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The Documentary: Soul Music: Ich Habe Genug by J.S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach - 1685-1750

12/02/2020 GMT

Ich Habe Genug by J.S. Bach

Soul Music

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Soul Music, Ich Habe Genug by J.S. Bach

Soul Music hears people share their stories about music that has changed their lives.

J.S Bach wrote his cantata Ich Habe Genug for the Feast of the Purification of Mary to be performed in Leipzig on 2 February 1727. The work is a retelling of the story of the old man Simeon who, waiting in the temple, was presented with the baby Jesus. As he held the baby in his arms, in Bach's version he says: 
 
It is enough.
I have held the Saviour, the hope of all peoples,
In the warm embrace of my arms.
It is enough.
 
Oboist George Caird recalls playing Ich Habe Genug at his father's funeral. Theologian Paula Gooder recalls the effect of putting her new born baby into the arms of an elderly relative. Danish music therapist Lars Ole Bonde tells how this music provided vital solace for him as a teenager growing up with a father suffering from depression. American Susan Dray remembers how the Cantata helped her when she was grieving for her baby. And tenor Ian Bostridge wonders why we never feel that we have "enough".

(Photo: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750), German musician and composer playing the organ, circa 1725. From a print in the British Museum. Credit: Rischgitz/Getty Images)

The Documentary: Soul Music

People share stories about music that has changed their lives.

Music brings meaning to our lives. From first breath to last rites music is there, helping us to deal with our emotions and reflect on our experiences. Be it solace or celebration, grief, love, lost youth or contented aging, we find ourselves reflected in the music we love and share. 
 
In Soul Music we take a song and talk to people for whom the song has a special place in their lives.

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