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When Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723, he embarked upon a project which became legend: the composition of five annual cycles of cantatas and other special music for the church year. At this concert, we present four cantatas drawn from his first several cycles, including pieces for the First Sunday of Advent, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Epiphany. Please join us for this alternate ‘Christmas Oratorio.’

--Bob Worth, Choral Director

 

Underwritten by the Donald and Maureen Green Foundation

Program Notes
Notes courtesy of Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music, Boston

Cantata 62: Nun komm der Heiden Heiland

The first Sunday in Advent is the beginning of the church year. The gospel reading is the description of Jesus' entry on the donkey into Jerusalem. Its place here is not part of the Easter story but rather the fulfillment of the prediction of the coming of the king. The chorale most closely associated with this day is the Luther arrangement of the Latin hymn "Veni redemptor gentium" called by Luther "Nun komm,der Heiden Heiland." As with most Latin arrangements, the form of the chorale is irregular, four brief phrases with the 1st identical to the 4th. The most notable feature of the melody is the rather exotic-sounding diminished 4th in the 1st and 4th phrases. It appears in all three of the great Leipzig chorale settings for organ. All of the earlier versions, including the one in our cantata here, soften the interval to a perfect fourth.

The opening chorus of BWV 62 is in an extremely lively 6/4 time. Running scales and arpeggios in the first violin are punctuated by two different figures: a fleeting motive passed around to both the oboes and strings and a more sturdy, almost militaristic, repeated note figure usually found in the strings. All three of these ideas are played on top of the first phrase of the chorale appearing in long notes, first in the bass and then at the cadence in the oboes. We will remember how abstract Bach's setting of the chorale was in his Weimar cantata of the same name. Here, as with all of the 2nd Jahrgang, the emphasis is on clear statement of the tune over extremely lively orchestral figuration.

As wonderful as this chorus is, we cannot help but feel that Bach was later to find the true grandeur of this tune in the three organ preludes. They are of such different character from each other that it is hard to remember that they are all based on the same melody. The first setting, a low three-part texture placed underneath the melody, which appears in a very richly ornamented version. One of the most surprising things about this setting is that it is one of the saddest pieces ever written by Bach. This is a side of the melody that he never found before. The other two Leipzig settings are no less fine. One is an agitated trio with very jagged lines. Here the diminished fourth in the first phrase plays an important part in the character. The bumpy broken arpeggios and abrupt melodic shifts suggest an extreme form of Orientalism, all of it clearly generated from the diminished phrase on the word "Heiden." The third setting, the grandest of them all, is for full organ, a bravura marching texture in the manuals in which the melody thunders unadorned from the pedals.

The tenor aria #2 of the cantata is an extremely long, though very lively affair. Its effect is of abundance. It has the uncanny effect of indicating both the grandeur of Christ's coming and the humility of his human roots. After the brief secco recitative, the bass aria has a very different character. It is militaristic. It could even be accused of being jingoistic if the vocal phrases were not constantly overlapping and occasionally even contradicting the orchestra. The whole orchestra is in unison with no harmony whatsoever. Bach never wrote another aria quite like this one, but it is a character often found in Handel. The main effect is that of a virtuosic showpiece for the bass. After such brazen and aggressive music, the little duet recitative for the soprano and alto with strings is shocking. In its brief time, it brings us the only inward view of this moment in the liturgical year. The final chorale setting is sturdy and powerful.

Cantata 91: Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ

Bach Cantata BWV 91 was written for Christmas morning in Bach's second year in Leipzig. The Luther tune "Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ" is brilliantly set for horns, tympani, three oboes, and strings with the sopranos singing the melody in long tones as the rest of the chorus rushes by with brilliant scale passages. In Bach's day, Christmas was not as oppressively cheery as it is today. After this brilliant opening chorus the work looks inward in a most remarkable and profound way. The soprano sings the chorale tune with interesting and sometimes rather dark editorial comments. The great striding tenor aria with three obbligato oboes is an uncanny portrait of both the huge orbit and the tiny cradle of the Christ child. The bass recitative goes through remarkable chromatic wanderings in its portrayal of the vale of tears. The soprano-alto duet with unison strings is probably the greatest thing in the cantata. The insistent and stumbling string figuration is a moving portrayal of Christ's humility and transforms itself into something radiant and glorious in the middle section. This is one of those miraculous Bach pieces that is so much greater than it looks on the page. The horns reenter for a great final statement of the chorale.

Cantata 16: Herr Gott, dich loben wir

BWV 16 Bach's third season in Leipzig contains many lacunae. It is not known whether the missing works are lost or works of other composers were performed. The pieces that are there are in many ways more experimental than the works of the first two seasons. Our cantata today, BWV 16, begins with a chorale fantasia somewhat in the manner of the works from the 2nd year cycle. The beginning gesture is, however, unique in all of the cantatas. Traditionally these big fantasias begin with a large orchestral introduction. Here a mysterious and nervous continuo figure begins the work. The chorus gradually enters and then the orchestra, almost like a gathering mob. The soprano ringing out the German Te Deum is like a military charge. The work ends as abruptly as it began and gives the impression of a chaotic assault. A bass recitative follows. The next movement is an aria for bass with chorus. Here the trumpet fanfares seem much more organized. The middle section is an ornamental almost courtly declaration of faith.

With the alto recitative the cantata begins a radical change of course. The sweet-natured tenor aria with English horn is expansive and as placid as the opening was nervous and jittery. It is as if Bach had here reached a plateau and was willing to explore the most inward aspects of faith. The very beautiful and profound harmonization of "Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen" continues the inwardness and brings the cantata to a surprisingly quiet close.

Cantata 65: Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen

Many cantatas for the Christmas season are not deeply involved with the Christmas story, but assume a contemplative attitude with a minimum of narrative. The Cantata BWV 65 not only directly quotes Isaiah's prediction of the Wise Men, but contrasts it with a chorale description of how that prediction came true. Thus, the unusual placement of a chorale immediately after the opening chorus sets off the principal thrust of the piece: the gifts of the Wise Men are a reflection of the gift of God in fulfilling the words of Isaiah.

The opening chorus has a wonderful, exotic, "Eastern" sounding orchestration with pairs of recorders, oboes da caccia and horns as well as the usual strings and continuo. The loping 9/8 meter gives the piece a charming "camel music" quality. This cantata contains the only example of horns in C in all of Bach's music. The beginning tutti shows the richness of color available to Bach with this combination of instruments. The sound of the piece comes not only from the exotic combination of instruments but also from the abundance of octave doublings. This interest in octaves culminates in the final cadence of the tutti, which contains a rarely-heard unison from the entire orchestra. The choral writing is marvelously varied with block-like writing, imitative writing, and a full-fledged choral fugue. In his book The Compositional Process of J.S. Bach, Robert Marshall describes ingeniously how Bach "thinks on his feet" in the writing of this fugue. In fact, one of the great glories of the first Jahrgang is the new way in which Bach is able to fold choral fugues into a more homophonic texture. This is particularly striking in a work such as this that has horns with few available chromatic notes. Bach makes an event out of the return of the horns to the orchestral texture by surprisingly overlapping them with the end of the fugue.

The chorale that follows, a verse of "Ein Kind, geborn zu Bethelehem," is austere, almost barren in its harmonization. It is as if the richness of Isaiah's prophecy is contrasted with the meager circumstances of Christ's birth. The recitative that follows is a classic example of Bach's sensitivity to the shape and function of the text. The first half, which recounts the story of the wise men, begins in F major and modulates to G major. At the beginning of the contemplative section, where the speaker examines how these events affect him, the bass moves down to a six-four-two chord and sends the recitative in a harmonically different direction.

Bach uses the dark sound of the two oboes da caccia as obbligati for the bass aria. Notice how the opening theme, so closely imitative and evocative of gold, is transformed into the gold torn from the earth by the drop of an octave at the end of the third line. The canon here is exclusively associated with the inadequacy of the gold offerings. The offering of the Christian's heart is accompanied by euphonious parallel thirds in the obbligato instruments.

The secco tenor recitative is appropriately didactic, and offers a perfect foil for the return to the extravagant orchestration that accompanies the opening of the next tenor aria. The main tune of this aria is clearly related to the opening idea of the chorus. Even more, the "oriental" octave doublings bring us back into that world. There is something popular in the character of this spirited piece. It is bar-form, something rather unusual in non-chorale related pieces in Bach. The simple folksy vocal writing at the beginning is a wonderful contrast to the exuberant melismas of the final section.

Not only the choice of a verse from "Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit," but also its austere harmonization, is surprising compared to the color of the rest of the cantata. Perhaps Bach is preparing us for the sobriety of the Epiphany season. Its simplicity is very much in keeping with the presentation of the other chorale, and gives us a slightly different relationship between the chorale and the concerted music that we are used to in first Jahrgang pieces.

 

 

 

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