Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good, BWV 113
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Lord Jesus Christ, you greatest good | |
| BWV: | 113 |
| Occasion: | 11th Sunday after Trinity |
| Year of origin: | 1724 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Ft 2Oa 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| unknown | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good ( BWV 113) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed the choral cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the 11th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on August 20, 1724.
Story and words
Bach composed the choral cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the 11th Sunday after Trinity in his second cantata cycle. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were 1 Cor 15.1 to 10 LUT , Paul on the Gospel of Christ and his own apostleship, and Lk 18.9 to 14 LUT , the parable of the Pharisee and the publican . The cantata text is based on the eight stanzas of Bartholomäus Ringwaldt's Choral (1588), a penitential song that fits the tax collector's prayer: “Lord, have mercy on me poor sinner”. The melody of the song is also attributed to Ringwaldt. An unknown poet kept the words of stanzas 1, 2, 4 and 8, while adding recitatives to sentence 4 . He worked up the ideas of the remaining stanzas into arias and a recitative, keeping the opening lines of 3 and 7. He designed sentences 5 and 6 particularly freely and included the idea that the prayer of the tax collector or generally of the repentant sinner will be answered. To this end, he used other biblical passages, Lk 15.2 LUT in both clauses, Mt 9.2 LUT (and as a parallel passage Lk 7.48 LUT ) in sentence 5, and Mt 11.28 LUT in 6, rewritten as "He calls: Come to me, you who are laborious and laden ”. The second, New Testament part of the duet from Handel's Messiah also relates to this verse , which begins in the Old Testament with “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd” and continues with “Come unto Him, all ye that labor”.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is made up of four soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, two oboe d'amore , flauto traverso , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Chant: Lord Jesus Christ, you greatest good
- Chorale (alto): Have mercy on me in such a burden,
- Aria (bass): Indeed, if that happens to me
- Recitativo e chorale (bass) However, your wholesome word that does
- Aria (tenor): Jesus accepts sinners
- Recitativo (tenor): The Savior accepts sinners
- Aria (Soprano, Alto): Oh Lord, my God, forgive me
- Choral: Strengthen me with your spirit of joy
music
The opening choir is a chorale fantasy. The cantus firmus is in the soprano, the lower voices are mostly set homophonically and contrast with the ornate melody of the soprano. The chorale lines are separated by orchestral ritornelles , the theme of which is derived from the chorale melody. A solo violin continuously plays virtuoso figurations, while the oboes and the other strings are silent during the vocal parts. The second movement treats the chorale in a similar way to other cantata movements that Bach included in the Schübler chorales , as a trio of alto, the violins in unison and the continuo. The alto sings the undecorated chorale melody.
The first aria is accompanied by the two oboes d'amore. The theme is related to the chorale melody, but turned towards the major and is in a swinging 12/8 time. The singing voice takes over the theme and emphasizes the word "changed" with extensive coloratura. The musicologist Boyd observes a similarity to the aria from Bach's B minor Mass , Et in Spiritum sanctum . Both are written for the bass, in compound time, in A major and with two oboes. The second aria, movement 5, is accompanied by an obbligato flute, as it appeared in the cantatas of the two previous weeks, What do I ask about the world (BWV 94) and Take from us, Lord, you faithful God (BWV 101). The recitative, movement 6, is accompanied by the strings, who start in the second bar on the words “How lovely the word sounds in my ears!” The climax is reached in the prayer of the tax collector. The last aria is composed for two voices and continuo without ritornelle like a 17th century choral concerto. The chorale melody in ornate form occurs several times, even on parts that are not the original text. The last chorale stanza is a simple four-part movement.
Recordings
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 48 , Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Arleen Augér , Gabriele Schreckenbach , Adalbert Kraus , Niklaus Tüller , Hänssler 1973
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 6 , Gustav Leonhardt , Knabenchor Hannover , Collegium Vocale Gent , Leonhardt-Consort , soprano soloists of the Knabenchor Hannover, René Jacobs , Kurt Equiluz , Max van Egmond , Teldec 1981
- Bach Edition Vol. 4 - Cantatas Vol. 1 , conductor Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Ruth Holton , Sytse Buwalda , Knut Schoch , Bas Ramselaar , Brilliant Classics 1999
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 11 , Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Sibylla Rubens , Annette Markert , Christoph Prégardien , Klaus Mertens , Antoine Marchand 1999
- JS Bach: Trinity Cantatas II , John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Magdalena Kožená , William Towers , Mark Padmore , Stephan Loges , Soli Deo Gloria 2000
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 24 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1724 , Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Yukari Nonoshita , Robin Blaze , Gerd Türk , Peter Kooij , BIS 2002
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- 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; Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig), ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verlag)
- Christoph Wolff , Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006 ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- Cantatas, BWV 111–130 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 113 Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good on website bach cantatas
- Lord Jesus Christ, you greatest good on website Bach
- BWV 113 Herr Jesu Christ, you highest good Text, structure, occupation University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2004. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Herr Jesu Christ, du highest good ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2005. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
- ↑ Julian Mincham: Chapter 12 BWV 113 Lord Jesus Christ, you highest good ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
