''Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden'' (''Praise the Lord, all ye nations''), 230, is a

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

Words

The motet draws its text from

Psalm 117 Psalm 117 is the 117th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people." In Latin, it is known as ''Laudate Dominum''. Consisting of only two verses, Psal ...

Verses 1-2. A couple of Bach's other motets are known to have been composed for funerals in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and set texts such as the

Epistle to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...

. The celebratory text of ''Lobet den Herrn'' does not suggest a farewell to the world, indicating that it was composed for a different type of occasion.

History

It is not known when the work was composed. Some scholars, for example

Martin Geck Martin Geck (19 March 1936 – 22 November 2019) was a German musicologist. He taught at the Technical University of Dortmund. His publications concerned a number of major composers. Among the composers in whom he specialised was Johann Sebastian ...

, have questioned the attribution to Bach. Accessed via JSTOR (subscription required) In the twentieth century the authoritative

Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV ...

catalogue included it in a set of motets (listed as BWV 225–231). In retrospect, the BWV numbering seems somewhat arbitrary as a grouping of the Bach motets: recent scholarship includes more works among the motets. However, ''Lobet den Herrn'' has often been recorded with others from BWV 225–229. It is the only one of the set to be scored for four voices (most of the others are for double

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

choir). It is also unusual in that (lightly scored) instrumental accompaniment is specified.

Publication

19th century editions

It was first published in 1821. The publisher claimed to have had access to an autograph score. In 1892 it was published with other motets in volume 39 of the

Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe Joh. Seb. Bach's Werke () is the Bach Gesellschaft's collected edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions, published in 61 volumes in the second half of the 19th century. The series is also known as Bach-Gesellschaft edition (german: Bach-Gese ...

, the first edition of the composer's complete works. The editor was

Franz Wüllner Franz Wüllner (28 January 1832 – 7 September 1902) was a German composer and conductor. He led the premieres of Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'', but was much criticized by Wagner himself, who greatly preferred the more celebrate ...

20th century editions

It was included in the

New Bach Edition The New Bach Edition (NBE) (german: Neue Bach-Ausgabe; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete W ...

in 1965.

21st century editions

It was published by

Carus-Verlag Carus-Verlag is a German music publisher founded in 1972 and based in Stuttgart. Carus was founded by choral conductor Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud with an emphasis on choral repertoire. The catalogue currently includes more than 26,00 ...

as one of seven motets edited by

Uwe Wolf Uwe Wolf (born 10 August 1967 in Neustadt an der Weinstraße) is a German football coach and former professional player. Honours Necaxa * Primera División de México: 1995–96 References External links * 1967 births Living p ...

. The editor acknowledges some doubt about the authenticity of the work, explaining that "in contrast to the 'classical' number of six works we have published seven compositions in this volume of motets: five undoubtedly authentic works by Johann Sebastian Bach and two whose authenticity is less certain".

Discography

''Lobet den Herrn'' has often been recorded with other motets by Bach. These recorded sets of motets are partially listed at

Motets by Johann Sebastian Bach, discography This article includes a list of commercial recordings of the motets of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach motets have often been recorded as a set (typically comprising the six motets catalogued as BWV225-230). However, other motets are attributed to Bach ...

References

Sources

External links

Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230
performance by the

Netherlands Bach Society The Netherlands Bach Society ( nl, Nederlandse Bachvereniging) is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'' on Good Frid ...

(video and background information)
Information on the work on www.bach-cantatas.com
*

English and German texts at

Emmanuel Music Emmanuel Music is a Boston-based collective group of singers and instrumentalists founded in 1970 by Craig Smith. It was created specifically to perform the complete cycle of over 200 sacred cantatas of J. S. Bach in the liturgical setting for wh ...

{{authority control Motets by Johann Sebastian Bach Psalm-related compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach