Let go, princess, let another stream
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Let go, princess, let another stream | |
| BWV: | 198 |
| Occasion: | Funeral service for Christiane Eberhardine von Brandenburg-Bayreuth |
| Year of origin: | 1727 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 2Ft, 2Oa; 2Vl, Va, 2Vg, 2 Lt ; Bc |
| text | |
| Johann Christoph Gottsched | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Let it be, Fürstin, let another ray ( BWV 198) is a cantata that Johann Sebastian Bach composed for the funeral service of the University of Leipzig in honor of the late Christiane Eberhardine von Brandenburg-Bayreuth and performed in Leipzig on October 17, 1727 . This secular Bach cantata is also known as Trauerode or Trauerode for the death of Queen Christiane Eberhardine .
Story and text
Bach wrote several musical works for celebrations at the University of Leipzig. At the request of the university, he composed this cantata as funeral music in honor of Christiane Eberhardine, who was the wife of August II. Electress of Saxony and titular queen of Poland .
The cantata was premiered on October 17, 1727 in the Leipzig Paulinerkirche ( University Church in Leipzig). Bach conducted from the harpsichord .
The text was written by the Leipzig scholar and poet Johann Christoph Gottsched . The text is secular, largely devoid of religious elements related to salvation and the afterlife . He praises the late princess as a "heroine", as a " symbol of great women", "exalted queen", "guardian of the faith" and the epitome of virtue. Most of the pieces focus on the mourning for the “dear mother” and the “tears” of the mourners. The pathetic lines in the soprano recitative are exemplary:
- [...]
- the eye is watering, the tongue calls:
- My pain can be called indescribable!
- Here August and Prince and Land complain,
- the nobility groans, the citizen mourns
- [...]
In the final choral movement, the deceased is assured: “They know what they have about you; posterity will not forget you ”.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is written for four vocal soloists ( soprano , alto , tenor and bass ) and a four-part choir and is richly orchestrated: with two flutes , two oboe d'amore , two violins , a viola , two viols , two lutes and the figured bass .
The ten sentences are divided into two parts, which are performed before and after the funeral speech :
First part
- Chorus: Leave it, Princess, leave one more beam
- Recitative (soprano): Your Saxony, your dismayed Meißen
- Aria (soprano): fall silent, fall silent, you lovely strings!
- Recitative (Alto): The sound of the bells shaking
- Aria (alto): How happy the heroine died!
- Recitative (tenor): Your life left the art to die
- Chorus: On you, you image of great women
Second part
- Aria (tenor): The sapphire house of eternity
- Recitative (bass): What miracle is it? You're worth it
- Choir: Yes, Queen! you don't die
music
In the opening movement, after the first chord , Bach delays the return to the tonic for an unusually long time, employing means such as fallacies and the Neapolitan sixth chord . The word “ray” is initially sung in rising tones, while in the case of the “tears” it is usually sung with falling tones. The word “Fürstin” is always declaimed by the whole choir, set apart from the surrounding text.
The movement Der Ewigkeit saphirnes Haus , which was performed first after the funeral oration , contains an allusion to the cantata I want to wear the cross with pleasure , which Bach had composed a year earlier: in bars 70 to 75 the oboe part mimics the bass solo part in the cross-rod cantata, which sings in bars 91 to 98: "After my plagues, he leads me to God, to the promised land."
Bach later borrowed elements of the cantata for his St. Mark Passion and for the other mourning cantata Klagt, Kinder, lagen der Welt (BWV 244a) , written in 1729 . In both works, the music is lost.
Recordings (selection)
- JS Bach: Cantata BWV 198 , Jürgen Jürgens , Monteverdi Choir , Concerto Amsterdam , Telefunken , 1966
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 10 , Knabenchor Hannover (Chorus Master: Heinz Hennig ) & Collegium Vocale Gent (Chorus Master: Philippe Herreweghe ), Leonhardt Consort, conductor Gustav Leonhardt , Teldec 1989
- Bach Edition Vol. 14 - Cantatas Vol. 7 , Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Brilliant Classics 2000
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 4 , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , conductor Ton Koopman , Antoine Marchand.
Web links
- Structure and text
- BWV 198 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- BWV 198 at Bach Digital
- BWV 198 at Bachipedia : performance, work introduction, etc., with videos
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Christian Gottsched: Trauerode: on the death of Queen Christiane Eberhardine (vocal score) . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, OCLC 27662958 .
- ^ David Timm : Festival music for Leipzig university celebrations ( German ). Leipzig University Choir , 2009, p. 8 f (accessed on December 2, 2012).
- ↑ BWV 198 . University of Alberta. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
