God is my king

Bach cantata
God is my king
BWV:	71
Occasion:	Change of Council
Year of origin:	1708
Place of origin:	Mulhouse
Genus:	Council change cantata
Solo :	SATB
Choir:	SATB
Instruments :	3Tr Ti 2Fl 2Ob Fg 2Vl Va Vc Vn Bc
AD :	approx. 20 min
text
	Bible 74th Psalm, Johann Heermann
List of Bach cantatas

Cover of the print of 1708

Bach's autograph signature on the cover of the cantata “Gott ist mein König”, 1708. He spells himself in Italian as Gio. Bast. Bach
(= Giovanni Bastiano Bach)

Gott ist mein König ( BWV 71) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach .

Emergence

The cantata is one of Bach's early works. He composed it on the occasion of the change of council of the Free Imperial City of Mühlhausen on February 4, 1708. Bach was organist at the Divi-Blasii-Church and, as part of this office, had the task of providing the service for the establishment of the newly elected council with a composition. The compiler of the text is unknown. There is no evidence for the partially expressed assumption that the libretto could have been compiled and composed by Pastor Georg Christian Eilmar, who commissioned the cantata from the depths I call to you, Lord, Lord, to you (BWV 131).

Subject

The text consists mainly of words from the Bible , which are taken from the 74th Psalm in the first and fourth sentences , as well as from the 2nd book Samuel and the 1st and 5th books of Moses. The text of the second sentence “I am eighty years old” probably refers to the 83-year-old Mayor Adolf Strecker, who was elected to this office again this year. The biblical quotations are supplemented in the second sentence by the 6th stanza of the hymn "O Gott, du pious God" by Johann Heermann . Overall, the texts can be understood as a meditation on the transition from old to young, combined with concluding, freely composed congratulations for the “new regiment”, ie. H. the new incumbent.

occupation

Mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble:

Choir I ( soli ): soprano , alto , tenor , bass
Choir II ( ripieno , ad libitum ): soprano, alto, tenor, bass

Instrumental choir I: trumpet I-III, timpani
Instrumental choir II: violin I / II, viola , violone
Instrumental choir III: oboe I / II, bassoon
Instrumental choir IV: recorder I / II, violoncello

Organ ( Basso per Organo )

Cast Notes: The term choir is to be understood here in the sense of the Bach era as a group of musicians, regardless of the line-up.

At the beginning of the score, Bach noted "Capella" to make it clear when Soli and Ripieno sing together. In the sequel he indicated this by a winding line under the continuo part. Solos, on the other hand, remain unmarked. The term "ad libitum" in the Ripieno voices of Choir II means that this choir can be omitted.

In the score, trumpets, timpani (s), strings, vocal parts and the organ continuo in the chorus are noted (entrance chorus in C major, for example), the other parts in concert pitch (entrance chorus in D major). The individual parts retain this notation, only that of the cello is in concert pitch, which differs from the score.

The violoncello part is written for an instrument with a notated range G– es ′ ′. Bach notates the part using three C-clefs ( C- clef (soprano, alto and tenor) and the usual F-clef ) for the bass.

Instruments of this size had four (Gdae ') or five strings (CGdae') and are used by Bach e.g. Sometimes referred to as the violoncello piccolo . However, this designation is not found in the autograph notes for this cantata.
Possibly it is a viola pomposa , a viola or cello da spalla ("on / on the shoulder"). The instrument may also operate under the name "Bassetgen", as was one in Bach's estate. There it was classified among his string instruments between "Braccie" (ie violas / violas) and "Violoncello" and, as a used instrument, cost as much as one of the two cellos.

particularities

The cantata BWV 71 is one of Bach's important early works. Instead of recitatives and da capo arias , it contains short movements that flow into one another and thus exhibits predominantly typical features of the traditional cantata type of the 17th century. Due to its elaborate instrumentation, however, the work stands out from Bach's other surviving cantatas from the Mühlhausen period. Probably the best-known movement is the sixth, in which a homophonic choir recites the words from Psalm 74 "You did not want to give the soul of your lovebirds to the enemy" with great urgency.

A special feature of this Ratswechsel cantata is that it is Bach's first printed work. Furthermore, it was the only print of a Bach cantata that has survived until the composer's death. From 1731, Bach self-published some of his works for keyboard instruments, including the six partitas from the keyboard exercise as Opus 1 .

Individual evidence

↑ Information z. B. Wolff 2000, p. 110
↑ Choir (music) : "The term choir in its current meaning as a body of sound was first coined in the 17th and 18th centuries. Until then, it did not refer to a group of singers, but to a group of musicians in general." (Version 10:35, Apr. 17, 2016)
↑ Ad_libitum # Music
^ S. individual parts (partly autograph) in the Berlin State Library - Prussian cultural property on Bach-Digital [1] . Violoncello separate part: [2]
↑ Notation in concert pitch. In the chorus, this corresponds to the notes of the ′ ′ and A.
↑ Rampe 2016, p. 773 u. P. 775
↑ Bach Documents I, No. 627, pp. 490–498: "Specification of the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig, autumn 1750." (List of instruments on pp. 493–494.)

literature

Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas . 7th edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 , p. 795-800 .
Werner Neumann : Handbook of JS Bach's Cantatas , 1947, 5th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
Werner Neumann, Hans-Joachim Schulze (ed.): Documents from the hand of Johann Sebastian Bach . Bärenreiter, Kassel et al. 1963, No. 1 (Bach documents, vol. 1).
Hans-Joachim Schulze: The Bach Cantatas: Introductions to all of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantatas . Leipzig: Evangelical publishing company; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig) ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verl.)
Christoph Wolff : Johann Sebastian Bach. The Learned Musician . WW Norton, New York 2000 ISBN 978-0-393-04825-4
Christoph Wolff, Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas . Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006 ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Siegbert Rampe : The new Bach lexicon . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2016 ISBN 978-3-89007-804-5

Web links

God is my King, BWV 71 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
BWV 71 Gott ist mein König Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Audio files
Text and sources at Bach digital
Autograph score
First printing

[1] Information z. B. Wolff 2000, p. 110

[2] Choir (music) : "The term choir in its current meaning as a body of sound was first coined in the 17th and 18th centuries. Until then, it did not refer to a group of singers, but to a group of musicians in general." (Version 10:35, Apr. 17, 2016)

[3] Ad_libitum # Music

[4] S. individual parts (partly autograph) in the Berlin State Library - Prussian cultural property on Bach-Digital [1] . Violoncello separate part: [2]

[5] Notation in concert pitch. In the chorus, this corresponds to the notes of the ′ ′ and A.

[6] Rampe 2016, p. 773 u. P. 775

[7] Bach Documents I, No. 627, pp. 490–498: "Specification of the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig, autumn 1750." (List of instruments on pp. 493–494.)


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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)