My God, how long, oh long?
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| My God, how long, oh long? | |
| BWV: | 155 |
| Occasion: | 2nd Sunday after Epiphany |
| Year of origin: | 1716 |
| Place of origin: | Weimar |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Fg; Str; BC |
| text | |
| Salomon Franck | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
My God, how long, oh long? ( BWV 155) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Weimar in 1716 for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany and performed it for the first time on January 19, 1716.
Story and words
Bach wrote the cantata as concertmaster at the court of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany and performed it for the first time on January 19, 1716 in the castle church. The prescribed readings were Rom 12,6–16 LUT and Joh 2,1–11 LUT , the wedding in Cana . The cantata text was written by the court poet Salomon Franck and published in 1715 in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer . He deepened a thought from the gospel: Jesus is still hidden, but the soul can trust that he will appear at the right time. Franck mentions the word wine and thus alludes to the miracle in Cana, for example “The tears are always poured full, the joys are broken with wine”. The final chorale is the twelfth stanza of Paul Speratus ' It is salvation and we come here .
Bach performed the revised version of the cantata in Leipzig on January 16, 1724.
Occupation and structure
Like other cantatas from the Weimar period, the work is made up of chamber music with four soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir in chorale, bassoon , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Recitativo (soprano, strings): My God, how long, oh long?
- Aria (alto, tenor, bassoon): You have to believe, you have to hope
- Recitativo (bass): So be, oh soul, be content
- Aria (soprano): Throw, my heart, throw yourself still
- Choral: Whether it worked, as if he didn't want to
music
The recitative speaks of longing expectation over a trembling organ point of more than eleven bars. Only with the words “the joy of wine breaks” does the bass start to move, even if the lack of joy is mentioned, only to sink back to “almost all confidence sinks in me”. In the following duet , a virtuoso bassoon in wide-span figurations accompanies the mostly parallel voices. Movement 3 brings comforting words that Bach entrusts to the bass as the Vox Christi . An arioso develops on the words "So that his light of grace appears to you the more lovely" . In the last aria , lively dotted rhythms in the strings and later the singing voice illustrate "Throw, my heart, throw yourself into the arms of the Most High". The chorale to the melody of an Easter choir from the 15th century concludes the cantata in a four-part setting.
Recordings
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 22. Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Ingeborg Reichelt , Norma Lerer, Friedrich Melzer, Hanns-Friedrich Kunz . Hänssler, 1971.
- JS Bach: The cantatas - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 8 , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Concentus Musicus Wien , soprano soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Paul Esswood , Kurt Equiluz , Thomas Hampson . Teldec , 1985.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 3. Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Caroline Stam , Elisabeth von Magnus , Paul Agnew, Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 1995.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 5. Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Midori Suzuki, Yoshikazu Mera , Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooij . UP , 1997.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 19: New York. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Joanne Lunn, Richard Wyn Roberts, Julian Podger, Gerald Finley . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- My God, how long oh long? Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Julia Neumann, Margot Oitzinger, Julius Pfeifer, Raphael Jud. Hugo Loetscher (reflection.) DVD. Gallus Media, 2008.
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 .
- Werner Neumann : Manual 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; 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
- My God, how long, oh long ?, BWV 155 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Original materials for BWV 155 at Bach digital of the Bach Archive Leipzig
- Cantata BWV 155 "My God, how long, oh long?" By Bach Cantatas (English)
- My God, how long, oh long on the Bach website
- Chapter 37 BWV 155 My God, how long, oh long? , A listener and student guide by Julian Mincham , 2010 (English)
- Introduction to the cantata BWV 155 by Rudolf Lutz and Karl Graf, on the YouTube channel of the JS Bach Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Epiphany / Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich ( en , PDF) solideogloria.co.uk. 2006. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
