Blessed are you, Jesus Christ, BWV 91
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Blessed be you, Jesus Christ | |
| BWV: | 91 |
| Occasion: | 1st Christmas Day |
| Year of origin: | 1724 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 2Co Ti 3Ob 2Vn Va BC |
| text | |
| unknown, text based on: Martin Luther | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Praise be to you, Jesus Christ ( BWV 91) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig in 1724 for Christmas Day , December 25, 1724.
Story and words
The chorale cantata from Bach's second cycle of cantatas is based on the main song for Christmas, Praise be to you, Jesus Christ (1524) by Martin Luther . Bach performed the cantata on December 25, 1724. It was the first cantata he composed in Leipzig for Christmas Day, because the previous year he had performed the Weimar cantata Christians, etches this day (1714) again. The prescribed readings were Tit 2,11–14 LUT and Lk 2,1–14 LUT , the birth of Jesus and her proclamation to the shepherds. The unknown cantata writer kept the first and last stanza, added recitatives to the 2nd stanza , transformed stanzas 3 and 4 into an aria (movement 3), stanza 5 into a recitative, and stanza 6 back into an aria.
Bach performed the cantata four more times on December 25, 1731, 1732 or 1733, and twice in the 1740s, i.e. after performing his Christmas Oratorio in 1734 , which also contains stanzas of the chant in two movements.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is festively occupied with four soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, two horns , timpani , three oboes , two violins , viola and basso continuo . The instrumentation is similar to that in Part IV of the Christmas Oratorio.
- Coro: Praise be to you, Jesus Christ
- Recitativo (+ chorale, soprano): The shine of the highest glory
- Aria (tenor, oboe): God, for whom the earth's circle is too small
- Recitativo (bass, strings): O Christianity! Well
- Aria (soprano, alto): Poverty as God takes upon himself
- Choral: He did all of that to us
music
In the opening choir, Bach uses four concert choirs, the singing parts, the horns, the oboes and the strings. The thematic material of the ritornello also appears as an interlude and underlines the vocal parts. The chorale melody is in the soprano. The lower voices are imitated in the first and last lines of the song, in the second and fourth chords, in the central line both forms appear on the words “From a virgin, that's true”.
In the 2nd movement, the recitative is contrasted by chorale lines, which are accompanied by repeated repetitions of the 1st chorale line at double the speed. Three oboes give the tenor aria an unusual timbre, while the strings add shine to the following recitative. The last aria is a duet in which “poverty” and “abundance” are juxtaposed. “Human beings” appear in chromatically ascending lines, “angelic glories” in coloratura and triad breaks.
In the final chorale, the horns play partially independent voices, especially in the final Kyrieleis.
Recordings
LP / CD
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 5. Gustav Leonhardt , Knabenchor Hannover , Collegium Vocale Gent , Leonhardt-Consort , Detlef Bratschke (soloist of the Boys Choir Hannover), Paul Esswood , Kurt Equiluz , Max van Egmond . Teldec , 1979.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 12. Sound Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Lisa Larsson , Annette Markert, Christoph Prégardien , Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 2000.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 14: New York. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Katharine Fuge, Robin Tyson, James Gilchrist , Peter Harvey . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- JS Bach: Christmas Cantatas from Leipzig. Philippe Herreweghe , Collegium Vocale Gent , Dorothee Mields , Ingeborg Danz , Mark Padmore, Peter Kooij . Harmonia Mundi France, 2001.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 31. Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Yukari Nonoshita, Robin Blaze , Gerd Türk, Peter Kooij. UP TO 2004.
DVD
- Johann Sebastian Bach: Praise be to you, Jesus Christ. Cantata BWV 91. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Monika Mauch (soprano), Margot Oitzinger (alto), Bernhard Berchtold (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass). Including an introductory workshop and reflection by Ludwig Stocker . Gallus Media, 2017.
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 and Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-04431-4 .
- 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
- Christoph Wolff , Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- Praise be to you, Jesus Christ, BWV 91 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Praise be to you, Jesus Christ on the Bach website
- BWV 91 Praise be to you, Jesus Christ Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ Booklet ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) on the JS Bach Foundation website; accessed on May 17, 2017.
