn lines which are then heard in the fourth voice (mostly the soprano) in augmented note values, and at the end as a setting in the cantional style. The inner verses are paraphrased in the intervening recitatives and arias.

The author of the madrigal-like texts for Bach’s chorale cantatas remains unknown. It is possible that it was Andreas Stübel (born 1653), the former deputy headmaster of

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