An Wasserflüssen Babylon
BWV 267 performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Sint-Gertrudiskerk, Bergen op Zoom
Behind the music
Story
Story
Texts
Texts
Credits
Credits
Purely vocal
Bach’s arrangement of the well-known lament from Psalm 137
Few biblical texts appeal to the musical imagination as directly as Psalm 137: by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept. Even Boney M. had a hit with it. Not only is it a lament – something that often inspires good music – but it is also a text that explicitly refers to music: the harps and organs are hung on the willows.
For BWV 267, Bach used a German adaptation of the psalm text from the sixteenth century. In his harmonisation, Bach subtly expresses the plaintive character in a couple of places, for example in the harmonies to the words ‘da mussten wir viel Schmach und Schand’.
But even more than Bach’s harmonies, it is the form of the chorale that lends it an extra emotional charge. This four-part version comes from a much larger collection of chorale harmonisations, which was published after Bach’s death. Nearly all of them are four-part versions, with no independent instruments. In this case, that is very apt, in view of the text. Here, we even give a purely vocal rendition of the chorale, with no basso continuo. The organ is seen in the background but not played.
The text also touches on another subject. The use (and misuse) of instruments during the service was an issue for debate that kept flaring up in Bach’s day. In his extensive chorale commentary of 1749, comprising four substantial books, the German preacher and hymnologist Gabriel Wimmer seized on precisely this hymn to underline his displeasure: “May God grant that the misuse of our church music today, our organs, harps, violins and wind instruments, which instead of being used correctly are excessive in many places, shall not one day be transformed by divine right into wailing, weeping and sighing”. There is no risk of that whatsoever in this performance of BWV 267.
- BWV
- 267
- Title
- An Wasserflüssen Babylon
- Genre
- chorales
- Lyricist
- Wolfgang Dachstein (1525)
- Special notes
- Based on psalm 137
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
An Wasserflüssen Babylon,
da saßen wir mit Schmerzen,
als wir gedachten an Zion,
da weinten wir von Herzen.
Wir hingen auf mit schwerem Mut
die Harfen und die Orgeln gut
an ihre Bäum der Weiden,
die drinnen sind in ihrem Land
da mussten wir viel Schmach und Schand
täglich von ihnen leiden.
Translation
There by the streams of Babylon,
We sat down, sadly sighing,
As we remembered you, Zion,
With all our hearts were crying.
And there with very heavy hearts
We hung our lyres and our harps,
Upon the willow branches.
For captive in that foreign land
We suffered shame at every hand
A daily degradation.
translation © Ruth van Baak Griffioen, 2025
Credits
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- Release date
- 19 June 2025
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- Recording date
- 6 May 2024
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- Location
- Sint-Gertrudiskerk, Bergen op Zoom
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- Soprano
- Marta Paklar
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- Alto
- Sofia Gvirts
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- Tenor
- João Moreira
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- Bass
- Matthew Baker
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- Director and editor
- Onno van Ameijde
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Jesper Blok, Jorne Tielemans
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- Focus pull
- Glenn van Neerden
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- Lights
- Jorne Tielemans, Patrick Galvin
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- Project manager nep
- Ron Vermeulen
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok, Stephan Esmeijer
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