On Ascension Day alone
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| On Ascension Day alone | |
| BWV: | 128 |
| Occasion: | Ascension |
| Year of origin: | 1725 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | ATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Co; If; Oc; Tr; Oa; Str; BC |
| text | |
| Christiana Mariana from Ziegler | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
On the Ascension of Christ alone ( BWV 128) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig for Ascension Day and performed it for the first time on May 10, 1725.
Story and words
In his second year in Leipzig, Bach consistently composed choral cantatas from the first Sunday after Trinity to Palm Sunday for his second cycle of cantatas , but at Easter he switched back to cantatas based on freer text. This included nine cantatas based on texts by the poet Christiana Mariana von Ziegler , including the cantata for the Ascension Day. Bach later assigned most of them to his third cycle of cantatas, but he left this cantata for Ascension and Pentecost cantata BWV 86 in the second cycle, possibly because, like the pure chorale cantatas, they begin with a chorale fantasy, while the others often open with a solo movement, the entrusted to the bass as the Vox Christi .
The prescribed readings for the feast day were Acts 1,1–11 LUT and Mk 16,14–20 LUT , the mission and baptism command and the ascension. The poet, who often chooses the personal first- person form , took the first stanza of Ernst Sonnemann's chorale based on Josua Wegelin (1636) as the subject of the cantata : After Jesus went to heaven, nothing will keep me on earth, as I have been promised to see him face to face ( 1 Cor 13:12 NIV ). In sentence 2 the poet alludes to the transfiguration of Jesus ( Mt 17.4 LUT ), sentence 3 sees the unfathomable omnipotence of Jesus everywhere and not just tied to one place. He will lift me to his right hand ( Mt 25,33 LUT ) and judge me righteously, so says the final chorale, the fourth stanza of O Jesus, my lust by Matthew Avenarius .
Ziegler's text in the printed edition (1728) differs from the cantata text. It is possible that Bach himself combined an aria and a recitative into one sentence with a guiding thought, “where my Redeemer lives” .
Occupation and structure
The cantata has a festive cast with three soloists, alto tenor and bass , four-part choir, and an extraordinarily versatile set of instruments including two horns , two oboes , oboe da caccia , trumpet , oboe d'amore , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Coro (horns, oboes, strings): On Ascension Day alone
- Recitativo (tenor): I'm ready, come get me
- Aria e recitativo (bass, trumpet): up, up, with a bright sound
- Aria (alto, tenor, oboe d'amore): To explore one's omnipotence
- Chorale: Then you will be me
music
In the opening choir, the chorale melody of Alone God in the High Heights of Nikolaus Decius is built into an orchestral concerto. The cantus firmus is sung by the soprano in long notes, while the low voices are imitated. The orchestral motifs are derived from the first line of the chorale melody: A signal theme, played first by the strings and oboes, then by the horns, contains the first five notes of the melody, a fugue theme contains all nine notes of the first melody line, so that “a chorale arrangement that is differentiated in terms of the movement but uniform in terms of the theme material emerges” ( Alfred Dürr ).
Bach uses the trumpet, the royal baroque instrument, in movement 3 to signal that the reign of Jesus has now begun. The trumpet first appears in the ritornello , then the singing voice takes over its theme, and finally it sounds again while the singing voice is built into the movement. After a middle section, the beginning is not repeated da capo , but the inserted thought sounds as a recitative accompanied by strings. After that, only the ritornello is repeated.
The following duet has an intimate character. The obbligato instrument is labeled organo in the score, but the part is written out for oboe. Its range cannot be represented by an oboe, but an oboe d'amore can. Perhaps Bach changed his idea of sound while he was writing it, or he changed the name later. Max Reger used the ritornello of this movement as the theme of his Bach Variations op.81.
The cantata closes with a four-part chorale, which is played by most instruments colla parte , while the horns are independently performed because of their limited range of notes.
Recordings
- Bach Made in Germany Vol. 1 - Cantatas V , Günther Ramin , Thomanerchor , Gewandhausorchester , Lotte Wolf-Matthäus , Gert Lutze, Johannes Oettel, Eterna 1953
- Bach: 13 Sacred Cantatas & 13 Sinfonias , Helmut Winschermann , Kantorei Barmen-Gemarke , German Bach Soloists , Julia Hamari , Kurt Equiluz , Hermann Prey , Philips 1971
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 35 , Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Gabriele Schreckenbach, Aldo Baldin , Wolfgang Schöne , Hänssler 1981
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 7 , Gustav Leonhardt , Knabenchor Hannover , Collegium Vocale Gent , Leonhardt-Consort , René Jacobs , Kurt Equiluz , Max van Egmond , Teldec 1983
- JS Bach: Ascension Cantatas , John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Robin Blaze , Christoph Genz , Reinhard Hagen, archive production 1993
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 15 , Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Bogna Bartosz, Jörg Dürmüller , Klaus Mertens , Antoine Marchand 2001
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 35 (Cantatas from Leipzig 1725) , Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Robin Blaze , Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooij , BIS 2001
- JS Bach: Bach Edition Vol. III-28 , Pieter Jan Leusink, Holland Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Collegium, Sytse Buwalda, Nico van der Meel, Bas Ramselaar, Brilliant Classics 2010
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach. The cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 and Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-04431-4 .
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of the cantatas JSBachs . 1947. 5th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
- Hans-Joachim Schulze : The Bach Cantatas: Introductions to all of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantatas . Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-374-02390-8 ; Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Edition Bach Archive Leipzig)
- Christoph Wolff , Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- On the Ascension of Christ alone, BWV 128 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- BWV 128 On Ascension Day alone text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
- Cantata BWV 128 On Ascension Day alone by Bach Cantatas (English)
- On Ascension Day alone on the Bach website
- BWV 128 On Ascension Day Alone University of Vermont
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermann Ühlein, Christa Reich : 122 - On the Ascension of Christ alone . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 3 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-50324-5 , pp. 84–89 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
