The melody and words of the concluding Choral of Cantata BWV 56 are from Johann Franck’s Hymn, “Du, O schones Weltgebaude.” The melody was first published, with the first stanza only of J. Franck’s Hymn (but with the first line as, “Du geballtes Weltgebaude”), in Johann Crüger’s Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien (Leipzig, 1649).
The melody does not appear elsewhere in the Cantatas or Oratorios. Another harmonisation of it is in the Choralgesange, No. 71 (BWV 301).
The complete text of it was first published, along with the melody, in Christoph Runge’s edition of J. Crüger’s Praxis Pietatis Melica (Berlin, 1653).
Source: Charles Sanford Terry: Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach’s Chorals, vol. 2 The Hymns and Hymn Melodies of the Cantatas and Motetts [1917], pp 277-278: |