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Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata
140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme Cantata 147, The Saint Matthew Passion, The Christmas Oratorio, The Mass in B Minor (notes, texts and translations may be found below)
Program, at 7 pm. Cantata BWV 50: Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft und das Reich und die Macht Cantata BWV 147: Chorale no. 10, Jesu bleibet meine Freude Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 Aria no 4. Bereite dich, Zion, Yara Abu Er Rubb, mezzo-soprano Aria no 41. Ich will nur dir zu Ehren leben, Ziad Nehme, tenor St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244 No. 20, aria with chorus. Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen Cantata BWV 140 : Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
1. Sinfonia and chorus The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232 : Dona nobis pacem ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````` THE AUB CHOIR and CHORAL SOCIETY, 2010
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````` NOTES and TRANSLATIONS* Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was the greatest member of western music’s most illustrious family. In his music, the learned, contrapuntal style of the Baroque Period finds its most sublime expression. Bach’s church music for voices and orchestra alternates between this rigorous, intellectual style, and the warm, lyrical vocal expression which was found in the opera house. And all is suffused with an ardent and authentic spiritual feeling which is unsurpassed in western music. Sebastian Bach has always been held in high esteem, if not awe, by his successors, especially after the revival of his church music by Felix Mendelssohn in the 19th century. Wolfgang Schmieder, compiler of Bach’s catalog of works (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis), even went so far as to give the works BWV numbers - did he feel his name was “not worthy” to be associated with the Master’s? Although we experience this music with a somewhat cooler eye today, it never fails to work its magic. Cantata BWV 50 is the only work on our program whose authorship is questionable. It was included in the late-20th-century New Edition of the Complete Works, and those editors considered it to be authentic, the first movement of a lost cantata. No autograph score has been found, and doubt arises because the style is unusual in Bach’s output. The work is for double chorus, like the six a cappella motets. However, the presence of double choir in a cantata with orchestra, as found here, is rare in Bach.
This movement from Cantata BWV 147 is probably the composer’s best-known work. Arranged for virtually every combination of instruments and voices, it is known in English as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” The strings and oboe play the famous ritornello – musical material which returns several times to unify the work - and the voices sing a chorale (hymn), whose primary melody is doubled by the trumpet. As in all baroque music, the musical foundation for each piece is provided by basso continuo – ‘cellos, bassoons, and double bass – with harmonies from the organ.
Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium, or Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, takes the form of six cantatas compiled for the Christmas season of 1734. The whole work is a great example of self-parody: it is based entirely on earlier compositions. The alto aria Bereite dich, no. 4 from the first cantata, with its bridegroom-welcoming text, fits rather well with the theme of Cantata 140. It is accompanied by the unusual combination of unison violins and oboe d’amore, played in today’s context by the English horn (tenor oboe). The da capo structure, in which the entire first section is repeated after a middle section, allows the singer in the church context to perform only small ornamental variations the second time, instead of the extravagant vocal display expected by singers in the opera house.
Ich will nur dir, no. 41 from the fourth cantata, uses the three voices of tenor and two violins to create an interesting musical texture: the violin duet plays strict, fugal counterpoint accompanied by the continuo group. The tenor then enters using the same subject, becoming another voice in the polyphonic web. The B section text “strengthen me” replaces this fugal subject with a more lyrical one; however the first one won’t go way: it makes one single appearance before the da capo return.
Bach’s beloved Saint Matthew Passion, BWV 244 of 1727, is unusual: it is composed for two separate choirs and two separate orchestras. It was the first of his works performed by Mendelssohn in 1829, resulting in a revival of Bach’s music. Aria no. 20 uses the choir, flutes and strings from choir and orchestra two, but the tenor and oboe from orchestra one. As in the rest of the Passion, one actor, here a tenor soloist, expresses a sentiment, to which a group - choir/orchestra two - responds. The action from the Passion Story takes place immediately after Jesus asks his disciples to stay awake and watch with him.
Cantata BWV 140 of 1731 is one of Bach’s most famous and beloved cantatas. Based on a three-verse hymn by Philip Nicolai, it has a chiastic form: movements 1, 4, and 7 create a symmetrical structure, using the hymn’s text and music. Movements 2, 3, 5 and 6 use anonymous poetry inspired by the biblical Song of Songs, and original music, to fill in between hymn verses. The cantata’s text presents an allegory of Christ and the Soul as bride and groom, with the faithful as wedding guests. The tonal centers shown below serve to unify the work as a whole.
Movement 1 is an extended choral fantasy, whose orchestral ritornello figures return again and again to unify the piece. These figures accompany lively choral counterpoint and the famous hymn melody sung in long notes by the sopranos. Bach’s rhythmic structure is often inspired by French court dances. The opening orchestral ritornello recalls a distant procession, inspired by the serious courante dance. Then when the energy and activity increase as excitement builds over the Bridegroom’s arrival, the dance changes to the sarabande, with its added emphasis on the second beat. The text “high on the wall” receives the highest note of the hymn tune, and the twelve beats of the orchestral ritornello may represent the clock striking midnight.
Movement 2 shows that Bach the church musician was familiar with the conventions of opera. His striking setting of the text, complete with a high, leaping melody to paint the leaping deer, is expressive and sensitive here, as it always is. Accompanied only by keyboard and ‘cello, this style is called secco, meaning “dry” in Italian. But it is anything but dry in its expressive power.
Movement 3 is fine example of chamber music. The solo violin part was originally played on a violino piccolo, which was smaller and higher-pitched than the full violin. Its ornate virtuosity expresses desperate yearning, and when put together with the singers’ warm lyricism, this multi-layered work is marvelous in its effect. The dance character is muted – the serious courante is a likely model. The text “your part” below* is also puzzling in the original German.
Movement 4 is well-known, and was also one of Bach’s own favorite works, attested by its publication as the first of six solo organ preludes known as the Schübler Chorales, BVW 645. It recalls a wedding procession: the tenors comment at random intervals like guests at a wedding feast, singing the third verse of Nicolai’s hymn.
Movement 5 is a recitative accompanied by the string choir, like those of Jesus in the St. Matthew Passion. Notable are the use of dissonant harmony at the text “your grieved eyes,” and the lighthearted quality of the last line, which is accompanied by short notes.
Movement 6 celebrates the joy of the newly-united couple, in a garland of florid oboe melody. A bit of dissonant harmony expresses the intensity of “joy, delight and ecstasy,” within the bright tonality of B-flat major. This movement also repeats its opening section exactly, da capo. The sensuous poetry of both this and no. 3 hints at Pietism, a Lutheran movement which stressed the individual’s relationship with the divine, with images of its attendant emotions. However, it embarrassed 19th-century musicologists by its sensuality, and by the low quality of the German verse. The dance topic is the sprightly bourrée, which starts with one “pick-up” beat.
Movement 7 presents verse three of the hymn unadorned, as was contemporary Lutheran cantata practice. But even so, Bach amplified the opening bass line to twelve notes, a possible reflection of the “twelve pearls” of Heaven’s gate.
Bach’s most impressive work for voices and orchestra may be the Messe in H moll, The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232. Also a work of self-parody, Bach assembled the Mass in 1749, immediately before his death. It was never performed in his lifetime, thus one may speculate that he intended it as a sort of testament, or summation of his life’s work. The textual sentiment, rigorous counterpoint, and beautiful expression of its final movement offer the best farewell I can think of.
~ Paul Meers, 2010 *The English translations provided are often odd in style and structure. This results from the compromise of trying to create sense in English while preserving German word order. |
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