Holy (Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach)

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Interior of the St. Michaeliskirche Hamburg

Heilig ( Wq 217, H 778) is a cantata by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , for alto solo , double choir and two orchestras. The work was composed in 1776 and performed in the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg .

history

Traditionally, on September 29 , the day of remembrance of the Archangel Michael and all angels, the music service in Hamburg, where Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was the city's music director since 1768, was particularly rich. In the " Hamburg Correspondents " of October 25, 1776, it says: "The excellent Michaelism of our worthy Kapellmeister Bach, performed a few Sundays ago in our main churches , has, among other things, a masterful double choir of angels and peoples who sing" Heilig, Heilig, Heilig " . Tomorrow on Saturday and the day after tomorrow on Sunday this double choir will be performed in the great Michaeliskirche in such a way that the choir of angels from above the church hall and the choir of peoples on the organ ... will be sung. "

The text basis of the work is the German version of the Sanctus , from the vocation vision of the prophet Isaiah : "Holy, holy, holy is God the Lord of hosts" ( Isa 6,3  EU ). The choir of angels begins with a piano entry from above, as it were in the sky, accompanied only by strings . The choir of the peoples answers in the forte , with reinforcement by oboes, bassoon, organ, trumpets and timpani. The continuation of the biblical verse “All lands are full of honor” is composed as an artful concluding fugue , with the old Gregorian melody “ Lord God, we praise you ” ( Martin Luther's German Te Deum ) as a cantus firmus . Bach only seems to have added the introductory ariette “Lord, worthy of the angels serving you” for the printing time in 1779.

The extraordinary artistic success of the work was undisputed from the start. The composer was also aware of this. In 1776 he wrote to the publisher Breitkopf :

“Here I have shown the greatest and most daring diligence in a good exception. This sacred is an attempt, by quite natural progress, to arouse far greater attention and sensation than one is unable to do with all fearful chromatics . It should be my swan song of this kind, and serve to ensure that I will not be forgotten too soon after my death. "

source

Klaus Hofmann in: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Vocal Works. Rheinische Kantorei, The Little Concert. Conductor: Hermann Max . Capriccio 10208, 1988

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Günter Ottenberg: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Reclam 1982. pp. 243-244.

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