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Undid revision 466078349 by DanSLCL (talk): SDG does not mean "to God alone" (glory could go to many people); it means "to the only God".
If this translation is in fact incorrect, the misconception is very widespread indeed and the wikilinked page would be the place to look for a detailed explanation.
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Although the term Bachkantate (Bach cantata) became very familiar, Bach himself used the title ''Cantata'' rarely in his manuscripts, but in [[Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56]] he wrote ''Cantata à Voce Sola e Stromenti'' (''Cantata for solo voice and instruments''). Typically, he began a heading with the Abbreviation ''J.J.'' (''Jesu Juva'', ''Jesus, help''), followed by the name of the celebration, the beginning of the words and the instrumentation, for example in [[Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191]].
Although the term Bachkantate (Bach cantata) became very familiar, Bach himself used the title ''Cantata'' rarely in his manuscripts, but in [[Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56]] he wrote ''Cantata à Voce Sola e Stromenti'' (''Cantata for solo voice and instruments''). Typically, he began a heading with the Abbreviation ''J.J.'' (''Jesu Juva'', ''Jesus, help''), followed by the name of the celebration, the beginning of the words and the instrumentation, for example in [[Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191]].


Bach signed his cantatas with SDG, short for "Soli Deo Gloria" ("To the only God glory").
Bach inscribed his cantatas with the letters SDG, short for "[[Soli Deo Gloria]]" ("Glory to God alone")


== BWV number ==
== BWV number ==

Revision as of 09:06, 16 December 2011

Bach cantata (in German: Bach-Kantate) became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived.

Especially during Bach's tenure as a Kantor at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, and the St. Nicholas Church it was part of his job to perform a church cantata every Sunday and Holiday, related to the readings prescribed by the Lutheran liturgy for the specific occasion. In his first years in Leipzig, starting after Trinity of 1723, he composed a new work every week and conducted soloists, the Thomanerchor and orchestra as part of the church service. Three annual cycles of cantatas survived.

In addition to the church cantatas he composed sacred cantatas for functions like weddings or Ratswahl (the inauguration of a new town council), music for academic functions of the University of Leipzig at the Paulinerkirche, and secular cantatas for anniversaries and entertainment in nobility and society, some of them Glückwunschkantaten (congratulatory cantatas) and Huldigungskantaten (homage cantatas). He composed church cantatas mainly in Leipzig on a weekly basis, but his earliest date back to 1707 in Mühlhausen, his latest was probably written in 1745. His cantatas usually require four soloists and a four-part choir, but he also wrote solo cantatas for soloists. The words for many cantatas combine Bible quotes, contemporary poetry and chorale, but he also composed a cycle of chorale cantatas based exclusively on the stanzas of one chorale.

Bach's cantatas are regarded as the greatest achievements in the genre.

Autograph BWV 105 soprano aria

Name

Although the term Bachkantate (Bach cantata) became very familiar, Bach himself used the title Cantata rarely in his manuscripts, but in Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 he wrote Cantata à Voce Sola e Stromenti (Cantata for solo voice and instruments). Typically, he began a heading with the Abbreviation J.J. (Jesu Juva, Jesus, help), followed by the name of the celebration, the beginning of the words and the instrumentation, for example in Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191.

Bach inscribed his cantatas with the letters SDG, short for "Soli Deo Gloria" ("Glory to God alone")

BWV number

Bach wrote more than 200 cantatas, of which many have survived. In the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), Wolfgang Schmieder assigned them each a number within the groups 1–200 sacred cantatas, 201–216 secular cantatas, 217–224 cantatas where Bach's authorship is doubtful. Since Schmieder's designation, several of the cantatas he thought authentic have been downgraded to "spurious." However, the spurious cantatas retain their BWV numbers. The List of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach is organized strictly by BWV number.

Structure of a Bach cantata

A typical Bach cantata of his first year in Leipzig follows the scheme:

  1. Coro – opening chorus
  2. Recitativo
  3. Aria
  4. Recitativo (or Arioso)
  5. Aria
  6. Chorale

The opening chorus (in German: Eingangschor) is usually a polyphon setting, the orchestra presenting the themes or contrasting material first. Most arias follow the form of a da capo aria, repeating the first part after a middle section. The final chorale is typically a homophon setting of a traditional melody.

Bach used an expanded structure to take up his position in Leipzig with the cantatas Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, and Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76, both in two parts, to be performed before and after the sermon ("post orationem") and during communion ("sub communione"), each part a sequence of opening movement, five movements alternating recitatives and arias, chorale. In an exemplary way both cantatas cover the prescribed readings: starting with a related psalm from the Old Testament, Part I reflects Gospel, Part II the Epistle.[1]

Bach did not follow any scheme strictly, but composed as he wanted to express the words. A few cantatas are opened by an instrumental piece before the first chorus, such as the Sinfonia of Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29. A solo movement begins Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, BWV 120, because its first words speak of silence. Many cantatas composed in Weimar are set like chamber music, mostly for soloists, with a four-part setting only in the closing chorale, which may have been sung by the soloists. In an early cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172, Bach marked a repeat of the opening chorus after the chorale.

The chorale can be as simple as a traditional four-part setting, or be accompanied by an obbligato instrument, or be accompanied by the instruments of the opening chorus or even expanded by interludes based on its themes, or have the homophon vocal parts embedded in an instrumental concerto as in the familiar Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, or have complex vocal parts embedded in the concerto as in Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186, in a form called Choralphantasie (chorale fantasia). In Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, for the 1st Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year, he shaped the opening chorus as a French overture.

Singers and instrumentation

Typically Bach employs soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists and a four-part choir, also SATB. Singers of all parts were available without restriction, therefore he could assign the voice parts to the dramatic situation, for example soprano for innocence or alto for motherly feelings. The bass is often the Vox Christi, the voice of Jesus, when Jesus is quoted directly, as in Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187, or indirectly, as in O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60.

The orchestra is based on string instruments (violin, viola) and basso continuo, typically played by cello, double bass (an octave lower) and organ. A continuous bass is the rule in Baroque music, its absence is worth mentioning and has a reason, such as describing fragility.

The specific character of a cantata or a single movement is rather defined by wind instruments, such as oboe, oboe da caccia, oboe d'amore, flauto traverso, recorder, trumpet, horn, trombone, and timpani. In movements with winds a bassoon usually joins the continuo group.

Festive occasions calls for richer instrumentation. Some instruments also carry symbolic meaning such as a trumpet, the royal instrument of the baroque, for divine majesty, three trumpets for the Trinity. In an aria of BWV 172, addressing the "Heiligste Dreifaltigkeit" (Most holy Trinity), the bass is accompanied only by three trumpets and timpani.

In many arias Bach uses obbligato instruments, which correspond with the singer as an equal partner. These instrumental parts are frequently set in virtuoso repetitive patterns called figuration. Instruments include, in addition to the ones mentioned, flauto piccolo (sopranino recorder), violino piccolo, violoncello piccolo, a smaller cello, tromba da tirarsi, a slide trumpet, and corno da tirarsi.

In his early compositions Bach also used instruments that had become old-fashioned, such as viola da gamba and violone. Recorders (flauti dolci) are sometimes used to express humility or poverty, such as in the cantata Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39.

Some cantatas are composed for only one solo singer (Solokantate), as Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51 for soprano, sometimes concluded by a chorale, as Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 for bass.

Words of a sacred cantata

Within the Lutheran liturgy certain readings from the Bible were prescribed for every event during the church year, two texts, Epistel from an Epistle and Evangelium from a Gospel. Music was expected for all Sundays and Holidays but the quiet times (tempus clausum) of Advent and Lent, the cantata supposed to reflect the readings. Many opening movements are based on Bible quotations, such as Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, on Isaiah 60Template:Bibleverse with invalid book:6. Ideally, a cantata text started with an Old Testament quotation related to the readings, and reflected both the Epistle and the Gospel, as in the exemplary Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76. Most of the solo movements are based on poetry of contemporary writers, such as court poet Salomon Franck in Weimar or Picander in Leipzig, with whom Bach collaborated. The final words were usually a stanza from a chorale. Chorale cantatas are based exclusively on one chorale, for example the early Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, and most cantatas of his second annual cycle in Leipzig.

The List of Bach cantatas by liturgical function relates the liturgical year to the cantatas composed for its occasions.

Periods of cantata composition

The following lists of works (some marked as questioned) relies mainly on "Alfred Dürr: Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach". Usually the cantatas appear in the year of their first performance, sometimes also for later performances, then in brackets.

Mühlhausen

A few cantatas survived of Bach's time in Mühlhausen where he became organist at the church St. Blasius (Divi Blasii) in 1707, only BWV 71 in print.

Weimar

Bach worked in Weimar from 1708, but the composition of cantatas for the Schlosskirche (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to "Konzertmeister" in March 1714.[2] His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years.

Köthen

Bach worked in Köthen from 1717 to 1723, where he composed for example the Brandenburg concertos. He had no responsibility for church music, therefore only secular cantatas have survived. Later in Leipzig, he derived several church cantatas from congratulatory cantatas, such as Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66, for Easter from the birthday cantata Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück, BWV 66a. Even after he moved to Leipzig he could carry his title of "Fürstlich Köthenischer Kapellmeister" and continued to write secular cantatas for the court.[3][4]

Leipzig

In Leipzig Bach was responsible for the town's church music in St. Thomas and St. Nicholas and was head of the Thomasschule. Academic functions took place at the Universitätskirche St. Pauli. It's debated if Bach performed Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 59, already a week before he began his cantorate. Bach started it on the first Sunday after Trinity of 1723 and wrote a first annual cycle. Bach's major works such as the Passions and the Mass in B minor are inserted for comparison.

First cantata cycle

Second cantata cycle

After Trinity of 1724 he started a second annual cycle of mainly chorale cantatas. These cantatas were performed even after his death, according to Christoph Wolff probably because the well-known hymns were appealing to the audience.[5]

For Easter of 1725 and afterwards he composed cantatas other than chorale cantatas:

Bach composed more chorale cantatas from 1725 to 1727 and even later, to complete his second annual cycle:

Third cantata cycle

After Trinity of 1725 Bach began a third annual cycle. Several works of this cycle are not extant.

His later cantata compositions are partly not documented as well:

Parodies

Bach sometimes liked his music so much that he used it more than once, typically revising and improving it in a process called parody. For example, a movement from a Partita for violin, in ceaseless motion, was arranged as an orchestral Sinfonia with the organ as solo instrument for the wedding cantata 120a and again in cantata 29, this time the organ accompanied by a full orchestra dominated by trumpets. Not only a single movement but a complete cantata was reworked from the Shepherd cantata Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen, BWV 249a to the Easter Oratorio. For the high holidays Bach used parody to be able to deliver cantatas for the three days Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were celebrated. His Easter cantata Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134, is a parody of six of eight movements of the cantata for New Year's Day, Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a. Six movements of his congratulatory cantata Durchlauchtster Leopold, BWV 173a, form the cantata for Pentecost Monday of 1724, Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut, BWV 173, a seventh movement was made part of the cantata for Pentecost Tuesday of 1725, Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen, BWV 175.

Bach's four short masses are parodies of cantata movements, he used several movements of Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BWV 179 for two of them. When he compiled his Mass in B minor, he again used many cantata movements, such as a part of Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, for the Crucifixus of the Credo.

Oratorios

Bach's oratorios can be considered as expanded cantatas. They were also meant to be performed during church services. Other than in the cantatas, a narrator , the Evangelist, tells a story in the exact Bible wording, soloists and the choir have "roles" such as Mary or "the shepherds", in addition to reflective chorales or commenting arias interspersed with the story. The St Matthew Passion and the St John Passion were intended to be performed on Good Friday, before and after the sermon. The six parts of the Christmas Oratorio were intended to be performed on six feast days of the Christmas season, each part composed as a cantata with an opening chorus (except in Part 2) and a closing chorale.

Performances

Written for the day and the church, Bach's cantatas fell to oblivion even more than his oratorios.

The Thomanerchor has sung a weekly cantata during the evening service Motette on Saturday.[6]

In 1928, The New York Times reported the presentation in Paris of two secular Bach cantatas by opera soprano Marguerite Bériza and her company in staged productions, The Peasant Cantata and The Coffee Cantata.[7]

Between 1958 and 1987, the London Bach Society, conducted by Paul Steinitz performed all the extant church and secular cantatas, 208 separate works, in various venues, mostly in the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great, London.

Recordings

In the early 1950s Fritz Lehmann recorded several cantatas with the Berliner Motettenchor and the Berlin Philharmonic. Karl Richter called his choir programmatically Münchener Bach-Chor in 1954 and recorded about a third of the cantatas. Diethard Hellmann called the Kantorei of the Christuskirche Bachchor Mainz in 1965 and produced more than 100 cantatas on a weekly base with the Südwestrundfunk. Fritz Werner started recording with the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn and the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra a series that they called Les Grandes Cantates de J.S. Bach.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt was the first to start a recording of the complete cantatas on historical instruments with boys choirs and boy soloists for soprano and sometimes alto parts, in a collobaration with Gustav Leonhardt. Harnoncourt conducted the Wiener Sängerknaben or the Tölzer Knabenchor and the Concentus Musicus Wien. Leonhardt conducted the Knabenchor Hannover and the Collegium Vocale Gent, and the ensemble Leonhardt-Consort. Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart completed a recording of the sacred cantatas and oratorios on Bach's 300th birthday, 21 March 1985. Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir recorded all vocal works of Bach in 10 years starting in 1994.[8] Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir undertook the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, performing and recording in 2000 the sacred cantatas at churches all over Europe and in the US. Sigiswald Kuijken has recorded Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year with La Petite Bande and the soloists forming the choir. Masaaki Suzuki commenced in 1995 a project to record the complete sacred cantatas with his Bach Collegium Japan.

The Fifth Gospel

In 1929 the Swedish bishop Nathan Söderblom, a recipient of the Nobel Prize, called Bach's cantatas the Fifth Gospel.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ John Eliot Gardiner (2010). "Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Trinity / Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris" (PDF). solideogloria.co.uk. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  2. ^ Weimar 1708–1717 Jan Koster
  3. ^ Köthen 1717–1723 Part 1 (1717–1720) Jan Koster
  4. ^ Köthen 1717–1723 Part 2 (1720–1723) Jan Koster
  5. ^ Christoph Wolff. "Chorale cantatas from the cycle of the Leipzig church cantatas 1724–25" (PDF). bach-cantatas.com. p. 8. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  6. ^ Motettenprogramm, 2010 (in German)
  7. ^ "Paris Applauds Bach In Lighter Vein". The New York Times. 30 December 1928.
  8. ^ "The Works of Bach". Ton Koopman. 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  9. ^ Uwe Siemon-Netto: Why Nippon Is Nuts About J.S. Bach. The Japanese yearn for hope. atlantic-times.com 2005
  10. ^ Birger Petersen-Mikkelsen, Praedicatio sonora. Musik und Theologie bei Johann Sebastian Bach, in: Kirchenmusik und Verkündigung – Verkündigung als Kirchenmusik. Zum Verhältnis von Theologie und Kirchenmusik, Eutiner Beiträge zur Musikforschung 4, Eutin 2003, pp. 45–60: 47 Template:De icon

Further reading

  • NBA Neue Bach-Ausgabe, Bärenreiter, 1954 to 2007
  • BWV Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1998
  • Alfred Dürr: Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kantaten. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 (in German)
  • Alfred Dürr: The Cantatas of J.S. Bach, Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-929776-2
  • Christoph Wolff/Ton Koopman: Die Welt der Bach-Kantaten Verlag J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006 ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4 (in German)
  • Werner Neumann: Handbuch der Kantaten J.S.Bachs, 1947, 5th ed. 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
  • Hans-Joachim Schulze: Die Bach-Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig) ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (EVA), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus) (in German)
  • Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. Studi sui testi delle Cantate sacre di J. S. Bach. Università di Padova, pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, vol. XXXI, Padova & Kassel, 1956, xv-291
  • Geoffrey Turner. "Singing The Word: The Cantatas of J S Bach". New Blackfriars, volume 87, issue 1008, pp. 144–154
  • J. C. J. Day. "The texts of Bach's Church cantatas: some observations". German Life and Letters, volume 13 (1960), num. 2, pp. 137–144
  • Harald Streck. Die Verskunst in den poetischen Texten zu den Kantaten J. S. Bachs. Dissertation: Universität Hamburg 1971, 214 pages
  • Walter F. Bischof. The Bach Cantatas University of Alberta 2003–2010
  • Z. Philip Ambrose Texts of the Complete Vocal Works with English Translation and Commentary University of Vermont 2005–2011

Links are found for the individual cantatas:

  • Craig Smith: programme notes, Emmanuel Music
  • Walter F. Bischof: The Bach Cantatas, University of Alberta
  • Z. Philip Ambrose: Texts of the Complete Vocal Works with English Translation and Commentary, University of Vermont
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