Speed ​​you swirling winds

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Bach cantata
Speed ​​you swirling winds
BWV: 201
Occasion: Concert by the
Bach Collegium musicum
Year of origin: 1729
Place of origin: Leipzig
Genus: Secular cantata
Solo : SATI / II BI / II
Choir: SATI / II BI / II
Instruments : Trba I-III; Timp;

Fltr I / II; Ob I / II Str .; Bc

AD : approx. 55 min
text
Christian Friedrich Henrici
List of Bach cantatas

Geschwinde, you whirling winds ( BWV 201) is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . In the autograph it is entitled The Dispute Between Phoebus and Pan .

Emergence

The cantata does not belong to the courtly tribute music, but was created for the civic concert series of the Leipzig Collegium musicum , which was called Bachische since 1729, when Bach took over the direction , and gave concerts in the Zimmermann coffee house . Bach probably composed the work for the first season opening concert under his direction in 1729.

Subject

Apollo with the lyre, the panpipe under his feet ( Balthasar Permoser 1720, Schwerin Castle Garden)

For this occasion, Bach chose a programmatic theme for which Christian Friedrich Henrici worked on a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses . In mythological garb of a music contest between the gods Phoebus Apollo and Pan , the question of "better" music is treated: Is it a passing through superficial effects quickly in his ear " light music " or a differentiated art music whose appeal is attentive only to and educated Listener opens up? The former is personified by the shepherd god Pan with his flute . For the second, Phoebus stands with the lyre . On the advice of Mercurius , a music competition is organized in which everyone chooses their own referee: Phoebus den Tmolus , Pan den Midas . The fighters present their rehearsal arias, and as expected, Tmolus speaks for Phoebus, Midas for Pan. But now Phoebus, Tmolus and all the spectators unanimously attack Midas, Phoebus gives him dog-eared ears, and even Pan asks: “Oh! why did you take this quarrel lightly? "And as a conclusion Momus and the choir announce:

Momus

Dear Midas, go now
And lie down in your forest
But comfort yourself in your mind
You have more brothers like that.
The lack of understanding and unreason
I want to be the neighbor of wisdom now,
One judges into the day
And who pretend
They all belong in your guild.
Take hold, Phoebus, now
The lyre again
There is nothing sweeter
As your songs.

Choir

Refresh the heart, you lovely strings,
Tune in to art and grace!
Let yourself be mastered, let yourself be sneered at,
Are your sweet tones
Affectionate even to the gods.

Biographical background

With the design of the cantata, Bach clearly underscores his own position - of course the option for a “learned”, lavish, but ultimately music that alone does justice to the dignity of musical art. Even at the time of its creation, he had opponents in the official-ecclesiastical as well as in the technical-musical area who considered his way of composing too demanding and at the same time antiquated. Again and again he had to fight against the council and school for enough capable people for his church music and at the same time defend himself against the representatives of the sensitive style , who publicly accused him of artificiality and lack of feeling.

Towards the end of his life, this conflict came to a head again, and at the same time Count Brühl was already arranging the succession of his protégé Johann Gottlob Harrer . For example, Bach and his friends organized a re-performance of the Phoebus and Pan cantata in the autumn of 1749, in which he himself changed the closing words of the Momus - with a scholarly allusion to two negative Roman characters - into

Double up, Phoebus, now music and songs,
Rage against Birolius and a Hortens !

Musical means

occupation

  • Vocal soloists: soprano (Momus), alto (Mercurius), tenor I / II (Tmolus / Midas), bass I / II (Phoebus / Pan),
  • Choir: soprano, alto, tenor I / II, bass I / II

Means of expression

The cantata lasts almost an hour. In terms of the cast and virtuoso demands, the work does not lag behind those for "official" occasions. The exclusively male actors were partly embodied by older boy soloists (up to 17 years old at the time).

The rehearsal aria of Phoebus in B minor With longing I squeeze your tender cheeks is considered the first work in music history in which the same-sex love - between Phoebus-Apollo and Hyakinthos - is sung about. The composer offers all his art and proves that a perfect contrapuntal network with soloist, strings, flute, oboe, basso continuo, without a “lyre”, can express deepest feelings. It can be assumed that Bach played the viola part (“Viola con sordino ”) himself, as can be seen from Forkel's Bach biography (published in Leipzig in 1802). But also to the "popular" tone of Pan in his aria Zu Tanze, zu Sprunge, the heart shakes in A major, the one in the farmer's cantata with the words Your growth is firm and laugh with pleasure! is taken up again, he applies the greatest art and care in addition to humor. When Midas gives his verdict: Pan is a master , the violins start an unmistakable donkey scream. In the Tadelarie des Mercurius ( inflated heat ) the bell cap is depicted vocal and instrumental. And before the rousing final hymn of the choir to (true) music, the harmonious turn of the recitative to Bach's self-encouragement ( Seize, Phoebus, now the lyre again ... ) hardly leaves an attentive listener unmoved.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Wolff, p. 385
  2. ↑ Book XI , 150–193
  3. ↑ In the autograph score there are two text variants by Bach's hand for the 1749 performance for this passage. At first he had written: Rave about Hortensius and an Orbil darwider . Then he turned Orbilius into Birolius through playful sound changes , and that sounded dangerous after the Latinized form of the name Brühl ( see Wolff, p. 487).
  4. ↑ In musical societies in which quartets or more full-part instrumental pieces were performed, and he was not otherwise employed, he enjoyed playing the viola. About Johann Sebastian Bach's life, art and works of art, by JN Forkel; P. 46 (PDF; 30.3 MB)

Web links

Wikisource: The dispute between Phoebus and Pan listed in a Dramate  - text by Picander
Cantatas (BWV), oratorios and passions by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sacred cantatas

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Secular cantatas

30a • 34a • 36c • 134a • 173a • 198 • 201 • 202 • 203 • 204 • 205 • 206 • 207 • 207a • 208 • 209 • 210 • 210a • 211 • 212 • 213 • 214 • 215 • 216a • 249a

Cantatas not preserved

App. 1 • App. 2 • App. 3 • App. 4 • App. 4a • App. 5 • App. 6 • App. 7 • App. 8 • App. 9 • App. 10 • App. 11 • App. 12 • App. 13 • App. 14 • App. 15 • App. 16 • App. 17 • App. 18 • App. 19

Passions

St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) • St. John Passion (BWV 245) • St. Luke Passion (BWV 246) (Bach's authorship questioned) • St. Mark Passion (BWV 247)

Oratorios

Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) • Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) • Easter Oratorio (BWV 249)