An undyed mind

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Bach cantata
An undyed mind
BWV: 24
Occasion: 4th Sunday after Trinity
Year of origin: 1723
Place of origin: Leipzig
Genus: Church cantata
Solo : ATB
Choir: SATB
Instruments : Cl 2Oa 2Vn Va Bc
text
Erdmann Neumeister , Johann Heermann
List of Bach cantatas

An undyed mind ( BWV 24) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He wrote it in Leipzig for the fourth Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on June 20, 1723. It is the third newly composed cantata in his first annual cycle.

Story and words

In his first year in Leipzig, Bach composed the cantata for the fourth Sunday after Trinity as the third new cantata in his first annual cycle, which he had started on the first Sunday after Trinity when he took office with Die Elenden shall eat . The prescribed readings were as Epistle Rom 8,18-23  LUT , “All creatures long with us for the revelation of the children of God”, and as Gospel Lk 6,36–42  LUT , from the Sermon on the Mount, “Exercise mercy, do not judge ". It seems likely that Bach had not yet found a new lyricist in Leipzig, because he resorted to a text by Erdmann Neumeister that had already appeared in the Spiritual Poetry Collection in 1714 with mixed biblical sayings and chorals . In a symmetrical composition Neumeister placed a word from the Bible in the middle, a quote from the Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew Mt 7,12  LUT , "Now whatever you want the people to do to you, they do it too". He framed it with two recitatives , this with two arias . The subject of the first recitative is “The Righteousness”, which is “one of the gifts of God”. Opposed to it is “Die Hypocrisy”, a “Brood that healed Belial”. The poetry on the theme of Christians Doing and Trading was judged to be too instructive. The cantata ends with the first stanza of Johann Heermann's song O Gott, du pious God (1630).

Bach first performed the cantata on June 20, 1723. It is likely that during the same service he also conducted the earlier cantata Barmherziges Herz der Ewigen Liebe , which he composed for the same occasion in Weimar in 1715 . On the three previous Sundays he had performed two-part cantatas, the new works The poor should eat and The heavens tell the glory of God, as well as the earlier I had much distress . On the fourth Sunday the new cantata was probably played before the sermon and the older one after the sermon.

Occupation and structure

The cantata consists of three vocal soloists, alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, clarino , two oboes , two oboe d'amore , two violins , viola and basso continuo .

  1. Aria (alto): an undyed mind
  2. Recitativo (tenor): Righteousness is one of the gifts of God
  3. Coro: Anything you want now
  4. Recitativo (bass): The hypocrisy is a brood
  5. Aria (tenor): Faithful and truth be the reason
  6. Chorale: O God, you godly God

music

In his composition, Bach gives weight to the central biblical phrase by letting the choir sing it, while the framing sentences are filled with chamber music. The obligato part of the first aria is played in unison by the violins and violas and is similar to the material of the singing part. The following recitative, which resembles a short sermon, is secco and ends as arioso .

The central choral movement consists of two sections, the entire text is initially presented freely, then as a fugue , comparable to the concept of prelude and fugue. Two oboes double the strings, a clarino plays an independent part. The joint is a double joint, called " vivace allegro ". The initially singing “concertists” are initially only accompanied by the continuo, then the movement increases through the choir and orchestra and reaches its climax with the clarino as the fifth part.

The structure of the following recitative is similar to the first, but it is accented by strings. It also ends as Arioso, without the strings, and thus emphasizes the prayer "May God protect me!". The last aria is accompanied by two oboes d'amore. The tenor sings an unusual coloratura on the last words “Make us equal to God and angels”, perhaps to indicate the “multitude of heavenly hosts”.

The eight lines of the final chorale are sung in four parts, each framed by instrumental parts and accompanied by the orchestra. Bach found this kind of chorale treatment with his predecessor in Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau . The last prayer asks for "an unharmed soul and a clear conscience".

Recordings

LP / CD
DVD

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Klaus Hofmann: An undyed mind, BWV 24 (PDF; 3.0 MB) bach-cantatas.com. 1998. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
  2. Christoph Wolff : Bach: Essays on his Life and Music ( English ) 1991, p. 30 (accessed on June 21, 2012).
  3. a b c d Christoph Wolff : On the first annual cycle of Bach's cantatas for the Leipzig liturgy (1723-24) (II) ( English , PDF; 11.8 MB) bach-cantatas.com. S. 16. 1997. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  4. O God, you pious God / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  5. a b c d John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity / Tewkesbury Abbey ( English , PDF; 123 kB) bach-cantatas.com. S. 3. 2008. Accessed June 27, 2012.
  6. a b Julian Mincham: Chapter 5 BWV 24 An undyed mind ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  7. Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / O Gott, du pious God / Melody 2 ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  8. Booklet ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file) on the JS Bach Foundation website, accessed on May 17, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bach-streaming.ch