God `s time is the best time
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| God `s time is the best time | |
| BWV: | 106 |
| Occasion: | Funeral service |
| Year of origin: | 1707/08? |
| Place of origin: | Mulhouse |
| Genus: | Mourning Cantata |
| Solo : | S, A, T, B |
| Instruments : | Fld I / II; Va da g I / II; Bc |
| AD : | approx. 23 min |
| text | |
| different scriptures; | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
God's time is the very best time, BWV 106, also known as Actus tragicus, is a sacred cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach .
Emergence
The work is one of the earliest Bach cantatas ever. It was probably created as a funeral cantata in Mühlhausen in 1707 or 1708 , possibly on the occasion of the death of Mayor Strecker or for the funeral of Bach's uncle Tobias Lämmerhirt (died August 10, 1707 in Erfurt).
Subject
The text consists of various biblical words from the Old and New Testaments as well as the song verses Mit Fried und Freud I drive there by Martin Luther and Glorie, Praise, Ehr und Glorie by Adam Reusner , all of which refer to finitude and death, resurrection and eternal life. Two parts can be distinguished: the Old Testament view of the issue of death presented in the first part contrasts the second part with the New Testament view; the replacement of the old by the new fret determines the symmetrical structure of the cantata.
construction
- Sonatina
-
- Coro con Choral: God's time is the very best time
- Arioso (tenor): Oh, Lord, teach us to think
- Aria (Basso): Order your house
- Coro: It's the old covenant
- Aria (Duetto con Choral)
- Aria (Duetto Alto e Basso) con Choral: I command my spirit into your hands
- Arioso and Choral (Basso e Alto): Today you will be with me in paradise
- Coro (chant): Glory, praise, honor and glory
occupation
- Soprano , alto , tenor , bass
- Instrumental ensemble consisting of 2 recorders , 2 viols and basso continuo
A choir is not expressly prescribed in the cantata . The two bass solo passages are noteworthy for the cast discussion, the first of which is low, the second extremely high. Bach does not otherwise require a comparable range of two octaves from his basses, but there is no indication that he could have started with two bass soloists. It is also impractical to perform one of the two parts as a chorus. "Order your house" calls for too many coloratura and "Today you will be with me in paradise" goes up to f ′ and is too high for a choir bass. Since the sources do not indicate otherwise, it could also be a part that was written for a special singer.
particularities
The cantata by the composer, who was probably only 22 when it was composed, is one of his most important works. Alfred Dürr describes the cantata in his book The Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach with their texts as "a work of genius that even great masters rarely succeed in".
literature
- Alfred Dürr: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 .
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of the cantatas by JS Bach . 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; Carus, Stuttgart 2006 (Edition Bach Archive Leipzig) ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (EVA), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus).
- Christoph Wolff , Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas . JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4 .
Web links
- Free scores of God's time is the best time in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
- God's time is the very best time : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Work information with PDF files of the sheet music for download
- BWV 106 God's time is the very best time Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
- God's time is the very best time - Actus tragicus at All of Bach ( Nederlandse Bachvereniging )
