I am happy with my happiness

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Bach cantata
I am happy with my happiness
BWV: 84
Occasion: Septuagesimae
Year of origin: 1727
Place of origin: Leipzig
Genus: cantata
Solo : S.
Choir: SATB
Instruments : Whether 2Vl Va Bc
text
Picander  ?
List of Bach cantatas
The Workers of the Eleventh Hour , etching by Jan Luyken

I'm happy with my happiness ( BWV 84) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . The solo cantata for soprano for Sunday Septuagesimae was on 9 February 1727 in Leipzig under the direction of Bach premiered .

Story and words

Bach wrote the cantata in Leipzig for the Sunday Septuagesimae, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It is assigned to his third cantatas cycle and is one of the few cantatas that Bach himself referred to as a cantata. He had already composed two cantatas for the occasion, Take what is yours and go there in 1724 and the chorale cantata I have in God's heart and mind 1725. The prescribed readings were 1 Cor 9.24  LUT - 10.5 LUT , " Race for victory ”, and Mt 20 : 1–16  LUT , the parable of the workers in the vineyard . As in the earlier cantatas, the cantata text only relates generally to the Gospel: Christians should be content with the happiness that is bestowed on them, without envy of others who appear preferred. Title and text resemble Picander's I am delighted with my estate , published in 1728. It is unclear whether Picander based his text on an earlier template or whether Bach used a version of Picander that was modified for printing. As Klaus Hofmann observes, he contains thoughts from the early Enlightenment : “His verses are the price of frugality, of humility with what God has intended for us; a praise of contentment (that is what the word “happy” means, in its former meaning), lack of envy towards others and gratitude towards God. Like the world of thought, the language is not actually Bach's, but that of the next younger generation: the rhetorical pathos of Baroque poetry, the drastic and artificiality of the images are missing; the language is simple and concise and not figurative but rational. "

The final chorale is the 12th stanza of Aemilie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt's well-known song “Who knows how close my end is to me” (1686). Bach already used his first verse in his cantatas Where are you going? (1724) and who knows how close my end is to me? BWV 27 (1726).

Bach first performed the cantata on February 9, 1727.

Occupation and structure

The cantata is made up of chamber music with solo soprano , four-part choir only in chorale, oboe , two violins , viola and basso continuo .

  1. Aria: I am pleased with my happiness
  2. Recitativo: God doesn't owe me anything
  3. Aria: I am happy to eat my little bread
  4. Recitativo: In the sweat of my brow
  5. Choral: I live happily in you

music

The music shows a different line-up and character in order to offer variety despite only having one singing voice. The first aria is slow and thoughtful, accompanied by all instruments, and is reminiscent of an oboe concerto. The first recitative is secco, the second is accompanied by the strings. The second aria is dance-like, accompanied by two obligatory instruments, oboe and violin. In lively figuration of the violin and, somewhat more simply, the oboe, they illustrate the text "a happy spirit, a grateful heart that praises and praises". Hofmann notes that the aria represents "the musical genre image of a rural idyll with a rustic music scene, a homage to the enlightened utopia of a simple, happy life in the country". The violin figures are reminiscent of "drone sounds like a bagpipe or a hurdy-gurdy". Sixth jumps upwards in the singing voice have a folk effect and “at the same time convey the impression of cheerful serenity”.

The chorale is a simple four-part movement to the melody of Who only lets God rule .

Recordings

CD

DVD

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Klaus Hofmann: I am delighted with my happiness / (I am Content with my Happiness), BWV 84 (PDF; 2.0 MB) bach-cantatas.com. 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
  2. ↑ Who knows how close my end is to me? at Bach Cantatas (English).
  3. ↑ Who only lets God rule with Bach Cantatas (English).
  4. ↑ Matthias Lange: Inspired. Review of the CD edition, at Klassik.com , accessed on June 18, 2014.
Cantatas (BWV), oratorios and passions by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sacred cantatas

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69a • 70 / 70a • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 80a • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 • 102 • 103 • 104 • 105 • 106 • 107 • 108 • 109 • 110 • 111 • 112 • 113 • 114 • 115 • 116 • 117 • 118 • 119 • 120 • 121 • 122 • 123 • 124 • 125 • 126 • 127 • 128 • 129 • 130 • 131 • 132 • 133 • 134 • 135 • 136 • 137 • 138 • 139 • 140 • 143 • 144 • 145 • 146 • 147 / 147a • 148 • 149 • 150 • 151 • 152 • 153 • 154 • 155 • 156 • 157 • 158 • 159 • 161 • 162 • 163 • 164 • 165 • 166 • 167 • 168 • 169 • 170 • 171 • 172 • 173 • 174 • 175 • 176 • 177 • 178 • 179 • 180 • 181 • 182 • 183 • 184 • 185 • 186 • 187 • 188 • 190 • 191 • 192 • 193 • 194 • 195 • 196 • 197 • 199 • 244a

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Secular cantatas

30a • 34a • 36c • 134a • 173a • 198 • 201 • 202 • 203 • 204 • 205 • 206 • 207 • 207a • 208 • 209 • 210 • 210a • 211 • 212 • 213 • 214 • 215 • 216a • 249a

Cantatas not preserved

App. 1 • App. 2 • App. 3 • App. 4 • App. 4a • App. 5 • App. 6 • App. 7 • App. 8 • App. 9 • App. 10 • App. 11 • App. 12 • App. 13 • App. 14 • App. 15 • App. 16 • App. 17 • App. 18 • App. 19

Passions

St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) • St. John Passion (BWV 245) • St. Luke Passion (BWV 246) (Bach's authorship questioned) • St. Mark Passion (BWV 247)

Oratorios

Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) • Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) • Easter Oratorio (BWV 249)