God alone shall have my heart
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| God alone shall have my heart | |
| BWV: | 169 |
| Occasion: | 18th Sunday after Trinity |
| Year of origin: | 1726 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | A. |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 2Ob Ot 2Vl Va Org Bc |
| text | |
| Christoph Birkmann | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
God alone should have my heart ( BWV 169) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig in 1726 for the 18th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on October 20th, 1726.
Story and words
In his fourth year in office in Leipzig, Bach composed the cantata in 1726 for the 18th Sunday after Trinity. It is assigned to his 3rd cantata cycle. The prescribed readings for Sunday were 1 Cor 1: 4–8 LUT , where Paul thanks for the effect of the gospel, and Mt 22 : 34–46 LUT , the double commandment of love.
Christoph Birkmann (1703–1771) as a poet concentrated on love for God in sentences 2 to 5, treated love for one's neighbor in sentence 6 and chose the third stanza of Martin Luther's Now we ask the Holy Spirit as the final chorale .
He combined the first recitative with the following aria by starting two trains of thought with one line each of the aria text and ending with the meaningful first line “God alone shall have my heart” as a reference to this “ motto ” of the cantata. The second recitative is a paraphrase of 2 Kings 2.1 LUT , the ascension of Elijah . The second aria speaks of the opposition between love for God and love for worldly things and thus refers to 1 Joh 2,15-16 LUT .
Bach's only other surviving cantata for this Sunday is the chorale cantata Herr Christ, der Gottessohn, BWV 96 from the year 1724. Like three other cantatas, Spirit and Soul are Confused , But Resist Sin and Enjoy Peace, beloved lust for the soul , is “God shall alone my heart have "written only for alto solo, but in contrast to the others it contains a four-part final chorale. Three of these cantatas, all composed within a few months, use the organ as an obbligato instrument, perhaps because Bach liked the combination of the alto part with certain organ registers. Perhaps by chance both an accomplished alto and a skilled organist were available.
It is not known whether Bach specifically searched for texts for a solo part or whether texts were prescribed for him by a clergyman that emphasized individual piety and therefore suggested that a single voice be cast.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is set for alto solo , four-part choir or vocal quartet only in chorale, two oboes , waist (tenor oboe), two violins , viola , obbligato organ and basso continuo .
- Sinfonia
- Arioso: God alone shall have my heart
- Aria: God alone shall have my heart
- Recitativo: what is the love of God
- Aria: Die in me, world, and all your love
- Recitativo: But also means it
- Chorale: You sweet love, give us your favor
music
As in some other works, Bach also used music in this cantata that he had previously composed. The first movement ( Sinfonia ) and movement 5 go back to a lost solo concerto that he probably composed during his time in Köthen (1717-23) , perhaps for oboe or flute . This concerto later served as the basis for his harpsichord concerto BWV 1053 , composed around 1739. According to John Eliot Gardiner , the music could also have served as an organ concert for the 1725 new Silbermann organ in the Sophienkirche in Dresden. Bach used the first movement of the concerto, in da capo form, as an extended instrumental introduction. He assigned the solo part to the organ, the tutti to the strings and three oboes, whose parts he added for the cantata.
The first movement sung is an arioso accompanied only by the continuo. Bach corresponded to the poem by setting the framing lines from the following aria as arioso, but the expanding thoughts as recitative. The frequent repetition of the crucial line “God alone should have my heart” works like a rondo motif, according to Gardiner. In the aria, the setting of the line is reminiscent of the arioso, but in a countermovement. Gardiner describes that in Arioso and Aria Bach followed the admonitions of the music theorists of his time to grasp the meaning of a text ( Mauritius Vogt , 1719) with the aim of a refined musical expression corresponding to the text, the actual goal of the music ( Johann David Heinichen , 1711). The accompaniment of the aria by the virtuoso organ gives the core movement additional weight. A simple secco recitative leads to the second aria, which, like the sinfonia, is taken from the solo concerto. The singing voice is artfully woven into the original material of the solo organ and the strings. According to Alfred Dürr , the aria is an example of how a work can gain through its use in a different context, as is also the case in the Agnus Dei from Bach's B minor Mass . The text of the aria is a farewell to love in the world: "Die in me, world and all your love". The music is referred to as " Siciliano " in the slow movement of the harpsichord concerto . The character of the aria was compared to the aria of the repentant Peter “Mercy” from Bach's St. Matthew Passion .
After the love for God has been dealt with in great detail in the first sentences, love for the neighbor appears only in a brief recitative that leads to the final chorale. In the chant, the Holy Spirit is asked to help "so that we may love one another with all our hearts and remain at peace with one mind".
Recordings
- JS Bach: Cantatas BWV 157 & BWV 169. Diethard Hellmann , Kantorei & Kammerorchester der Christuskirche Mainz , Lotte Wolf-Matthäus . Cantate, 1958.
- Maureen Forrester sings Bach & Handel. Antonio Janigro , I Solisti di Zagreb , Maureen Forrester . Vanguard, 1964.
- JS Bach & Handel: Solo Cantatas & Vocal Works. Yehudi Menuhin , Bath Festival Orchestra , Janet Baker . EMI , 1966.
- JS Bach: Cantates BWV 161 & BWV 169. Frigyes Sándor, Chamber Choir and Orchestra of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music , Julia Hamari . Hungaroton , 1966.
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 9. Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Paul Esswood , Teldec , 1987.
- Bach cantatas BWV 35, BWV 169, BWV 49 (Sinfonia). Hartmut Haenchen , RIAS Chamber Choir , Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra , Jochen Kowalski . Berlin Classics, 1994.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 9. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Nathalie Stutzmann . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 17. Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Bogna Bartosz. Antoine Marchand, 2002.
- Bach Cantatas. (BWV 82, BWV 169, BWV 200 etc. Hoffmann: BWV 53.) Julia Schröder, Basel Chamber Orchestra , Andreas Scholl , as well as Junko Takamaya, Michael Feyfar and Raitis Grigalis (in the chorale). Decca, 2010.
- God alone shall have my heart. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Claude Eichenberger. Christiaan Lucas Hart Nibbrig (reflection.) DVD. Gallus Media, 2008.
As a solo cantata, the work is also interesting for conductors and soloists who are not specialists in early music; there are recordings with the conductors Rudolf Barshai and Ludwig Güttler .
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
- Materials for the cantata BWV 169 from Bach digital of the Bach Archive Leipzig
- Cantata WV 169 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 169 "God alone shall have my heart" by Bach Cantatas (English)
- “God alone should have my heart” on the Bach website
- BWV 169 “God alone shall have my heart” Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christine Blanken: A Cantata-Text Cycle of 1728 from Nuremberg: a Preliminary Report on a Discovery relating to JS Bach's so-called 'Third Annual Cantata Cycle'. (PDF) In: Understanding Bach , 10/2015, pp. 9–30, especially p. 22; accessed on the Bach Network on November 19, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Julian Mincham: Chapter 28 BWV 169 Who increases himself ( en ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
- ↑ a b c John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity / Thomaskirche, Leipzig ( en , PDF; 137 kB) bach-cantatas.com. 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
- ^ David Vernier: Bach: Solo Cantatas Bwv 35, 169, 170 / Fink, Mullejans, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra ( English ) ClassicsToday.com. 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
- ↑ Stephen Eddins: Bach: Cantatas / Andreas Scholl ( English ) Allmusic . 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
- ↑ Bach: Cantatas / Andreas Scholl, Basel Chamber Orchestra ( English ) arkivmusic.com. 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
