Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren | |
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BWV 154 | |
Church cantata by J. S. Bach | |
Occasion | First Sunday after Epiphany |
Bible text | Luke2:49 |
Chorale | |
Performed | 9 January 1724 : Leipzig |
Movements | 7 |
Vocal |
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Instrumental |
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Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren (My dearest Jesus is lost), [1] BWV 154, [lower-alpha 1] is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the first Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it in Leipzig on 9 January 1724.
Bach performed the cantata in 1724, his first year in Leipzig on the First Sunday after Epiphany. The musicologist Alfred Dürr assumes that it was written already in Weimar, [2] whereas John Eliot Gardiner shares this view only for movements 1, 4 and 7. [3] The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the Epistle to the Romans, speaking of the duties of a Christian (Romans12:1–6), and from the Gospel of Luke, the finding in the Temple (Luke2:41–52). The unknown poet takes the parents' search for the lost Jesus as the starting point to depict the general situation of man who lost Jesus. Movements 1 and 2 lament this loss. Movement 3 is a chorale, stanza 2 of "Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne" by Martin Janus (or Jahn), [4] asking Jesus to return. Movement 4 asks the same question in a personal aria. The answer is given by the bass, the vox Christi (voice of Christ), in the words of the Gospel "Wisset ihr nicht, daß ich sein muß in dem, das meines Vaters ist?" (Do you not know that I must be in that which is My Father's? Luke2:49). The joy of the finding is expressed paraphrasing from the Song of Songs "The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills"(Song of Solomon2:8). The cantata ends with stanza 6 of Christian Keymann's chorale " Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht ". [2] [5]
Bach performed the cantata first year on 9 January 1724. [2]
Similar to the Weimar cantatas, the work is scored for alto, tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir for the chorales only, two oboes d'amore, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The cantata is structured in eighth movements. [2]
In the three arias Bach sets extreme affekts to music: desperate lament, intense longing and blissful joy. The first aria is based on an ostinato continuo, comparable to the opening of Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 . First the violin, then the tenor perform an expressive melody and repeat it several times. The contrasting middle section is underlined by tremolos in the strings in daring harmonies. John Eliot Gardiner remarked in connection with his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, that on the words "O Donnerwort in meinen Ohren" (O thunderous word in my ears), [1] "it contains a graphic evocation of ear drumming". [3] The second aria is accompanied by the two oboes d'amore and the violins and viola in unison, without continuo. Similar to the soprano aria Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben in Bach's St Matthew Passion , the lack of foundation portrays fragility and innocence. The joy of the finding is expressed in a duet of alto and tenor in homophonic vocal lines of parallel thirds and sixths. It is in three parts, the third not a da capo of the first, but an affirmative conclusion in a faster 3/8 time.
Movement 3 is a four-part setting of Johann Schop's tune of " Werde munter, mein Gemüte " (1642), which became famous as part of Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 , and was also used in movement 40 of the St. Matthew Passion. The closing chorale is a four-part setting of a 1658 tune by Andreas Hammerschmidt. [2]
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Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Quasimodogeniti, the first Sunday after Easter, and first performed it on 16 April 1724.
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Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind, BWV 153, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the Sunday after New Year's Day and first performed it on 2 January 1724.
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Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, BWV 98, in Leipzig for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 10 November 1726.
Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for Epiphany and first performed it on 6 January 1725. It is based on the hymn by Ahasverus Fritsch (1679).
Christian Keymann was a German hymnwriter. He is known for writing the chorale "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht" in 1658, which served as the base for Bach's chorale cantata Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht, BWV 124, and other compositions.
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In allen meinen Taten, BWV 97, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig in 1734 for an unspecified occasion. The text consists of the unchanged words of the hymn by Paul Fleming (1642).
Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen, BWV 87, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Rogate, the fifth Sunday after Easter, and first performed it on 6 May 1725.
Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWV 157, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig in 1726/27 to a libretto by Picander. The first known performance was on 6 February 1727 during a memorial service for Johann Christoph von Ponickau in Pomßen near Leipzig. The work was later assigned to the feast of the Purification celebrated on 2 February.
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