Lost council election cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach

Last updated

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 (council election) or Ratswechsel (council change). Bach composed such cantatas for Mühlhausen and for Leipzig. Five of these cantatas (BWV 71, 119, 120.1, 29 and 69.2) are entirely extant. [1] One further cantata, BWV 193.2, lost part of its music, [2] and there are another five that have only been known to exist (two for Mühlhausen), [3] [4] or for which only the text is extant (three for Leipzig). [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Bach worked in Mühlhausen from 1707 to 1708. His first council election cantata for that town was performed and printed in 1708. Two further works for council election in Mühlhausen, BWV  1138.1 (in 1709) and 1138.2 (in 1710) are documented. These latter works are entirely lost, in contrast to the first, BWV 71, of which both Bach's autograph and the contemporary print survive. [8] [9] During Bach's tenure as director musices in Leipzig, from 1723 to 1750, there were 27 instances where he had to provide music for the council election occasion. [10] For 20 of these instances no music is known to be extant: the librettos of three cantatas, BWV 1139.1 (programmed in 1725 and 1751), 1140 (programmed in 1730) and 1141 (programmed in 1740), did however survive. [5] [6] [7] Picander was the author of the first two of these librettos. [5] [6]

Mühlhausen

St. Mary's Church, Muhlhausen Thueringen-Muehlhausen-Kirche-St-Marien bearbeitet.jpg
St. Mary's Church, Mühlhausen

On 1 July 1707 Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the position of organist in the Blasiuskirche (Divi Blasii), one of two major churches in Mühlhausen. [11] In that town, the council election cantata was performed on 4 February in the other major church, the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church), with a repeat performance of the work in the Blasiuskirche on the first Sunday after the day of the première. [12] Customarily, the music and text of that cantata were printed on the town council's expenses. [13] [14]

Notwithstanding that Bach had left for a new position in Weimar in the second half of June 1708, he kept in contact with his former employers at Mühlhausen, for instance supervising the remodelling of the organ of the Blasiuskirche according to his design, which was not completed until 1709, and also writing two more council election cantatas for the town. [14] [15] [16] Both text and music of these cantatas are lost, not even their title is known. [14] [17]

Extant
Lost
  • 1709: second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh.  192) [3]
  • 1710: third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2 (formerly BWV deest) [4]

Second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (Anh. 192)

Bach's lost second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192), was composed for 4 February 1709. [1] [3] [18]

Third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2

Bach's lost third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2, was composed for 4 February 1710. [4] [19]

Leipzig

Statue of Bach at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig Vxla-jsbach-at-nikolaikirche.jpg
Statue of Bach at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig

Bach was director musices of Leipzig's principal churches from late May 1723 until his death in July 1750. [10] [20] [21] In that town the council election service was held at the Nikolaikirche (St Nicholas Church) on the Monday following Bartholomew (Bartholomäus), 24 August. [10] [22] From 1723 to 1749 that were 27 occasions where Bach had to provide the music for this service. [10] Four entirely extant cantatas cover, as far as known, only half a dozen of these occasions (1723, 1729 or earlier, 1731, 1739, 1748 and 1749). [23] [24] [25] [26] Another, partially lost, council election cantata was performed in 1727. [2] For the 20 other occasions no music has been known to survive, although in a few instances (1725, 1730, 1740 and 1741), at least the libretto of the council election cantata is extant. [5] [6] [7]

Extant
Philipp Spitta, Bach's 19th-century biographer, surmised that Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, a chorale cantata for Trinity XII, was performed as a council election cantata on 25 August 1732. [27] [28] According to later research, the cantata was first performed on 19 August 1725 (as part of Bach's chorale cantata cycle), while Spitta's hypothesis of a 1732 performance as council election cantata could not be proved. [29]
Music partially lost
Only text extant
  • Wünschet Jerusalem Glück, BWV 1139.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 4), 27 August 1725 and 28 August 1741 (libretto by Picander). [5]
  • Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige, BWV 1140 (formerly BWV Anh. 3), 28 August 1730 (libretto by Picander). [6]
  • Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (formerly BWV Anh. 193), 28 August 1740. [7]

Wünschet Jerusalem Glück, BWV 1139.1 (Anh. 4)

An extant contemporary print of the libretto, recovered in the first decade of the 21st century, shows that the council election cantata Wünschet Jerusalem Glück (Wish luck to Jerusalem), BWV 1139.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 4), was first performed on 27 August 1725. [5] [30] The recovered text has these sections, which are assumed to have been the movements of Bach's composition:

Movements of BWV 1139.1 (1725 print) [31] [32]
#IncipitType
1Wünschet Jerusalem Glück Dictum
2Rühm' und lobe, sing' und preise Aria
3Gott Lob! Der Herr hat viel an uns gethan!(Recitative)
4Der Höchste steh uns ferner bey Arioso
5Herrscher aller SeraphinenAria
6Herr, weihe selbst das Regiment(Recitative)
7Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich Chorale

The opening dictum is the German version of Psalm 122:6–7: [33]

The closing chorale is the two-stanza variant of the "Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich" hymn: Bach's extant four-part settings of this text, BWV 42/7 and 126/6, are based on the Zahn 1945 hymn tune. [34] [35] Picander, the author of the BWV 1139.1 libretto, published it in 1729, however without the second recitative, and with a minor adjustment in the text of the third movement. [36] [37]

A variant version of the cantata, BWV 1139.2 (formerly BWV Anh. 4a) was performed on 27 June 1730, as last of three cantatas Bach performed for the 200th Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. [38] [39] Likely that version of the cantata, which is also lost apart from its libretto, shared the music of only three movements with the 1725 council election cantata. [38] [39]

Another performance of BWV 1139.1 as council election cantata is documented for 28 August 1741. [5] [38] According to the libretto published in the Nützliche Nachrichten of 1741, the cantata was then performed in a six-movement version, that is, without the central arioso movement of the first version, but including the "Herr, weihe selbst das Regiment" recitative. [38] [40] [41] [42]

Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige, BWV 1140 (Anh. 3)

Picander published his libretto Cantata auf die Raths-Wahl zu Leipzig, 1730 (Cantata on the council election at Leipzig, 1730) in 1732. [6] [43] Bach's lost setting of that libretto, Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige (God, give now thy judgement unto the King), BWV 1140 (formerly BWV Anh. 3), had been performed on 28 August 1730. [6] [44] Picander's text has these sections: [43] [45]

Movements of BWV 1140 (1732 publication) [46] [47]
#IncipitType
1Gott, gieb Dein Gerichte dem Könige(Dictum)
2Höchster, zeige Dein GerichteAria
3Herr Zebaoth, Du bist getreu(Recitative and chorale)
4Wir schauen Wir bauenAria
5Darum verleih, Daß unser Regiment geruhig sey(Recitative and chorale)

The opening dictum quotes the first two verses of Psalm 72: [22] [48]

The chorale lines figuring in the third and fifth movements are: [45] [46] [47]

(from third movement:)
...
Sprich Ja zu seinen Thaten.
...
Hilff selbst das Beste rathen.
...
Anfang, Fortgang, und Ende
O! Herr, zum Besten wende.

(from fifth movement:)
...
Mit Segen uns beschütte,
...
Das Hertz sey Deine Hütte.
...
Laß uns das Labsal speisen;
...
Biß wir gen Himmel reisen.

These are reworked from the last two stanzas of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe": [22]

Bach's extant setting of precisely these two stanzas of Gerhardt's hymn, in the last movement of his cantata Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest, BWV 194.2, [49] is based on Nikolaus Selnecker's hymn tune, Zahn 159, for Ludwig Helmbold's hymn "Nun laßt uns Gott dem Herren". [50]

Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (Anh. 193)

The libretto of the lost council election cantata for 28 August 1740, Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (formerly BWV Anh. 193), was published in the Nützliche Nachrichten of 1740, under this header: [7] [51] [52] [53]

The libretto, the author of which is unknown, has these sections: [56]

Movements of BWV 1141 (1740) [55] [57]
#IncipitType
1Herrscher des Himmels, König der EhrenChorus
2Gott, welcher selbst Regenten setzt(Recitative)
3Gerechte müßen wie PalmenAria
4Gesegnete, beglückte Stadt(Recitative)
5Dancke Gott, daß er in SegenAria
6So sencke doch, o Höchster, Geist und Kraft(Recitative)
7Es falle ietzt auf uns dein himmliches FeuerChorus

The music of the closing movement may have been an adaptation of the chorus that closes the Hunting Cantata (Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208), composed nearly three decades earlier. [7] [58]

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.

<i>Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben</i>, BWV 8 Church cantata by J.S. Bach

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?, BWV 8, is a church cantata for the 16th Sunday after Trinity by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is a chorale cantata, part of Bach's second cantata cycle. Bach performed it for the first time on 24 September 1724 in St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. The cantata is scored for SATB singers, four wind instruments, strings and continuo.

<i>Meine Seel erhebt den Herren</i>, BWV 10 Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

In 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, as part of his second cantata cycle. Taken from Martin Luther's German translation of the Magnificat canticle, the title translates as "My soul magnifies the Lord". Also known as Bach's German Magnificat, the work follows his chorale cantata format.

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.

<i>Gott ist mein König</i>, BWV 71 1708 cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

Gott ist mein König, BWV 71, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach written in Mühlhausen when the composer was 22 years old. Unusually for an early cantata by Bach, the date of first performance is known: at the inauguration of a new town council on 4 February 1708.

<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>Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält</i>, BWV 1128

Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält is a chorale fantasia for organ composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 18th century, likely between 1705 and 1710. The Zahn 4441a hymn tune for Justus Jonas's 1524 hymn "Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält", a paraphrase of Psalm 124, is the basis of the composition.

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>Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde</i>, BWV 201 Bach cantata, BWV 201

Geschwinde, geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde, BWV 201, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, on a libretto by Picander. It is a dramma per musica, likely composed for a public performance in 1729, around which time its oldest extant printed libretto was published. The text, titled Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan, is based on the "Ears of a Donkey" story in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and mocks unsophisticated music in favour of a more intelligent composition style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bach's early cantatas</span>

Johann Sebastian Bach started composing cantatas around 1707, when he was still an organist in Arnstadt. The first documented performances of his work took place in Mühlhausen, where he was appointed in 1708.

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.

Late church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach refers to 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Vetter</span> German organist and composer (1657–1721)

Daniel Vetter was an organist and composer of the German Baroque era.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mincham 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ihr Tore zu Zion BWV 193.2; BWV 193". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  3. 1 2 3 "Zweite Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.1; BWV Anh. 192". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2018-08-07.
  4. 1 2 3 "Dritte Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.2". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2018-07-31.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Wünschet Jerusalem Glück BWV 1139.1; BWV Anh. 4". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-04-30.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige BWV 1140; BWV Anh. 3". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren BWV 1141; BWV Anh. 193". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-31.
  8. ↑ Wolff 2002.
  9. 1 2 "Gott ist mein König BWV 71". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Neumann 1962, pp. 52–53.
  11. ↑ Wolff 2002, pp.  103–104.
  12. ↑ Wolff 2002, pp.  109–110.
  13. 1 2 Wolff 2002, pp.  110–111.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Emans & Hiemke 2015, pp.  227–228.
  15. ↑ Wolff 2002, pp.  111–112.
  16. ↑ Eidam 2001.
  17. ↑ Wolff 2002, p.  111.
  18. ↑ Fröde 1992, p. 85.
  19. ↑ Fröde 1992, p. 87.
  20. ↑ Spitta 1899, II, pp.  184–187.
  21. ↑ Bach, Johann Sebastian at Bach Digital website.
  22. 1 2 3 Schering 1933, p. 51.
  23. 1 2 "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn BWV 119". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-05-21.
  24. 1 2 "Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille BWV 120.1; BWV 120". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-05-21.
  25. 1 2 "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir BWV 29". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2020-04-16.
  26. 1 2 "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 69.2; BWV 69". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  27. ↑ Spitta 1899, III, pp.  455–456.
  28. ↑ Spitta 1880, pp.  286–287.
  29. ↑ "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren BWV 137". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  30. ↑ Schabalina 2008, pp. 63, 91.
  31. ↑ Schabalina 2008, pp. 62, 91–92.
  32. 1 2 Ambrose 2020, XVIa (BWV Anh. 4) Wünschet Jerusalem Glück.
  33. ↑ Schabalina 2008, pp. 62, 91.
  34. ↑ "Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich BWV 42/7". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-05-22.
  35. ↑ "Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich BWV 126/6". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-05-24.
  36. ↑ Schabalina 2008, pp. 62, 64.
  37. ↑ Picander 1729.
  38. 1 2 3 4 Schabalina 2008, p. 64.
  39. 1 2 "Wünschet Jerusalem Glück BWV 1139.2; BWV Anh. 4a". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  40. ↑ Spitta 1899, II, pp.  469–470.
  41. ↑ Spitta 1880, p.  299.
  42. ↑ Nützliche Nachrichten 1741.
  43. 1 2 Picander 1732.
  44. ↑ Fröde 1994, p. 13.
  45. 1 2 Schering 1933, pp. 50–51.
  46. 1 2 Lyrics of "Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige BWV 1140; BWV Anh. 3". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-11.
  47. 1 2 Ambrose 2020, XI (BWV Anh. 3) Gott, gieb Dein Gerichte dem Könige.
  48. ↑ Psalmen 72:1–20 (Lutherbibel 1545) at biblia.com
  49. ↑ Lyrics of "Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest (Störmthal version) BWV 194.2". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-10-22.
  50. ↑ "Nun lasst uns Gott dem Herren BWV 194.2/12". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-05-24.
  51. ↑ Fröde 1994, p. 69.
  52. ↑ Neumann 1962, pp. 53–54.
  53. ↑ Nützliche Nachrichten 1740.
  54. ↑ Neumann 1962, p. 54.
  55. 1 2 Ambrose 2020, V (BWV Anh. 193) Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren.
  56. ↑ Neumann 1962, pp. 54–55.
  57. ↑ Lyrics of "Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren BWV 1141; BWV Anh. 193". Bach Digital . Leipzig: Bach Archive; et al. 2019-03-31.
  58. ↑ Neumann 1962, pp. 55–57.

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.