The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity introduces the story of the raising of the dead from Luke, which in Bach's time was understood symbolically to represent man's resurrection to eternal life - and, in order to be soon resurrected, the wish to die and be free from the "sinful world." Not coincidentally, all cantatas for this day are permeated with the sounds of tolling bells.
Readings:
Ephesians 3:13–21, "Paul praying for the strengthening of faith in the congregation of Ephesus."
Luke 7:11–17, "Raising of the young man from Nain."
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)
Readings:
Ephesians 3:13–21, "Paul praying for the strengthening of faith in the congregation of Ephesus."
Luke 7:11–17, "Raising of the young man from Nain."
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)
[Resurrection of the Widow's son from Nain,
altar panel by Lucas Cranach the Younger, c. 1569,
in the Stadtkirche Wittenberg.]
Cantatas:
- Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161, 6 October 1715
Aria (alto, recorders, strings): Komm, du süße Todesstunde
Recitativo (tenor): Welt, deine Lust ist Last
Aria (tenor, strings): Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland zu umfangen
Recitativo (alto, recorders, strings): Der Schluß ist schon gemacht
Aria (choir, recorders, strings): Wenn es meines Gottes Wille
Chorale (recorders): Der Leib zwar in der Erden
("Come, o sweet hour of death")
Text & translation
Scored for alto soloist, tenor soloist, a four-part choir, two recorders, two violins, viola, organ and basso continuo.
Often called the best cantata Bach wrote during his time in Weimar. The text is by Salomo Franck, based on the prescribed Gospel reading of the raising of the young man from Nain. In keeping with the story, the cantata is imbued with the Lutheran longing for death. In the opening aria, death is metaphorically represented as honey in the lion's mouth, the sweetness behind the terror - an allusion to the story of Samson's marriage, in which the carcass of a lion provides food for Samson and his parents (Judges 14). This sweetness is given voice by the recorders, quiet instruments often used in works with texts about death or sleep. During the aria, the organ occasionally intones the Passion chorale ("Herzlich tut mich verlangen" by Hans Leo Haßler) to remind the listener that Jesus made the same journey. This plea for death is far from modern sensibilities, but it should not be understood as a morbid "death wish," for it is based on the ideology that it is possible to pass from life through death to the afterlife in heaven.
The next two movements make it even clearer that the believer's desire is not for death itself, but for the glory of being with Christ. The following tenor recitative portrays the world as a place of deception: its pleasures turn to trouble, its sugar is poison, its roses produce thorns. The agony is finally transformed into a beautiful arioso: "I want to graze with Christ soon. I desire to leave this world". The "longing" of the tenor aria is hypnotically symbolized by the magical and even ecstatic strings, which literally "sigh" on the word "desire" ("Verlangen").
The alto recitative is accompanied by all instruments, imitating sleep (in a downward movement) - almost becoming a lullaby - waking up (a fast upward movement), and at the end of the aria, funeral bells in the recorders and pizzicato in the strings to symbolize the passage through death to eternal life.
The fifth movement is a joyful, childlike song for four-part choir - note the beautifully warbling recorders. The emphasis is on heavenly joy, the body is seen as a burden to be gladly cast off, and the spirit is seen as a guest who was only temporarily housed in the body and is now free to live eternally in heaven.
In the final chorale, a version of the Passion, the same recorders hover hauntingly above the chorus, as if to express the idea of the new, transfigured self. This was indeed material that inspired Bach.
Video: J.S. Bach Foundation (St. Gallen ) - Workshop (in German) - Contemplation (in German) - Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95, 12 September 1723
Chorale e recitativo (tenor): Christus, der ist mein Leben / Mit Freuden, ja mit Herzenslust / Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin
Recitativo (soprano): Nun, falsche Welt
Chorale (soprano): Valet will ich dir geben
Recitativo (tenor): Ach könnte mir doch bald so wohl geschehn.
Aria (tenor): Ach, schlage doch bald, selge Stunde
Recitativo (bass): Denn ich weiß dies
Chorale: Weil du vom Tod erstanden bist
("Christ, he is my life")
Text & translation
Scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, horn, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, violoncello piccolo and basso continuo.
A sort of experimental cantata that contains four chorales, each with their associated melody, ingeniously sewn together. The theme is again death as welcome release from the travails of this life - in Bach's time the story of the "Raising of the young man from Nain" pointed at the resurrection of the dead, expressed as a desire to die soon. As Salomon Franck expressed in his text for cantata Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161, composed in Weimar in 1715, the unknown poet concentrates on the desire to die, in hope to be raised like the young man from Nain.
The poet includes four stanzas from four different chorales. Two chorale stanzas are already presented in the first movement, "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (1609, by Melchior Vulpius) and Martin Luther's "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (1524), a paraphrase of the canticle Nunc dimittis. Movement 3 is Valerius Herberger's "Valet will ich dir geben" (1613), and the closing chorale is the fourth stanza of Nikolaus Herman's "Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist" (1560).
The first two chorales are incorporated in the first chorus, beginning - after an instrumental introduction - with a setting of the chorale “ Christus, der ist mein Leben” for two oboes d'amore, strings and chorus. The choral melody is sustained in the soprano line and the whole seems like a small concerto. Note the slowdown in tempo on the line "Sterben ist mein Gewinn" ("Death is my reward"). This semi-concerto is suddenly broken up by a declamatory recitative, which leads into the next chorale "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (a paraphrase of the "Nunc dimittis" by Luther), a sturdy hymn that finishes this superbly constructed movement, full of modulations.
A simple soprano recitative bids farewell to the transient pleasures of this world, leading directly into the third choral "Valet will ich dir geben", again for soprano accompanied by two playful oboes d'amore. Here the music has a certain dance-like quality.
The next two movements are for tenor, voicing man's longing for death on earth and eternal life instead. A recitative leads into the only aria in the cantata, also for tenor and dominated by the accompanying oboes. It is a piece of outstanding beauty, in which the pictorial imagery of the tolling funeral bells plays a prominent role. As is usual, these bells are heard in the pizzicato in the strings. The high tenor line is urgent and declamatory and also addresses these bells, urging them to strike quickly "the very last bell-stroke."
A bass recitative underlines faith in eternal life, after which the cantata ends with a further chorale setting, "Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist", enriched by a soaring additional violin part to symbolize the risen Christ.
Video: J.S. Bach Foundation (St. Gallen) - Workshop (in German) - Contemplation (in German)
Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV 8, 24 September 1724
Chorus: "Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?"
Aria: "Was willst du dich, mein Geist, entsetzen"
Recitative: "Zwar fühlt mein schwaches Herz"
Aria: "Doch weichet, ihr tollen, vergeblichen Sorgen!"
Recitative: "Behalte nur, o Welt, das Meine!"
Chorale: "Herrscher über Tod und Leben"
("Dearest God, when will I die?")
Text & translation
Scored for SATB soloists and choir, horn, flute (originally flauto piccolo, a high-pitched recorder, later replaced by transverse flute), two oboes d'amore, two violins, one viola, basso continuo. There are two versions of this cantata, one in E major, the other in D major, but apart from the different keys there are no significant differences.
It is based on a new chorale "Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben" by Casper Neumann (1697), a kind of "popular" music of Bach's time, paraphrased in an impressionistic way. The opening chorale, with its plucked strings for the sounding of the death knell, is a surprisingly warm and affectionate piece of music, with twittering birds in the flute. It has been aptly described as "a churchyard full of flowers in the springtime. The alto, tenor, and bass voices sing in free counterpoint, while the sopranos respond with the chorale in long notes.
The theme is a common one in the cantatas: when shall we bid farewell to the sufferings of mortal life and attain eternal life in heaven? The bells continue to toll in the tenor aria, in which the oboe d'amore has a beautiful line. The mood is slightly melancholy and yearning.
After a recitative by the alto, which for a moment recalls the horror of death, the transition to heaven is made in an almost "cheerful" bass aria, again with flute accompaniment. It seems almost like a movement from a lost flute concerto, a wonderful, optimistic piece in the tempo of a gigue. After another soprano recitative, the cantata closes with a chorale setting that continues the friendly atmosphere of the entire cantata.
Video: Emmanuel Music
Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende? BWV 27, 6 October 1726
Chorale e recitativo (soprano, alto, tenor): Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?
Recitativo (tenor): Mein Leben hat kein ander Ziel
Aria (alto): Willkommen! will ich sagen
Recitativo (soprano): Ach, wer doch schon im Himmel wär
Aria (bass): Gute Nacht, du Weltgetümmel
Chorale: Welt, ade! ich bin dein müde
("Who knows how near is my end?")
Text & translation
Scored for four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) a four- or five-part choir, horn, three oboes, oboe da caccia, organ, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.
Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year in Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after Trinity. An unknown poet included in the first movement the first stanza of the chorale "Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende" by Ämilie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and closed the cantata with the first stanza of the hymn ""Welt ade! ich bin dein müde" by Johann Georg Albinus.
A late cantata of an almost experimental nature. The cantata opens with a melancholy, limping chorale, sung in block style by the chorus but interspersed with recitative. This movement is "about as tragic as it gets": it is in a minor key, and a strong dissonance quickly emerges between the oboe phrase and the continuo. Descending arpeggiated strings emphasize the "wailing of the damned" represented by the oboes. After the opening ritornello, the vocal lines alternate between choral and solo presentations of the chorale phrases, with each voice (except the bass) having an arioso line.
After a tenor recitative, the alto sings a compelling aria with sparkling English horn and organ accompaniment ("Welcome! I will say, when Death steps to my bed"). This movement may have been adapted from a lost concerto (for viola da gamba? Although the first movement of Antonio Vivaldi's 'Spring' concert, published the year before, 1725, is also mentioned as a possibility), accompanied by an oboe da caccia. Chromaticism contributes to the "fleeting shadows" of the welcoming of death. The accompanying keyboard part has historically been played by either harpsichord or organ. The obbligato oboe conveys a number of different ideas: dancing, sighing, and "quasi-tragic" descent.
The soprano recitative that follows is operatic in character, with the strings illustrating wings to fly to heaven. The bass aria, accompanied by strings and continuo,then combines two contrasting sentiments: adieu and agitation. It alternates between a lyrical, regretful sighing line (at the words "Gute Nacht") and an agitated, militaristic string figure (at the words "du Weltgetümmel"), illustrating the conflict between heaven and the chaotic world.
The chorale, a five-part setting ("Welt, ade! ich bin dein müde"), is the only chorale harmonization in all the cantatas not by Bach: he adopts a 1682 harmonization by Johann Rosenmüller with a slightly archaic harmony, which proves to be a perfect conclusion to this cantata.
Video: J.S. Bach Foundation (St. Gallen) - Workshop (in German) - Contemplation (in German) - "Bach Factory" (English)
Bach Cantata Index