Permeating the Membrane: Death as Life-Fulfilment Through the Prism of Bach's Ich habe genug (BWV 82)

Abstract

Ich habe genug (I have enough) BWV 82 is one of the best known, most regularly performed and consistently recorded of J.S. Bach's approximately 200 extant sacred cantatas. ¹ In the text, by an anonymous author, the narrator repeatedly expresses their readiness to die, in faith that they will be received by their saviour in eternal life. The whole cantata expresses a fearless ‘longing for death’ (Schweitzer, 1911/1966, p. 114), coupled with a serene contentment. Bach's setting of this text for religious purposes not only supports the sentiments expressed by the narrator but colours, illuminates, vitalises and elevates it in ways that startle the ear, quicken the spirit and stir the imagination. In the third and final aria of the cantata, Bach employs an almost-jaunty dance rhythm to accompany the narrator's anticipatory delight in their own death, liberated from worldly and bodily suffering. After identifying some of the ingenious ways Bach animates the text, I offer some speculations and elaborations as to how and why this work has had such an enduring presence in the Western musical canon, for believers and non-believers alike.

Citation

Levy, G. (2022), "Permeating the Membrane: Death as Life-Fulfilment Through the Prism of Bach's Ich habe genug (BWV 82)", Bennett, M.J., Shadrack, J.H. and Levy, G. (Ed.) Embodying the Music and Death Nexus (Emerald Interdisciplinary Connexions), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-766-520221001