Bach's first cantata cycle

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Bach's first cantata cycle refers to the church cantatas Johann Sebastian Bach composed for the somewhat less than 60 occasions of the liturgical year of his first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig which required concerted music. That year ran from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1723 to Trinity Sunday of the next year: [1]

Contents

List

1723

  1. Trinity I, 30 May 1723: Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75
  2. Trinity II, 6 June 1723: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76
  3. Trinity III, 13 June 1723: Weimar cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 restaged (third version in C minor)
  4. Trinity IV, 20 June 1723: Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, BWV 24, and Weimar cantata Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BWV 185 restaged
  5. Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 24 June 1723: Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe, BWV 167
  6. Trinity V, 27 June 1723: no extant cantata
  7. Visitation, 2 July 1723: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 (adaptation of BWV 147a, a Weimar cantata for Advent IV) and possibly Magnificat in E-flat major, BWV 243a (early version without Christmas interpolations)
  8. Trinity VI, 4 July 1723: no extant cantata
  9. Trinity VII, 11 July 1723: Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186 (adapted from BWV 186a, a Weimar cantata for Advent III)
  10. Trinity VIII, 18 July 1723: Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136
  11. Trinity IX, 25 July 1723: Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105
  12. Trinity X, 1 August 1723: Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgend ein Schmerz sei, BWV 46
  13. Trinity XI, 8 August 1723: Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BWV 179 and Weimar cantata Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199 restaged (Leipzig version in D minor)
  14. Trinity XII, 15 August 1723: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69a
  15. Trinity XIII, 22 August 1723: Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV 77
  16. Trinity XIV, 29 August 1723: Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe, BWV 25
  17. (30 August 1723, Ratswechsel: not part of the liturgical year, see below)
  18. Trinity XV, 5 September 1723: Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, BWV 138
  19. Trinity XVI, 12 September 1723: Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95
  20. Trinity XVII, 19 September 1723: Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens, BWV 148
  21. Trinity XVIII, 26 September 1723: no extant cantata
  22. St. Michael's Day, 29 September 1723: no extant cantata
  23. Trinity XIX, 3 October 1723: Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen, BWV BWV 48
  24. Trinity XX, 10 October 1723: Weimar cantata Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe, BWV 162 restaged
  25. Trinity XXI, 17 October 1723: Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben, BWV 109
  26. Trinity XXII, 24 October 1723: Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim, BWV 89
  27. Reformation Day, 31 October 1723 (coinciding with Trinity XXIII): possibly Weimar cantata Nur jedem das Seine, BWV 163 restaged; Alternatively an early version of BWV 80/80b?
  28. Trinity XXIV, 7 November 1723: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60
  29. Trinity XXV, 14 November 1723: Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende, BWV 90
  30. Trinity XXVI, 21 November 1723: Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV 70 (adapted from a Weimar Advent II cantata)
  31. Advent I, 28 November 1723: Weimar cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 restaged
  32. Christmas, 25 December 1723: Weimar cantata Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 restaged; Also Magnificat, BWV 243a (including Christmas interpolations) and Sanctus in D major, BWV 238
  33. Second Day of Christmas, 26 December 1723: Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40
  34. Third Day of Christmas, 27 December 1723: Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64

1724

  2. New Year, 1 January 1724: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190 (instrumental parts lost)
  3. Sunday after New Year, 2 January 1724: Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind, BWV 153
  4. Epiphany, 6 January 1724: Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65
  5. Epiphany I, 9 January 1724: Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren, BWV 154
  6. Epiphany II, 16 January 1724: Weimar cantata Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155 restaged
  7. Epiphany III, 23 January 1724: Herr, wie du willt, so schicks mit mir, BWV 73
  8. Epiphany IV, 30 January 1724: Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen? BWV 81
  9. Purification, 2 February 1724: Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde, BWV 83
  10. Septuagesima, 6 February 1724: Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin, BWV 144
  11. Sexagesima, 13 February 1724: Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister, BWV 181 and Weimar cantata Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18 restaged in its Leipzig version (A minor, Kammerton )
  12. Estomihi, 7 February 1723 (Leipzig audition for the post as Thomaskantor) and 20 February 1724 (first cycle): Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22 and Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23 restaged in its first Leipzig version (B minor, four movements)
  13. Annunciation and Palm Sunday 25 March 1724: Siehe eine Jungfrau ist schwanger, BWV 1135 (previously BWV Anh. 199; music lost) [2] and Weimar cantata Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182 restaged. [3]
  14. (Good Friday, 7 April 1724: St John Passion , BWV 245, 1st version — Passion, not considered as a cantata part of the cycle)
  15. Easter, 9 April 1724: early cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4 restaged (Leipzig version); Weimar cantata Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31 restaged (Leipzig version)
  16. Easter Monday, 10 April 1724: Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66
  17. Easter Tuesday, 11 April 1724: Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134
  18. Quasimodogeniti, 16 April 1724: Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67
  19. Misericordias Domini, 23 April 1724: Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104
  20. Jubilate, 30 April 1724: Weimar cantate Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 restaged in a version with a slightly modified instrumentation
  21. Cantate, 7 May 1724: Wo gehest du hin? BWV 166
  22. Rogate, 14 May 1724: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch, BWV BWV 86
  23. Ascension, 18 May 1724: Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37
  24. Exaudi, 21 May 1724: Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44
  25. Pentecost, 28 May 1724: Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 59 and Weimar cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 restaged in its first Leipzig version (D major)
  26. Pentecost Monday, 29 May 1724: no extant cantata [4]
  27. Pentecost Tuesday, 30 May 1724: Erwünschtes Freudenlicht, BWV 184
  28. Trinity, 4 June 1724: Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest, BWV 194, originally a consecration cantata (2 November 1723), restaged in its first Leipzig version

Not a part of the liturgical year:

  1. New council (Ratswechsel), 30 August 17: Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn, BWV 119

Related Research Articles

The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a, was published in 1998.

The year 1723 in music involved some significant events.

Throughout his life as a musician, Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for both secular and sacred use. His church cantatas are cantatas which he composed for use in the Lutheran church, mainly intended for the occasions of the liturgical year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bach cantata</span> Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach

The cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, known as Bach cantatas, are a body of work consisting of over 200 surviving independent works, and at least several dozen that are considered lost. As far as known, Bach's earliest cantatas date from 1707, the year he moved to Mühlhausen, although he may have begun composing them at his previous post in Arnstadt. Most of Bach's church cantatas date from his first years as Thomaskantor and director of church music in Leipzig, a position which he took up in 1723.

<i>Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen</i>, BWV 66 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66.2, BWV 66, is a church cantata for Easter by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the Second Day of Easter in Leipzig and first performed it on 10 April 1724. He based it on his congratulatory cantata Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück, BWV 66.1, first performed in Köthen on 10 December 1718.

SalomonFranck, 6 March 1659 – 11 July 1725), was a German lawyer, scientist, and poet. Franck was working at Weimar at the same time as the composer Johann Sebastian Bach and he was the librettist of some of the best-known Bach cantatas.

<i>Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz</i>, BWV 136 1723 church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136 is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach composed the cantata in 1723 in Leipzig to be used for the eighth Sunday after Trinity. He led the first performance on 18 July 1723.

<i>Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben</i>, BWV 109

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben, BWV 109, in Leipzig for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 17 October 1723.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vox Christi</span>

Vox Christi, Latin for Voice of Christ, is a setting of Jesus' words in a vocal work such as a Passion, an Oratorium or a Cantata. Conventionally, for instance in Protestant music of the Baroque era, the vox Christi is set for a bass voice.

<i>Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen</i>, BWV 65 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1724 in Leipzig for Epiphany and first performed it on 6 January 1724 as part of his first cantata cycle.

There are 52 chorale cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach surviving in at least one complete version. Around 40 of these were composed during his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, which started after Trinity Sunday 4 June 1724, and form the backbone of his chorale cantata cycle. The eldest known cantata by Bach, an early version of Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4, presumably written in 1707, was a chorale cantata. The last chorale cantata he wrote in his second year in Leipzig was Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, first performed on Palm Sunday, 25 March 1725. In the ten years after that he wrote at least a dozen further chorale cantatas and other cantatas that were added to his chorale cantata cycle.

In Johann Sebastian Bach's time, the election or inauguration of a new town council, normally an annual event, was celebrated with a church service. A cantata written for such occasion was indicated with the term Ratswahl or Ratswechsel. Bach composed such cantatas for Mühlhausen and for Leipzig. Five of these cantatas are entirely extant. One further cantata, BWV 193.2, lost part of its music, and there are another five that have only been known to exist, or for which only the text is extant.

Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale cantata cycle is the year-cycle of church cantatas he started composing in Leipzig from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724. It followed the cantata cycle he had composed from his appointment as Thomaskantor after Trinity in 1723.

Picander's cycle of 1728–29 is a cycle of church cantata librettos covering the liturgical year. It was published for the first time in 1728 as Cantaten auf die Sonn- und Fest-Tage durch das gantze Jahr. Johann Sebastian Bach set several of these librettos to music, but it is unknown whether he covered a substantial part of the cycle. This elusive cycle of cantata settings is indicated as the composer's fourth Leipzig cycle, or the Picander cycle.

Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the ducal court in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The composition of cantatas for the Schlosskirche on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to Konzertmeister in March 1714.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church cantatas of Bach's third to fifth year in Leipzig</span>

On Trinity Sunday 27 May 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach had presented the last cantata of his second cantata cycle, the cycle which coincided with his second year in Leipzig. As director musices of the principal churches in Leipzig he presented a variety of cantatas over the next three years. New cantatas for occasions of the liturgical year composed in this period, except for a few in the chorale cantata format, are known as Bach's third cantata cycle. His next cycle of church cantatas, the Picander cycle, did not start before St. John's Day 24 June 1728.

The late church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach are sacred cantatas he composed after his fourth cycle of 1728–29. Whether Bach still composed a full cantata cycle in the last 20 years of his life is not known, but the extant cantatas of this period written for occasions of the liturgical year are sometimes referred to as his fifth cycle, as, according to his obituary, he would have written five such cycles – inasmuch as such cantatas were not late additions to earlier cycles, or were adopted in his oratorios.

References

  1. ↑ Dürr, Alfred; Jones, Richard D. P. (6 July 2006). "Introduction". The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text. OUP Oxford. pp. 22–29. ISBN   978-0-19-929776-4.
  2. ↑ "Siehe eine Jungfrau ist schwanger BWV 1135". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2020-08-24.
  3. ↑ "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen BWV 182". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2020-05-13.
  4. ↑ Tatiana Shabalina "Recent Discoveries in St Petersburg and their Meaning for the Understanding of Bach’s Cantatas" pp. 77-99 in Understanding Bach 4, 2009

Further reading

Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach by chronology
Preceded by Bach's first cantata cycle
1723–24		Succeeded by
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