Heaven is laughing! The earth rejoices
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Heaven is laughing! The earth rejoices | |
| BWV: | 31 |
| Occasion: | Easter Sunday |
| Year of origin: | 1715 |
| Place of origin: | Weimar |
| Solo : | STB |
| Choir: | SSATB |
| Instruments : | 3Tr Ti 3Ob Ot Fg 2Vl 2Va 2Vc Bc |
| AD : | approx. 25 min |
| text | |
|
Salomon Franck , 1715
Nikolaus Herman , 1575 |
|
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Heaven is laughing! Die Erde jubilieret ( BWV 31) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach .
Emergence
The work was composed for April 21, 1715, the first day of Easter, in Weimar and later performed several times in Leipzig in a different form. There is evidence of re-performances in 1724 and 1731; a further performance in 1735 is likely.
Subject
The text comes from the "Evangelical Andachts-Opffer" by the Weimar court poet Salomon Franck , who is known to have been the author of a total of nine cantata texts by Bach. The verses consist purely of free poetry and, according to the occasion, interpret the Easter message , combined with the call to the believers to let Jesus be resurrected in their souls. The final sentence, the last stanza of the death chorale "When my little hour is available" by Nikolaus Herman , proves to be a reference to the resurrection of the Christian after his death by Jesus.
occupation
- Singing soloists: soprano , tenor , bass ,
- Choir: soprano I / II, alto, tenor, bass
- Orchestra: trumpet I-III, timpani , oboe I-III, waist , violin I / II, viola I / II, cello I / II, basso continuo
particularities
Although Bach's cantatas had a large line-up on high holidays such as Easter, the large line-up of this cantata with three trumpets and five reed instruments is remarkable - no fewer than fifteen obbligato parts are used in the performance.
Right at the beginning, the festive character of the work is demonstrated by a sonata with a fanfare-like introduction. This is followed by the opening choir in the form of a five-part choir fugue , which picks up the jubilant mood and carries it on. This is followed by two recitatives that frame a bass aria; all three movements are only accompanied by basso continuo and accordingly contrast strongly with the two opening movements. The following tenor aria is ritornelloally accompanied by a surging string . In the last aria, the soprano and solo oboe contrast with a low-lying string in unison , which anticipates the chorale melody of the final movement.
Since the chorus of the organ in Weimar , to which the string instruments were tuned, was presumably a third higher than the concert pitch in Leipzig, Bach had to either omit or rewrite parts originally intended for the woodwinds for the Leipzig re-performances, or different ones than in the one Let the original line-up play the instruments provided.
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of JS Bach's Cantatas , 1947, 5th edition 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
- 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, Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas . Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- Heaven is laughing! Die Erde Jubilieret, BWV 31 : Notes and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- BWV 31 Heaven is laughing! The earth celebrates text, structure and cast on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
