Der Gerechte kömmt um (motet)

Der Gerechte kömmt um ('The righteous perishes'), () 1149, is a motet for SSATB singers and instrumental ensemble, which, for its music, is based on the five-part a cappella motet Tristis est anima mea attributed to Johann Kuhnau, and has the Luther Bible translation of Isaiah 57:1–2 as text. The arrangement of the Latin motet, that is, transposing it to E minor, adjusting its music to the new text, and expanding it with an instrumental score for two traversos, two oboes, strings and basso continuo, is attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. The setting is found in a manuscript copy, likely written down in the 1750s, of Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt, a Passion oratorio which is a pasticcio based on compositions by, among others, Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann and Bach. Likely Der Gerechte kömmt um existed as a stand-alone motet, for example for performance on Good Friday or at a funeral, before being adopted in the pasticcio. Tristis est anima mea (attributed to Kuhnau) The oldest extant source for the Tristis est anima mea motet attributed to Johann Kuhnau is D-B Mus.ms. 12263/3, an 18th-century manuscript previously known as SBB Mus.ms. autogr. J. Kuhnau 1. This score, written by an unknown scribe (not Kuhnau in any case), originated between the 1720s and around 1760. The oldest extant source for Der Gerechte kömmt um is D-B Mus.ms. 8155, which contains the score of Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt, a pasticcio Passion oratorio. This manuscript originated in the second half of the 1750s. The pasticcio's components include 31 movements from Carl Heinrich Graun's Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld, GraunWV B:VII:4 (composed between 1725 and 1735), two movements of a church cantata by Georg Philipp Telemann (TWV 1:1585, composed in 1722) and a variant of the opening chorus of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott, BWV 127 (composed in 1725). The exact time of origin of either the Tristis est anima mea motet or Der Gerechte kömmt um can not be ascertained, and, according to Daniel R.