Merciful Heart of Eternal Love
Bach cantata | |
---|---|
Merciful Heart of Eternal Love | |
BWV: | 185 |
Occasion: | 4th Sunday after Trinity |
Year of origin: | 1715 |
Place of origin: | Weimar |
Genus: | cantata |
Solo : | SATB |
Choir: | SATB |
Instruments : | Whether Fg 2Vl Va Bc |
text | |
unknown | |
List of Bach cantatas |
Merciful Heart of Eternal Love ( BWV 185) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Weimar in 1715 for the 4th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on July 14, 1715.
Story and words
Bach was the court organist of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar in Weimar and was appointed concertmaster on March 2, 1714. This was accompanied by the task of performing a spiritual cantata in the castle church every month. Bach composed the cantata on the 4th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on July 14, 1715. He dated it himself "1715".
The prescribed readings for Sunday were Rom. 8 : 18-23 LUT , “All creatures long with us for the revelation of the children of God”, and Lk 6 : 36-42 LUT , the admonition from the Sermon on the Mount to be merciful and not to judge. The cantata text was written by court poet Salomon Franck for the occasion and published in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer in 1715 . Franck goes into the gospel, recalls the admonitions and mentions the images of the splinter in the eye of the brother and the blind man who wants to lead a blind man. The last aria sums up the exhortations as "This is the Christian art". The cantata closes with the first stanza of Johann Agricola's chorale I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ (approx. 1530).
When Bach performed the cantata again in Leipzig on June 20, 1723, he transposed it from F sharp minor to G minor. In the same service, his fourth in Leipzig, he also performed his new cantata Ein undicoloured Mind , after taking up his position as cantor with two-part cantatas, with Die Elenden shall eat and The heavens tell the glory of God . Bach arranged the chorale in 1724 for the same occasion for the choral cantata I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ .
Occupation and structure
Like other cantatas based on words by Franck, the work is made up of chamber music with four soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir only in chorale, oboe , bassoon , two violins , viola and basso continuo . In the Leipzig version, a trumpet plays the cantus firmus of the chorale in the first movement instead of the oboe.
- Aria (Duetto e Choral) (soprano, tenor): Merciful Heart of Eternal Love
- Recitativo (Alto): Hearts, perverted in stone and rock
- Aria (Alto): Make an effort during this time
- Recitativo (bass): Self-love is flattering
- Aria (bass): This is Christian art
- Chorale: I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ
music
The opening duet is linked to the final chorale in two ways. The melody is played line by line by the oboe as cantus firmus , with decorations and in dance-like 6/4 time. The first interval in the voices and continuo is the same falling third as at the beginning of the chorale. The contra-subject is a reflection of the subject, just as human mercy should reflect divine.
The alto recitative is initially accompanied by strings and then turns into an arioso with continuo. The alto aria has the richest instrumentation, with figured oboe solos. The text of the bass aria with continuo sums up the admonitions of the gospel in one long sentence, but Bach breaks it down into parts that are introduced by “This is the Christian art”. The bass as the Vox Christi (voice of Christ) delivers this sermon. In Leipzig, the continuo part of the violins was doubled an octave higher. The final chorale is outshone by a fifth voice on the violin.
Recordings
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 42. Helmuth Rilling , Frankfurter Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Arleen Augér , Hildegard Laurich , Aldo Baldin , Philippe Huttenlocher . Hänssler, 1976.
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 10. Gustav Leonhardt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Collegium Vocale Gent , Leonhardt-Consort , soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Paul Esswood , Kurt Equiluz , Thomas Hampson . Teldec , 1989.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 1 , Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Barbara Schlick , Kai Wessel , Guy de Mey , Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 1994.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 4 , Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Midori Suzuki , Akira Tachikawa , Makoto Sakurada , Stephan Schreckenberger . UP, 1994.
- Bach Edition Vol. 2 - Cantatas Vol. 6 , Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Ruth Holton , Sytse Buwalda , Knut Schoch , Bas Ramselaar . Brilliant Classics, 1999.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 3: Tewkesbury / Mühlhausen / For the 4th Sunday after Trinity / For the 5th Sunday after Trinity. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Magdalena Kožená , Nathalie Stutzmann , Paul Agnew , Nicolas Testé . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- Merciful Heart of Eternal Love. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Regina Kabis, Alex Potter, Jens Weber, Markus Volpert. Pia Reinacher (reflection). 1 DVD, Gallus-Media, St. Gallen.
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- 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
- Merciful Heart of Eternal Love, BWV 185 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Merciful Heart of Eternal Love by Bach Cantatas (English)
- Merciful Heart of Eternal Love on the Bach website
- BWV 185 Merciful Heart of Eternal Love Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
- Free scores of Merciful heart of eternal love in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
- Work introduction and performance under Rudolf Lutz , with reflection by Pia Reinacher , on the YouTube channel of the JS Bach Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julian Mincham: Chapter 6 BWV 185 Merciful Heart of Eternal Love . jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2011.