(a) The recorders play a dotted rhythm which in both the St. Eduard van Hengel illustrates this extremely well with two diagrams on his website, which I am copying here with his permission:
The instrumental groups (recorders, oboes, strings, and continuo) represent four musical themes referring to these chorales.
#Youtunes bach 78 cantata plus#
However the orchestra greatly enhances the meaning of Bach’s message by referring to this chorale plus two others. It is the same as chorale fantasias in previous chorale cantatas in the sense that the six lines of text of the chorale Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott appear in six sections, with the chorale melody (the cantus firmus) in the soprano and trumpet part. Is this Bach’s way of saying: this is the end of an important series?Ĭompared to all opening choruses that had come before, this opening chorus is the most complex and intricate. It is striking to me that he chooses a bass recitative/arioso with trumpet talking about the Day of Judgement, a similar combination of voice, instrument, and subject matter he uses at the end of the Trinity period in 1723, and again (though less dramatically) at the end of the Trinity period in 1724. So perhaps Bach wanted to “go out with a bang” for that reason. If it is true that Andreas Stübel had been Bach’s librettist for his entire chorale cantata cycle, Bach would have now known that this was the last regular chorale cantata of the cycle for now: Stübel died on January 31, 1725.So Bach might have wished to leave his audience with something special, something they would remember for 41 days. In 1724 this period was 33 days, but in 1725 it was 41 days (from February 11 to March 25). No figural music (only chorale singing) was allowed in the Lutheran churches in Leipzig during Lent (the approximately 40 days before Easter), with the exception of the Annunciation. Nicholas churches) would not hear any of Bach’s music until March 25, on the feast of the Annunciation of Mary. After this Sunday, his audience (=the Leipzig congregations of the St.In 1724 he would repeat the same cantatas on this same Sunday. This was the day, in 1723, on which he had auditioned for his job in Leipzig, with Cantatas 22 and 23, his first performance ever for the Leipzig congregation and city council.There are several reasons why this last Sunday before Lent, or Quinquagesima Sunday or Estomihi Sunday, was such an important day for Bach, and maybe especially in 1725: įind the text of Cantata 127 here, and the score here. My favorite recording of this cantata is now Herreweghe’s live recording from January 31, 2021. Eduard van Hengel calls it an “exceptionally inspired cantata,” 19th century Bach biographer Spitta called it “perhaps the most important” cantata, and it received “the most beautiful” qualification by Arnold Schering as well as Ton Koopman. I’m not alone in my appreciation of C antata 127 Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott. The soprano aria from this cantata is forever linked in my heart and mind with the funeral service for my mother in this same Kloosterkerk in The Hague ( read a bit more about that in this post), but having carefully listened to about 120 cantatas over the past two years I am struck by how special this cantata is within Bach’s oeuvre. However, Cantata 127 Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, today’s cantata from 1725, will probably always be in it. A hard question to answer, and I would probably have a different Top Five every month. What are your five favorite cantatas? This question was asked this week on Facebook by the Residentie Bach Ensembles, the choirs and orchestra of the monthly cantata services in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague, the Netherlands.
This church is also the site of the monthly cantata services performed by the Residentie Bach Ensembles. Kloosterkerk, The Hague, The Netherlands, where Caroline Stam sang the aria from Cantata 127 during my mother’s funeral service in 2010.
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