Christ is my life
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Christ is my life | |
| BWV: | 95 |
| Occasion: | 16th Sunday after Trinity |
| Year of origin: | 1723 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | STB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Co 2Oa 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| unknown | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Christ, who is my life ( BWV 95) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig in 1723 for the 16th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on September 12th, 1723.
Story and words
Bach composed the cantata in his first year in office in Leipzig in 1723 for the 16th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for Sunday were Eph 3:13–21 LUT , “Paul prays for the strengthening of the faith of the church in Ephesus”, and Lk 7,11–17 LUT , the awakening of the young man from Nain . In Bach's time, the gospel referred to the raising of the dead in general, combined with a longing for death. Like Salomon Franck in his text for the cantata Come, you sweet hour of death , composed in Weimar in 1715, the unknown lyricist formulates the desire to die in order to be awakened like the youth. He includes four different mourning chorales . Two chorale verses are already integrated into the opening movement, Christ, who is my life (Jena 1609) and Martin Luther's Mit Fried und Freud ich fahrin dahin (1524), his rewording of the Nunc dimittis . Sentence 3 is Valerius Herberger's valet I want to give you , and the final chorale is the fourth stanza of Nikolaus Hermans When my hour is available .
Occupation and structure
The cantata consists of three soloists, soprano , tenor and bass , four-part choir, horn , two oboe d'amore , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Chorale e recitativo (tenor): Christ, he is my life / With joy, yes with heart's content / With peace and joy I go there
- Recitativo (soprano): Well, wrong world
- Chorale (soprano): I want to give you valet
- Recitativo (tenor): Oh, it could happen to me soon .
- Aria (tenor): Oh, strike soon, blissful hour
- Recitativo (bass): Because I know this
- Chorale: Because you rose from death
music
While Bach used three stanzas of a chorale in the cantata for the previous Sunday, Why do you grieve yourself, my heart , in this cantata he even includes four stanzas from four different chorales. The opening movement already contains two chorale stanzas connected by a recitative . The first chorale to a melody by Melchior Vulpius is embedded in a concerto of oboes and strings in syncopated motifs full of thirds and sixths parallels. The melody is in the soprano, reinforced by the horn. The line “To die is my gain” is performed at a slower pace, in a tradition that Johann Hermann Schein already followed. The connecting recitative alternates between secco and accompagnato, with the same accompanying motifs appearing as in the chorale. The second chorale on Luther's melody is brightened up by an independent violin part. The horn prepares the vocal introduction of each line.
A secco recitative leads to the third chorale, which the soprano sings alone like an aria . The first line is accompanied only by the continuo, the others by the oboes, which play an obbligato melody in unison . The only aria in the cantata is dominated by the oboes, primed by the pizzicato of the strings, which symbolizes death bells. A fifth high violin part outshines the final chorale in the four-part vocal movement.
Recordings
- LP / CD
- Bach Made in Germany Vol. 1 - Cantatas VIII. Günther Ramin , St. Thomas Choir , Gewandhaus Orchestra , soloist of the St. Thomas Choir, Gert Lutze , Hans Hauptmann . Eterna, 1952.
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 50. Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Arleen Augér , Adalbert Kraus , Walter Heldwein . Hänssler, 1978.
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 5. Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Concentus Musicus Wien , soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Kurt Equiluz , Philippe Huttenlocher . Teldec 1979.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 7. Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Lisa Larsson , Gerd Türk , Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 1997.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 11 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1723. Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Midori Suzuki , Makoto Sakurada , Peter Kooy . UP, 1998.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 8: Bremen / Santiago / For the 15th Sunday after Trinity / For the 16th Sunday after Trinity. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Katharine Fuge , Mark Padmore , Thomas Guthrie . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- DVD
- Christ is my life. Cantata BWV 95. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Julia Sophie Wagner (soprano), Charles Daniels (tenor), Matthias Helm (bass). Including an introductory workshop and reflection by Gian Domenico Borasio . Gallus Media, 2016.
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach. The cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of the cantatas Johann Sebastian Bach. 5th unchanged edition. Breitkopf Haertel, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4 .
- Hans-Joachim Schulze : The Bach Cantatas. Introductions to all of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantatas . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig / Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig), ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verlag)
- Christoph Wolff / Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas . Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- Christ Is My Life, BWV 95 : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 95 Christ who is my life on bach cantatas website
- Christ, who is my life on the Bach website
- BWV 95 Christ, who is my life Text, structure and cast on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ Julian Mincham: Chapter 19 BWV 95 Christ, that is my life ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ a b Michael Fischer: 516 - Christ, he is my life . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 9 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-50332-6 , pp. 57–62 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Christ, who is my life / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) 2006. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ With Fried and Freud / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) 2005. Accessed October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Valet I want to give you / Text of Chorale ( English ) 2006. Retrieved on October 4, 2011.
- ↑ When my hour is available / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ a b John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity / Santo Domingo de Bonaval, Santiago de Compostela ( English , PDF; 45 kB) bach-cantatas.com. 2004. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Christ, who is my life ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / I drive with Fried and Freud ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Valet I want to give you ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / When my hour is available ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ Product information on the JS Bach Foundation website, accessed on May 16, 2016.
