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Ich freue mich in dir, BWV 133

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Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in you), BWV 133, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 as a chorale cantata for the Third Day of Christmas and first performed it on 27 December 1724.

History and words

Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the Third Day of Christmas as part of his second annual cycle.[1] The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ is higher than the angels, (Hebrews 1:1–14) and the prologue of the Gospel of John, also called Hymn to the Word (John 1:1–14). The cantata is based on the chorale in four stanzas Ich freue mich in dir (1697) by Caspar Ziegler.[2] It is one of the newest of the chorales which served as a base for the second annual cycle, whereas Bach otherwise preferred the beloved hymns of poets such as Martin Luther and Paul Gerhardt.[3] The unknown poet of the cantata text kept the first and the last stanza, and paraphrased the inner stanzas closely to a sequence of recitative and aria. The text has no reference to the readings nor to the feast of John the Evangelist. Bach first performed the cantata on 27 December 1724.[1]

Bach's successor Johann Friedrich Doles performed the cantata after Bach's death.[3]

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for four soloists, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, a four-part choir, cornett to double the chorale melody, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.[1]

  1. Coro: Ich freue mich in dir
  2. Aria (alto): Getrost! es faßt ein heil'ger Leib
  3. Recitativo (tenor): Ein Adam mag sich voller Schrecken
  4. Aria (soprano): Wie lieblich klingt es in den Ohren
  5. Recitativo (bass): Wohlan, des Todes Furcht und Schmerz
  6. Chorale: Wohlan, so will ich mich

Music

The chorale is sung on a variant of a melody of O Gott, du frommer Gott.[4] This melody was probably new to Bach who noted it in the score of the Sanctus, which he also composed for Christmas in 1724 and later made part of his Mass in B minor. The cornetto plays the cantus firmus with the soprano, the oboes play with violin II and viola, whereas violin 1 "shines above the rest". The lower voices are set mostly in homophony, with the exception of expressing "Der große Gottessohn" (the great son of God). John Eliot Gardiner summarizes: "I find it hard to imagine music that conveys more persuasively the essence, the exuberance and the sheer exhilaration of Christmas than the opening chorus of BWV 133".[5]

The alto aria is accompanied by the two oboi d'amore, the soprano aria by the strings, changing from an even time in the outer sections to a siciliano in the middle section.[3] The tenor recitative is marked adagio twice, once to stress "Der allerhöchste Gotte kehrt selber bei uns ein" (Almighty God Himself here visits us), finally to quote from the chorale in both words and music "Wird er ein kleines Kind und heißt mein Jesulein" (He has become a little child and is called my little Jesus). The cantata is closed by a four-part setting of the last chorale stanza.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Dürr, Alfred (1971). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1. Bärenreiter-Verlag. OCLC 523584.
  2. ^ "Ich freue mich in dir / Text and Translation of Chorale". bach-cantatas.com. 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Christoph Wolff (2000). Chorale Cantatas from the cycle of the Leipzig church cantatas, 1724-25 (III) (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved 15 December 2011. Cite error: The named reference "wolff" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / O Gott, du frommer Gott". bach-cantatas.com. 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  5. ^ John Eliot Gardiner (2006). "Cantatas for the Third Day of Christmas / St Bartholomew's, New York" (PDF). bach-cantatas.com. p. 6. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
  6. ^ Julian Mincham (2010). "Chapter 30 BWV 133 Ich freue mich in dir". jsbachcantatas.com. Retrieved 15 December 2011.

Sources

The first source is the score.

General sources are found for the Bach cantatas. Several databases provide additional information on each single cantata:


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