So God loved the world, BWV 68

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Bach cantata
So God loved the world
BWV: 68
Occasion: 2nd day of Pentecost
Year of origin: 1725
Place of origin: Leipzig
Genus: Church cantata
Solo : SB
Choir: SATB
Instruments : Co Cn 3Tb 2Ob Ot 2Vl Va Vp Bc
text
Christiana Mariana von Ziegler , Salomo Liscow
List of Bach cantatas

So God Loved the World ( BWV 68) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig for the second day of Pentecost and performed it for the first time on May 21, 1725.

Story and words

Bach wrote the cantata for the second day of Pentecost. The prescribed readings for the feast day were Acts 10.16-21  LUT and John 3.16-21  LUT , the meeting of Jesus with Nicodemus . 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 2nd day of Pentecost. Bach later assigned them and Auf Christi Himmelfahrt alone to his second cycle of cantatas, although they are not based on a chorale, but begin with a choral fantasy. The other seven cantatas by the author, which begin predominantly with a bass solo as Vox Christi (voice of Christ), on the other hand, he took in the third cantata cycle.

The poet chose for the first movement of the Pentecost cantata with the first stanza of Solomon Liscow's hymn (1675), which begins with the same words as the sentence of the Gospel: “So God loved the world”. In the last movement of the five-movement work, she quoted verse 18 of the Gospel, which Bach worked on in an unusually extensive choral movement.

Bach first performed the cantata on May 21, 1725.

Occupation and structure

The cantata is occupied by two vocal soloists ( soprano and bass ), four-part choir, horn , zinc , three trombones , two oboes , waist (tenor oboe ), two violins , viola and basso continuo . The cantata contains five movements.

  1. Coro: So God loved the world
  2. Aria (soprano): My believing heart
  3. Recitativo (bass): I'm not presumptuous with Petro
  4. Aria (bass): You were born for my benefit
  5. Coro: Whoever believes in him will not be judged

music

The opening choir is a chorale fantasy, as in Bach's chorale cantatas. The melody by Gottfried Vopelius (1682) is sung by the soprano and amplified by the horn. Bach changed the rhythm of the melody to 12/8 time and decorated it.

The two arias are based on Bach's Jagdkantata What I like is only the lively hunt , BWV 208. The soprano aria “Mein belieiges Herz” is based on an aria by the goddess Pales “Because the wanting herds”. Bach uses a violoncello piccolo as an obligatory instrument , as in other cantatas in his second cycle (1724-25). The bass aria is based on an aria by the god Pan, "A prince is his country's Pan".

The last movement is not a simple four-part chorale, as in most church cantatas, but a large-scale structure based on a verse from the Gospel of John. Bach expresses the contrast between “who believes in him” and “who but does not believe” in a double fugue with two contrasting themes, with the voices reinforced by zinc (soprano) and three trombones (alto to bass).

Recordings (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Alfred Dürr : The Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach , 4th Edition, Volume 1, Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 1981, ISBN 3-423-04080-7 .
  2. ↑ Julian Mincham: Chapter 49 BWV 68 So God loved the world / God so loved the world. ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c Klaus Hofmann : So God so Loved the World / For God so Loved the World, BWV 68 (PDF; 2.0 MB) bach-cantatas.com. Pp. 5-6. 2007. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for Whit Monday / Holy Trinity, Long Melford ( English , PDF; 88 kB) bach-cantatas.com. Pp. 10-12. 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
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)