As I do every year during Easter, I bring you a short text to present a song with a religious theme. This year is a song that is little-known, in every way: it is little performed and little documented. Musicologists have been bringing together the few available pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to reconstruct its history, with many doubts remaining.
Mozart appears to have written the Zwei deutsche Kirchenlieder, K. 343/K. 336C in the spring of 1787 in Prague, the city where Le nozze di Figaro had been performed with great success months before and where in October of that year Don Giovanni would be premiered. It also seems that he was asked by Johann Joseph Strobach, conductor of the orchestra of the National Theatre and the choir of the church of St. Nicholas, and Emmanuel Stiepanowsky, priest of the same parish, to sing them in the memorial services. The first of the songs, O Gottes Lamm [Oh, Lamb of God], must have been performed on All Souls Day in 1787.
The songs appeared in 1788 in the second edition of a book of hymns published in Prague, Lieder zur Öffentlichen und häuslichen Andacht, mit Melodien (which we could translate as “Songs to public and private prayers, with melodies”). The main difference from the first edition, according to the preface, was the inclusion of new songs by “masters of the country”; after mentioning several Bohemian composers, “ein Mozart” was also mentioned, that is, “a certain Mozart”.
Apart from this songbook, which was reissued on various occasions, always including the two pieces from that certain Mozart, for many years it was only available for the study of a copy of the original score made during the first half of the 19th century. Mozart's autograph reappeared at auction in 1999, only to disappear again and be auctioned back in 2014. I cannot tell you where the manuscript is now, but its fleeting appearances served at least to confirm that the two songs belong to the Viennese period of the composer.
Both are pure strophic, simple, with an accompaniment thought only to sustain the singing; the organist could elaborate it to his liking in the church. I suggest we listen to the beautiful O Gottes Lamm performed by Barbara Bonney and Geoffrey Parsons at the piano.
Have a happy Easter!
O Gottes Lamm, dein Leben
Hast du als Lösegeld
Am Kreuz uns dargegeben;
Du starbst für alle Welt!
Wem das Verdienst hienieden
Des Glaubens du verlieh'n,
Nimm dort zum Lohn in Frieden
Zu deinen Sel'gen hin.
Die fromm in dir entschlafen,
Laß frei von Qual und Pein,
Laß frei von ew'gen Strafen
Bei dir, o Jesu, sein!
Laß gnädig sie empfinden,
Herr, deines Leidens Kraft,
Befreiung von den Sünden,
Was dein Genuß verschafft!
O Lamb of God, thou didst give
Thy life as a ransom
On the Cross for us;
Thou didst die for the whole world!
Those on whom thou didst bestow
The merit of faith here below,
Reward them by receiving them in peace
Among thy blessed.
Those who piously fell asleep in thee,
Keep them, free from torment and agony,
Keep them, free from eternal chastisement,
With thee, O Jesus!
In thy mercy, let them feel,
O Lord, the power of thy suffering,
And the deliverance from sin
That the enjoyment of thee procures!
(translation by Harmonia Mundi)
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