| German: Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut | |
| Bwv: | 113 |
| Type: | Chorale cantata |
| Composer: | J. S. Bach |
| Image Upright: | 1.2 |
| Movements: | eight |
| Vocal: | choir and solo |
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata German: Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut (Lord Jesus Christ, O highest good), 113, in Leipzig for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 20 August 1724. It is based on the eight stanzas of the 1588 hymn "de|[[Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut]]" by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt, a penitential song.
The cantata belongs to Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cantata cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. The cantata text retains the first, second, fourth and last stanza of the chorale unchanged; the text of the fourth stanza is interspersed with contemporary lines by an unknown librettist, who also paraphrased the remaining stanzas. The first movement is a chorale fantasia, while the middle solo movements alternate arias and recitative. The work is closed by a four-part chorale setting.
The cantata is scored for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes d'amore, flauto traverso, strings and basso continuo.
Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity as part of his chorale cantata cycle. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on the gospel of Christ and his (Paul's) duty as an apostle, and from the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector .
The text of the cantata is based on the eight stanzas of Bartholomäus Ringwaldt's hymn (1588), a song of penitence related to the tax collector's prayer "de|Herr, sei mir armem Sünder gnädig" (God be merciful to me a sinner). While some attributed the melody also to Ringwaldt, Sven Hiemke says in his foreword to the Carus edition that the composer is unknown but it dates to the same period. An unknown poet retained the text unchanged in movements 1, 2, 4 and 8, but inserted recitative in the fourth movement. He paraphrased the ideas of the remaining stanzas to arias and a recitative, retaining the beginning of stanzas 3 and 7. He treated stanzas 5 and 6 most freely, including ideas from the epistle, such as the promise of mercy which is only asked but not promised in the chorale. He refers to several verses from different gospels to underscore that thought, in both 5 and 6, (parallel) in 5, and in 6, paraphrased as "de|Er ruft: Kommt her zu mir, die ihr mühselig und beladen" (He calls: come here to Me, you who are weary and burdened). The last verse also appears in Handel's Messiah, turned in the third person: "Come unto Him, all ye that labour", in the soprano section of He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.
Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performance on 20 August 1724.
Bach structured the cantata in eight movements. Both text and tune of the hymn are retained in the outer movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing chorale. Bach scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes d'amore (Oa), flauto traverso (Ft), two violin parts (Vl), one viola part (Va), and basso continuo.
In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Dürr. The continuo, which plays throughout, is not shown.