Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen

Last updated
Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen
Church cantata by Georg Philipp Telemann
Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen, TWV 1-884, first page of bass part (DK-Kk mu 6510.0136 manuscript).png
First page of bass part (DK-Kk mu 6510.0136 manuscript) [1]
Catalogue TWV 1:884
Occasion 21st Sunday after Trinity
Writtenc. 1700
Textby Erdmann Neumeister
LanguageGerman
Composed1710s
Scoring
  • bass
  • violin
  • continuo

Georg Philipp Telemann composed the church cantata Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen (I will gladly walk the Cross way), TWV 1:884, for bass, violin and continuo for the 21st Sunday after Trinity. He used a text by Erdmann Neumeister.

Contents

History

1718 depiction of the interior of the Barfusserkirche Barfusserkirche 1718.jpg
1718 depiction of the interior of the Barfüßerkirche

Telemann composed the cantata while he was church musician in Frankfurt at the Barfüßerkirche and Katharinenkirche, beginning in 1712. When he applied for the post he described his voice as not tenor, not bass. Many of his church cantatas are written for a high bass, possibly written for himself, including Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen. [2]

Erdmann Neumeister wrote the text of the cantata as part of his first year-cycle of cantata librettos, which was, around 1700, first set by Johann Philipp Krieger, court Kapellmeister in Weissenfels. [3] [4] Although the entire cycle was set by several composers, only a few isolated cantatas with a text from the cycle survive. All of Krieger's settings are lost, and from Telemann, who likely also set the entire cycle, only seven cantatas on its librettos are extant. Other than that, the only surviving settings of the cycle's librettos are a few by Johann Kuhnau, and a single one by Emanuel Kegel. [3]

The cantata text of Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen, as used by Telemann, was printed in 1705. [1] [5] [6] Neumeister's text for this cantata possibly inspired the anonymous poetry for Bach's Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 . [7] [8] Neumeister's libretto and its setting by Telemann are intended for the 21st Sunday after Trinity. [9] Telemann's setting was published in a critical edition by Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig, now distributed by Breitkopf, edited by Walter Heinz Bernstein and Wolf Hobohm. [3] [10]

Music

Telemann structured the composition in five movements, alternating arias and recitatives: [7]

  1. Aria "Ich will den Keuzweg gerne gehen"
  2. Recitative "Ach, wer die Frucht des Kreuzes nur bedachte"
  3. Aria "Ich küsse die Rute mit freudigem Mute"
  4. Recitative "Und zwar, was sag ich weiter"
  5. Aria "Ach, mein Heiland, würd ich doch morgen"

In the first aria, the singer is ready to take part in the way of the Cross. The German Kreuzweg means specifically the Stations of the Cross, but more generally a path following Jesus. The recitative, "Ah, whoever reflected the fruit of the Cross", expands that being Christian is connected to bearing hardship. A line from the hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" is quoted in text and melody.

The central aria, in a major key, begins with an exalted acceptance of hardship and punishment, "I kiss the whip with joyful courage". It claims that the "myrrhs of the pains are sugar to the heart". [7] The second recitative expresses the hope that the "cross is my ladder to heaven". [7] The concluding aria turns to longing for death as a way to Heaven, "Ah, my Saviour, if only I would [be lifted to Heaven] tomorrow". The singer expects "yes" ("Ja") to the question if the hour of departure will be soon. For this final line, the music is lively, and the hoped-for "yes" is repeated several times, the last time after a rest, and in low register. [7]

Performances and recordings

Performance in a cantata service at the Dreikonigskirche, Frankfurt, by Johannes Hill and the Telemann Ensemble, on 21 March 2021 during the COVID-19 epidemic Telemann Cantata Kreuzweg, Dreikonigskirche, Frankfurt.jpg
Performance in a cantata service at the Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt, by Johannes Hill and the Telemann Ensemble, on 21 March 2021 during the COVID-19 epidemic

The cantata was first recorded in 2009 [2] by bass Klaus Mertens with the ensemble Accademia Daniel conducted by Shalev Ad-El from the keyboard, [7] in a collection of five church cantatas by Telemann titled Passion Cantatas. [2] [7] [11] Peter Kooy was the soloist, with the ensemble L'Armonia Sonora, for a recording in 2017 as part of the album Telemann: Die stille Nacht of solo cantatas, arias and chamber music by Telemann. [12] The cantata was performed in a series of cantata services at the Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt on 21 March 2021 during the COVID-19 epidemic, with Johannes Hill as the singer and the Telemann Ensemble Frankfurt. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Philipp Telemann</span> German Baroque composer (1681–1767)

Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving oeuvre. Telemann was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally.

<i>Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt</i>, BWV 18 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18, is an early church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for the Sunday Sexagesimae, the second Sunday before Lent, likely by 1713.

<i>Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen</i>, BWV 56 Church cantata by J.S. Bach

Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, is a church cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach for the 19th Sunday after Trinity. It was first performed in Leipzig on 27 October 1726. The composition is a solo cantata because, apart from the closing chorale, it requires only a single vocal soloist. The autograph score is one of a few cases where Bach referred to one of his compositions as a cantata. In English, the work is commonly referred to as the Kreuzstab cantata. Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year as Thomaskantor; it is regarded as part of his third cantata cycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erdmann Neumeister</span> German Lutheran pastor and hymnologist

Erdmann Neumeister was a German Lutheran pastor and hymnologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cantata Cycle 1716–1717 (Telemann)</span> Series of cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann

The Cantata Cycle 1716–1717 is a series of cantatas written by Georg Philipp Telemann while he was Frankfurt's Director of Municipal Music. In addition to composing music for civic occasions, he conducted and composed for several churches in the city, including the Katharinenkirche and the Barfüßerkirche where he was Kapellmeister. During his time in Frankfurt (1712–1721), he composed five new year-long cycles of sacred music for the Sundays and holy days of the ecclesiastical calendar. He also completed several cycles which he had begun earlier in Eisenach where he had been the leader of the court singers. After taking up his post in Hamburg in 1721, he continued to supply Frankfurt with cantata cycles—one complete cycle every three years, as part of an arrangement to maintain his citizenship of that city.

<i>Uns ist ein Kind geboren</i>, BWV 142

Uns ist ein Kind geboren, BWV 142 / Anh. II 23, is a Christmas cantata by an unknown composer. In the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis it is listed among the works with a doubtful attribution to Johann Sebastian Bach. The text is based on a libretto by Erdmann Neumeister first published in 1711. Although attributed to Bach by the Bach-Gesellschaft when they first published it in the late nineteenth century, that attribution was questioned within thirty years and is no longer accepted. Johann Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, has been suggested as the probable composer, but without any certainty.

As Thomaskantor, Johann Sebastian Bach provided Passion music for Good Friday services in Leipzig. The extant St Matthew Passion and St John Passion are Passion oratorios composed by Bach.

<i>Der Tod Jesu</i> Oratorio libretto by Karl Wilhelm Ramler

Der Tod Jesu is an oratorio libretto by Karl Wilhelm Ramler. In its setting by Carl Heinrich Graun in 1755, it was the most often performed Passion of the 18th century in Germany.

<i>Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen</i>, BWV 145 Church cantata by Bach (1729)

Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen, BWV 145, is a five-movement church cantata on a libretto by Picander which Johann Sebastian Bach, as its composer, probably first performed in Leipzig on Easter Tuesday, 19 April 1729. As a seven-movement pasticcio, with one of the added movements composed by Georg Philipp Telemann, it is an Easter cantata known as So du mit deinem Munde bekennest Jesum or as Auf, mein Herz!.

Das ist je gewißlich wahr, TWV 1:183, is a cantata by Georg Philipp Telemann. Due to an erroneous attribution to Johann Sebastian Bach, it appears in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) as No. 141, but was moved to Anhang III, the Appendix of spurious works, in the 1990s second edition of that catalogue.

Ich weiß, daß mein Erlöser lebt, TWV 1:877, BWV 160, is a church cantata composed around 1725 by Georg Philipp Telemann for Easter Sunday, formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Gott der Hoffnung erfülle euch, TWV 1:634, BWV 218, is a church cantata by Georg Philipp Telemann formerly credited to Johann Sebastian Bach. It was composed for Whit Sunday in Eisenach in 1717, with text by Erdmann Neumeister. The closing chorale is the first stanza of Martin Luther's hymn for Pentecost "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist".

Siehe, es hat überwunden der Löwe, TWV 1:1328, BWV 219, is a church cantata by Georg Philipp Telemann, written for Michaelmas in 1723. Formerly the cantata was accredited to Johann Sebastian Bach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melchior Hoffmann (composer)</span> German composer

Georg Melchior Hoffmann was a Baroque composer who was influential as the leader at the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. Some of his compositions have been mistaken for those of Johann Sebastian Bach.

<i>Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt</i> Pasticcio Passion oratorio

Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt is a pasticcio Passion oratorio based on compositions by Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach and others. The pasticcio was assembled around 1750.

The Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis, abbreviated TWV, is the numbering system identifying compositions by Georg Philipp Telemann, published by musicologist Martin Ruhnke.

<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.

In music, a dictum is a type of libretto for a church cantata consisting of quotes from sacred scripture.

<i>Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied</i>, TWV 1:1342–1345

There are four church cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann sharing the title Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied:

References

  1. 1 2 RISM   150204801
  2. 1 2 3 Sealey, Mark (May 2009). "Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) / Passion Cantatas". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) / Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen". Breitkopf. 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  4. ↑ Krausse 1986, p. 22.
  5. ↑ RISM   230001352
  6. ↑ Neumeister, Erdmann (1705). "Ein und zwanzigster Trinitatis" [Twenty-first (Sunday after) Trinity]. Geistliche Cantaten, Über alle Sonn- Fest- und Apostel-Tage [Sacred Cantatas, for all Sun-, Feast- and Apostle-days] (in German). Halle in Magdeburg: Renger. pp. 121–123.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Veen, Johan van (2009). "Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 - 1767): "Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen - Passion Cantatas"". musica-dei-donum.org. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  8. ↑ Krausse 1986, pp. 22–23.
  9. ↑ "Georg Philipp Telemann, Catalogue TWV 01: Cantates d'église, Temps de la Pentecôte". musiqueorguequebec.com (in French). Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  10. ↑ DNB-IDN   357086449
  11. ↑ "Cantata for bass, violin and b.c. TWV.1, no.884, "Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen"". muziekweb.nl. 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "Georg Philipp Telemann / Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen, sacred cantata for voice, violin & continuo, TWV 1:884". AllMusic . Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  13. ↑ Köhs, Andreas (January 2021). "Jahresprogramm 2021 – 1. Halbjahr / Sonntag, 21.03.2021, 10:00 Uhr". andreas-koehs.de. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.