Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious | |
| BWV: | 123 |
| Occasion: | Epiphany |
| Year of origin: | 1725 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | ATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 2Ft 2Oa 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| Ahasverus Fritsch , unknown poet | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious ( BWV 123) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed the choral cantata, which is based on the chorale by Ahasverus Fritsch , in Leipzig for the festival of Epiphany and performed it for the first time on January 6, 1725.
Story and words
Bach wrote the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the festival of Epiphany (Epiphany), which ended the Christmas season. The prescribed readings for the feast day were Isa 60,1–6 LUT , the Gentiles will be converted, and Mt 2,1–12 LUT , the wise men from the east bring gold, frankincense and myrrh as gifts to the newborn Jesus . The cantata text is based on the chorale in six stanzas by Ahasverus Fritsch. The unknown lyricist retained the wording of the first and last stanzas and composed the remaining stanzas into as many alternating recitatives and arias . The text makes no special reference to the readings, but it does mention the term Jesus name and thereby alludes to the naming that was celebrated on January 1st. The poet added the phrase “salvation and light”, presumably as a reference to the appearance of the Lord, and alludes to Christmas with “Jesus who came into the flesh”. Apart from that, the text follows the theme of the chant: no “enemy of hell” - Herod should be thought of here - neither sin and death nor contempt by the “world” can harm the believer because Jesus is by his side. Bach first performed the cantata on January 6, 1725.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is made up of three soloists, alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, two flauto traverso , oboe d'amore , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Coro: Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious
- Recitativo (Alt): The sweetness of heaven, the pleasure of the chosen
- Aria (tenor): Also the hard cruise
- Recitativo (bass): No enemy of hell can devour me
- Aria (bass): O world, let me out of contempt
- Chorale: So just go there, you vanities
music
In the opening choir, Bach uses the beginning of the chorale melody as an instrumental motif , first in a long introduction, then as a voice against the vocal parts. Soprano and horn perform the cantus firmus line by line. The lower voices are predominantly performed homophonically , with two exceptions: the text “Come only soon” is made clear by multiple calls, and the text of the last line is sung by the bass first to the melody of the first line, imitated by alto and tenor, then first the soprano sings the melody of the last line. In this way Bach achieves a relationship from the end of the sentence to the beginning. The dominant woodwind instruments and the 9/8 time create a pastoral character.
The tenor aria, which is accompanied by the oboe d'amore, addresses the “hard journey of the cross”, implemented in a chromatic ritornello in four bars with incessant modulation . When the ritornello returns at the end of the first part, the chromaticism is in continuo, the melodies are calm, perhaps because the singer expresses that he is not afraid. In the middle section, “storm thunderstorms” are painted in fast singing figures that calm down, adagio, on the words “Heil und Licht”, the reference to Epiphany.
John Eliot Gardiner , who performed the cantata on the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage by the Monteverdi Choir in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, described the bass aria as "one of the loneliest arias Bach ever wrote" (one of the loneliest arias Bach ever wrote) . The singer is only accompanied by a flute and a “staccato” continuo.
The cantata ends with an unusual four-part chorale. The swan song of the bar form is repeated, namely piano. The reason is probably that the text ends with the words "until they put me in the grave". Alfred Dürr notices that not only Bach's early cantatas God's time is the very best time and God, like your name, your fame ends quietly, but also in So God has loved the world, BWV 68 .
Recordings
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 21 , Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Helen Watts , Adalbert Kraus , Philippe Huttenlocher , Hänssler 1980
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 7 , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Concentus Musicus Wien , soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Kurt Equiluz , Robert Holl , Teldec 1982
- Bach Edition Vol. 3 - Cantatas Vol. 1 , Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Sytse Buwalda , Knut Schoch , Bas Ramselaar, Brilliant Classics 1999
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 18: Berlin / Weimar / Leipzig / Hamburg / For Christmas Day & for Epiphany / For the 1st Sunday after Epiphany , John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Sally Bruce-Payne, James Gilchrist , Peter Harvey , Soli Deo Gloria 2000
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 14 , Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Franziska Gottwald, Paul Agnew, Klaus Mertens , Antoine Marchand 2000
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 32 , Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Andreas Weller , Peter Kooij , BIS 2005
- Bach: Cantates pour la Nativité / Intégrale des cantates sacrées Vol. 4 , Eric J. Milnes, Montréal Baroque , Monika Mauch, Matthew White, Charles Daniels, Harry van der Kamp , ATMA Classique 2007
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3 and Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-04431-4 .
- Konrad Klek : Yours alone is honor - Johann Sebastian Bach's sacred cantatas explained . Volume 1: Choral Cantatas . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-374-04038-4
- 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 2006, ISBN 3-374-02390-8 ; Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-89948-073-2
- Christoph Wolff , Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 123 Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious on the bach-cantatas website
- Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious on the Bach.de website
- BWV 123 Dearest Immanuel, Duke the Pious Text, structure, occupation, at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Christoph Wolff : Conclusion of the second yearly cycle (1724–1725) of the Leipzig church cantatas ( English ). bach-cantatas.com, 2000, p. 5 (accessed December 29, 2011).
- ↑ John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for Epiphany / Nikolaikirche, Leipzig (PDF; 156 kB) bach-cantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
