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Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, BWV 9

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Es ist das Heil uns kommen her
BWV 9
Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
Paul Speratus, author of the chorale
OccasionSixth Sunday after Trinity
Cantata textanonymous
ChoraleEs ist das Heil uns kommen her
Composedbetween 1732 (1732) and 1735: Leipzig
Movements7
VocalSATB choir and solo
Instrumental
  • flauto traverso
  • oboe d'amore
  • 2 violins
  • viola
  • continuo

Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (It is our salvation come here to us),[1] BWV 9,[a] is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the sixth Sunday after Trinity between 1732 and 1735, based on the hymn "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" by Paul Speratus. Bach composed the cantata to fill a gap in his cycle of chorale cantatas written for performances in Leipzig from 1724.

The cantata is structured in seven movements, framed as the earlier chorale cantatas by a chorale fantasia and a chorale four-part setting of the first and the twelfth stanza in the original words by the reformer Speratus, published in the First Lutheran Hymnal. The theme is salvation from sin by God's grace alone. An anonymous librettist paraphrased the content of ten inner stanzas to alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the cantata for a chamber ensemble of four vocal parts, flauto traverso, oboe d'amore, strings and continuo. He gave all three recitatives to the bass, like a sermon interrupted in reflection by a tenor aria with solo violin and a duet of soprano and alto with the wind instruments.

History and words

Bach composed the cantata for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity between 1732 and 1735. It filled a gap in his second annual cycle of chorale cantatas written for performance in Leipzig. In 1724, when he composed the cycle, he had an engagement in Köthen that Sunday, and therefore left the text for later completion.[2] The cantata is based on a hymn "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" by Paul Speratus, which was published in 1524 in the Achtliederbuch, the first Lutheran hymnal. The theme of the chorale is the Lutheran creed of salvation from sin by God's grace alone (justification by faith),[3] summarized in the first stanza: "Deeds can never help, ... faith beholds Jesus Christ, ... He has become the Intercessor".[1]

The prescribed readings for the Sunday are from the Epistle to the Romans, "By Christ's death we are dead for sin" (Romans 6:3–11), and from the Gospel of Matthew a passage from the Sermon on the Mount about better justice than the justice of merely observing laws and rules (Matthew 5:20–26). The hymn in 14 stanzas matches the topic of the gospel.[2] An unknown poet transformed the first 12 stanzas of the chorale to seven cantata movements. Dropping the last two stanzas, he kept stanza 1 as the first and stanza 12 as the last movement, rephrased stanzas 2–4 to a recitative (2), stanzas 5–7 to a recitative (4), stanzas 9–11 to a third recitative (6).[3] Ideas from stanza 8 were made an aria (5), and movement 3 is not derived directly from the chorale, but intensifies the conclusion of the first recitative.[3][4] The three recitatives can be considered a sermon, according among others to Julian Mincham, who comments: "All three speak of God's Laws; their bestowal, their fulfillment (or lack of it) and our attitudes towards them", and who summarizes: "The three recitatives were clearly planned as a cognate group and encapsulate the fundamental Lutheran creed. The two intervening arias, and finally the chorale, reflect upon and extend their statements."[5] Christoph Wolff assumes that the text was written for Bach's 1724 cycle of chorale cantatas by the same librettist.[6]

Bach had used selected stanzas of the hymn before, in 1716 stanza 12 to conclude [[[Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155|Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), in 1723 both stanza 12 and 11 to conclude the two parts of [[[Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186|Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and in 1724 stanza 11 to conclude [[[Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch, BWV 86|Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch, BWV 86]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).

Scoring and structure

The cantata in seven movements is scored for a chamber music ensemble of four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir SATB, flauto traverso (Ft), oboe d'amore (Oa), two violins (Vl), one of them solo (Vs), viola (Va), and basso continuo (Bc).[3][5] The autograph title page reads: "Dominica 6. post Trinitatis / Es ist das Heil uns kommen her / a / 4 Voci / 1 Traversa / 1 Hautb: d'Amour / 2 Violini / Viola / e / Continuo / di / Joh:Sebast:Bach".[7]

In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.[8] The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4).[3] The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements of Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, BWV 9
No. Title Text Type Vocal Key Time
1 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her Speratus Chorale fantasia SATB E major 3/4
2 Gott gab uns ein Gesetz anon. Recitative B common time
3 Wir waren schon zu tief gesunken anon. Aria T E minor 12/16
4 Doch mußte das Gesetz erfüllet werden anon. Recitative B common time
5 Herr, du siehst statt guter Werke anon. Duet aria S A A major 2/4
6 Wenn wir die Sünd aus dem Gesetz erkennen anon. Recitative B common time
7 Ob sichs anließ, als wollt er nicht Speratus Chorale SATB E major common time


Music

1

The opening chorus is a chorale fantasia, the vocal part embedded in a concerto of the instruments. The cantus firmus of the chorale melody is in the soprano in unadorned long notes, while the lower voices engage in imitation. The scoring with the obbligato instruments flute and oboe d'amore in contrast to the strings is unusual, sometimes the first violin takes also part in the concerto.[3][4]

2

All three recitatives are sung by the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ), almost like one sermon, which is only deepened by the two arias in between. The recitatives are secco with the only exception of the final line of movement 4, "... und fest um Jesu Arme schlingt" (... embrace the arms of Jesus),[1] which is rendered arioso,[3] in "an enlightening major key, a tender vocal phrase and the late semi-quaver continuo line".[5]

3

The tenor aria depicts the "sinking" of "Wir waren schon zu tief gesunken" (We were already too deeply sunk)[1] in downward motifs and an irregular rhythm of syncopes, observed by Dürr as an image of "a giddy descent into the abyss of sin".[3][9]

5

The duet "Herr, du siehst statt guter Werke" (Lord, you see, instead of good works)[1] for soprano and alto is made a quintet of also flute, oboe d'amore and continuo. It is set in intricate canonic counterpoint in da capo form.[3]

7

The closing chorale is set for four parts, but with the lower voices in unusual polyphony.[3][4]

Selected recordings

The sortable listing is taken from the selection provided by Aryeh Oron on the Bach-Cantatas website.[10] Recordings have traditionally been made by large symphonic groups (Bach choir and orchestra), but increasingly in historically informed performances by boys' choirs, chorales (Kantorei, choir dedicated to mostly church music), chamber choirs or groups with on voice per part (OVPP), and matching instrumental ensembles playing on Baroque period instruments.

Recordings of Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, BWV 9
Title Conductor / Choir / Orchestra Soloists Label Year Choir type Orch. type
J. S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk • Complete Cantatas • Les Cantates, Folge / Vol. 3 Gustav Leonhardt
King's College Choir
Leonhardt-Consort
Teldec 1972 (1972) Chamber Period
Bach Cantatas Vol. 4 – Sundays after Trinity I Karl Richter
Münchener Bach-Chor
Münchener Bach-Orchester
Archiv Produktion 1977 (1977) Bach Bach
Die Bach Kantate Vol. 8 Helmuth Rilling
Gächinger Kantorei
Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Hänssler 1984 (1984) Chorale Chamber
J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 9, 94 & 187 Sigiswald Kuijken
La Petite Bande
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 1999 (1999) OVPP Period
Bach Edition Vol. 14 – Cantatas Vol. 7 Pieter Jan Leusink
Holland Boys Choir
Netherlands Bach Collegium
Brilliant Classics 2000 (2000) Boys Period
J.S. Bach: Cantatas Trinity Cantatas 4 Ansbach/Haddinton For the 6th Sunday after Trinity For the 7th Sunday after Trinity John Eliot Gardiner
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
Archiv Produktion 2000 (2000) Chamber Period
J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 20 Ton Koopman
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
Antoine Marchand 2002 Chamber Period
J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 53 Masaaki Suzuki
Bach Collegium Japan
BIS 2012 (2012) Chamber Period


Notes

  1. ^ "BWV" is Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, a thematic catalogue of Bach's works.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 9 – Es ist das Heil uns kommen her". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  2. ^ a b Hofmann, Klaus (2012). "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her / (Salvation Has Come Unto Us), BWV 9" (PDF). bach-cantatas.com. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dürr, Alfred (1981). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1 (4 ed.). Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag. pp. 366–368. ISBN 3-423-04080-7.
  4. ^ a b c Leonard, James (2011). "Cantata No. 9, "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her," BWV 9". Allmusic. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 58 BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her / Salvation has now come to us". jsbachcantatas.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  6. ^ Wolff, Christoph (2002). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-393-32256-9.
  7. ^ Grob, Jochen (2014). "BWV 9 / BC A 107" (in German). s-line.de. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  8. ^ Bischof, Walter F. "BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her". University of Alberta. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  9. ^ Quinn, John (2009). "Bach: Cantatas Vol 4 / Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists". arkivmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  10. ^ Oron, Aryeh (2015). "Cantata BWV 9 Es ist das Heil uns kommen her". bach-cantatas.com. Retrieved 12 July 2015.

Sources

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