Escape, disappear, escape, you worries
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Escape, your worries disappear | |
| BWV: | 249a |
| Occasion: | Princely birthday party |
| Year of origin: | 1725 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | Congratulatory cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 3Tr Ti 2Fl Ft 2Ob Fg 2Vl Va Bc |
| AD : | approx. 43 min |
| text | |
| CF Henrici (Picander) | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Escape, disappear, and your worries escape ( BWV 249a), also known as the “Shepherd Cantata ”, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach .
Origin and reconstruction
The cantata was composed in 1725 on the occasion of the 43rd birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxony-Weißenfels as festive table music and accordingly premiered at Neu-Augustusburg Castle on his birthday, February 23, 1725. The libretto is by Picander .
The originals and copies of the shepherd cantata are lost. Only the text print in the first volume of Picander's poems and also Bach's Easter Oratorio in three different versions is preserved. Since Friedrich Smend has proven that the music for all arias (including the duets and quartets) of the Easter oratorio was taken from the Shepherd's Cantata, the corresponding movements of the Shepherd's Cantata can be restored without any particular difficulty. Only the recitatives are lost; they were supplemented with great skill by Hermann Keller , so that a performable form of the lost cantata has been recovered today.
Subject
The two shepherds Damoetas and Menalcas chase away their worries in order to offer their congratulations to the Duke of Saxony-Weißenfels together with the two shepherdesses Doris and Sylvia . The sheep, they hope, will lull themselves to sleep in the valleys that are already overgrown with fresh green.
occupation
- Doris (soprano), Sylvia (alto), Damoetas (tenor), Menalcas (bass)
- Choir in four-part mixed line-up
- Orchestra with three trumpets , timpani , two recorders , transverse flute , two oboes , bassoon , two violins , viola , basso continuo
music
The work begins with a sinfonia with an Allegro movement and a subsequent Adagio; Both are completed into a full-blown instrumental concert by the subsequent duet "Escape, disappear, escape your worries". It is generally assumed that Bach reused a concerto from his time in Koethen, but it remains uncertain whether this extensive introduction was actually already present in the Shepherd's Cantata or whether it was not added to the reworking of the Easter Cantata, so that the Shepherd's Cantata with the duet movement would have started. The tonal appeal of the aria Wieget dich, ihr satte Schafe is based on its instrumentation with muted violins and their doubling in the upper octave by recorders over a calm, knocking, organ point-like continuo bass. This creates the impression of both the lullaby and the pastoral music; both assign the movement to the most delightful inspirations of Bach's secular cantatas. The final chorus "Glück und Heil" forms the festive conclusion.
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
