Easter Tuesday is the third day of Easter. In Bach's time, major church festivals were celebrated on three consecutive days instead of two. There are three cantatas for this day.
Readings:
Acts 13:26–33, sermon of St. Paul in Antiochia
Luke 24:36–47, the appearance of Jesus to the Apostles in Jerusalem
Cantata Studies:
Bach Cantatas Website | Simon Crouch | Emmanuel Music | Julian Mincham | Wikipedia | Eduard van Hengel (in Dutch) | Bach Companion (Oxford U.P.) | Bach: The Learned Musician (Wolff) | Music in the Castle of Heaven (Gardiner)
[Raphael, 1499-1502]
Cantatas:
- Der Friede sei mit dir, BWV 158, after 1723
Rezitativ Bass: Der Friede sei mit dir
Arie Bass und Choral Soprano: Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde
Rezitativ und Arioso Bass: Nun, Herr, regiere meinen Sinn
Choral: Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm
"Peace be with you"
Text and translation
Scored for soprano and bass vocal soloists, four-part choir, oboe, violin, and basso continuo.
Was this piece composed for the third day of Easter or for the Purification? The music survives only in a copy that refers to both occasions. The fact that the words of the 2nd and 3rd movements are about Simeon argues for the Purification, which celebrates the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. According to Luke, the pious Simeon held the newborn Jesus in his arms, fulfilling the prophecy and allowing Simeon to die in peace (Bach composed his beautiful cantata Ich habe genung about this event). In favor of Easter, however, is the final chorale, which is a true Easter hymn (Luther's 1524 hymn Christ lag in Todesbanden). Moreover, the title of the work (and of the first recitative), Der Friede sei mit dir, is Christ's greeting at his appearance to the disciples (John 20:21 and 26), which appears in the Gospel reading for the Sunday after Easter (but not: Third Easter!). Given this background, and the fact that it was copied by Christian Friedrich Penzel, one of Bach's last pupils, there is a confusing variety of proposed dates for its composition. It may date from Bach's Weimar period, although a date as late as 1735 has also been suggested.
It is also possible that these are parts of different cantatas that Bach or someone else put together at a later date for an unknown occasion. Four singers are needed for the final chorale, but only a bass and a soprano for the rest of the score. The cantata is extremely short and has an austere setting. Since no complete copy of the work survives, it is possible that there were originally more than the four movements now known. In particular, another aria is thought to have preceded the final movement.
Textually, the cantata is one of Bach's frequent meditations on the necessary readiness to leave the world.
The cantata begins with a recitative accompanied only by the continuo, in which the title words are repeated three times, each as an arioso with continuous accompaniment. The bass clearly fulfills its characteristic role as Vox Christi.
In the second movement, the bass, which in the initial recitative seemed to be the Vox Christi, performs in this extended aria a paraphrase of Simeon's words spoken during the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple. This movement is the climax of the cantata, longer than all the other movements combined. The instrumental accompaniment is provided by an expressive violin solo - making the piece almost a trio sonata for bass, violin, and continuo. The aria is interspersed with lines from the death chorale "Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde" by Johann Georg Albinus (1649) to a melody by Johann Rosenmüller, a chorale performed by soprano and oboe. The stately chorale also reflects the determined death wish of the faithful of the time, a confirmation of the words of Simeon, sung by the bass, which link the chorale's phrases.
After a short recitative and arioso, the cantata ends with the four-part harmonized fifth stanza of Luther's hymn "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (1524), a typical Easter chorale.
Video: Netherlands Bach Society - Interview with bass Matthew Brook /
J.S. Bach Foundation (St. Gallen) - Workshop (in German) - Contemplation (in German) - Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134, 11 April 1724
Recitativo (alto, tenor): Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß
Aria (tenor): Auf, Gläubige, singet die lieblichen Lieder
Recitativo (alto, tenor): Wohl dir, Gott hat an dich gedacht,
Aria (alto, tenor): Wir danken und preisen dein brünstiges Lieben
Recitativo (alto, tenor): Doch würke selbst den Dank in unserm Munde
Coro: Erschallet, ihr Himmel, erfreuet dich, Erde
"A heart that knows the living Jesus"
Text and translation
Scored for alto and tenor soloists, a four-part choir, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.
For the third day of Easter in 1724, Bach adapted a festive, secular cantata that he had composed in Köthen for New Year's Day in 1719. It is full of adulatory phrases of the kind used to sing the praises of secular rulers.
The prescribed reading for this feast day was the appearance of Jesus to the disciples in Jerusalem after his resurrection. The unknown librettist edited the secular cantata in the simplest way, maintaining the order of the movements and omitting only movements 5 and 6. The result is an unusual sacred cantata, which at first consists only of movements for alto and tenor soloists and does not end with a chorale, but with a final chorus in which the soloists continue to participate. The text refers only very generally to the Gospel.
It begins with a tenor recitative that leads into an alto arioso. "Arise" is the keyword for the first aria, a long and energetic aria in which the tenor urges the faithful to be thankful, accompanied by the entire ensemble (two oboes, strings and continuo). The second recitative, again accompanied only by the continuo (secco) and also for tenor and alto, praises God who has conquered death and Satan.
This is followed by a catchy - even swinging - duet for alto and tenor with a wonderful string orchestra introduction in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos. The singers often perform simultaneously, in parallel thirds and sixths. The words "Der Heiland erscheint" are the only specific reference to the Gospel of the day. After a third secco recitative, again for tenor and alto, and an arioso ending, the cantata ends with a joyful chorus in a dancing 3/8 rhythm, a passepied.
Universal and unpretentious festive music!
Video: Ars Lyrica Houston - Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzen, BWV 145, 19 April 1729
Choral: Auf, mein Herz, des Herren Tag
Chor (Telemann): So du mit deinem Munde bekennest Jesum
Arie (Duett) T S: Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergötzten
Rezitativ T: Nun fordre, Moses, wie du willt
Arie B: Merke, mein Herze, beständig nur dies
Rezitativ S: Mein Jesus lebt
Choral: Drum wir auch billig fröhlich sein
"I live, my heart, for your delight"
Text and translation
Scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, trumpet, flauto traverso, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola and basso continuo.
BWV 145 is a five-movement church cantata to a libretto by Picander, which Bach probably premiered in Leipzig on Easter Tuesday, April 19, 1729. It is an oddity, a seven-movement pasticcio, with one of the additional movements composed by Georg Philipp Telemann. This cantata is one of less than a dozen surviving cantatas and fragments of what is known as Bach's Picander cycle, or his fourth cantata cycle. According to the first publication of the cycle's librettos, this cycle ran from June 24, 1728 (the feast of John the Baptist) to the fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 10, 1729.
In nineteenth-century manuscripts of the cantata, the five Picander movements are preceded by two movements:
(1) BWV 145/a: a four-part setting of the first stanza of Caspar Neumann's hymn "Auf, mein Herz, des Herren Tag" (c. 1700).
(2) BWV 145/b: the first movement from Georg Philipp Telemann's cantata TWV 1:1350, "So du mit deinem Munde bekenntest Jesus," a paraphrase of Romans 10:9.
The two movements may have been added after Bach's death to make the cantata suitable for performance on Easter Sunday. Picander did not refer to the specific readings for the third day of Easter in his text.
The first added movement is a four-part setting of the chorale stanza. The Telemann movement is in two parts, a duet and a choral fugue, with strings and instruments colla parte and a partially independent trumpet. In Telemann's cantata, the movement was preceded by an instrumental introduction on the same theme.
The substance of the cantata, then, is the two arias (one a duet for soprano and tenor and the second for bass), both thoroughly pleasant pieces of music.
The first movement to Picander's text is a duet with obbligato violin, a dialog between Jesus and the soul. The tenor expresses the position of Jesus: "I live, my heart, for your pleasure," while the soprano responds as the believer: "You live, my Jesus, for my pleasure." The movement resembles duets in Bach's secular cantatas and may be a parody of an unknown work. It is unusual for Bach to have the tenor represent the voice of Jesus.
The ensuing secco recitative ends as an arioso to emphasize the words, "Mein Herz, das merke dir!" This thought is taken up in the following bass aria, the movement with the richest instrumentation. It has the character of a passe-pied and may also be a parody of a secular work. The text urges the believer to be mindful of the salvation that Christ's resurrection has brought.
In the final recitative, accompanied only by continuo, the soprano represents, as often in Bach's cantatas, the ideal believer, focusing her gaze on heaven. The concluding chorale is the fourteenth and final verse of Nikolaus Herman's Easter hymn, "Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag".
Video: J.S. Bach Foundation (replaces the first two choral movements by a Sinfonia composed by Rudolph Lutz, the conductor) - Workshop (in German) - Contemplation (in German) - Telemann version