Now is salvation and strength
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| Now is salvation and strength | |
| BWV: | 50 |
| Occasion: | Michaelis |
| Year of origin: | 1723 (?) |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | Cantata movement |
| Solo : | - |
| Choir: | SATB - SATB |
| Instruments : | 3Tr Ti 3Ob 2Vl Va Bc |
| AD : | approx. 4 min |
| text | |
| Revelation 12:10 LUT | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
Now is Heil und die Kraft ( BWV 50) is a cantata movement by Johann Sebastian Bach .
Emergence
The double-choir movement probably formed the final movement of a large cantata for the Michaelmas festival. September 29, 1723 is suggested as a possible date for the first performance, but this is uncertain.
No autograph by Bach has survived, but the name of the composer can be found in a copy of the score by Johann Philipp Kirnberger .
Subject
The text “Now the salvation and the strength and the kingdom and the power of our God has become his Christ, because he is rejected who accused them day and night before God” is in the Lutheran liturgy only Michael’s day , the feast of the Archangel Michael and all angels, assigned. A "voice in heaven" thus proclaims the end of the battle between Michael and the dragon and the victory of the exalted Christ over the powers of darkness.
occupation
- Double choir: soprano , alto , tenor , bass in two choirs
- Orchestra: 3 trumpets , timpani , 3 oboes , violin I / II, viola , basso continuo
particularities
The piece is a double-choir movement, which presumably formed the final chorus of a cantata for Michaelmas Day. The line-up with a double choir, trumpets, timpani, oboes and strings required a great deal of effort, which by far exceeded that of a regular church service; no Bach church cantata in which a double choir occurs has survived. Only two other double-choir works with orchestra are known from Bach's church music, the St. Matthew Passion and the Osanna from the B minor Mass . According to recent research, the piece was originally composed for a simple choir and later expanded to include two choirs.
However, around September 29th, Michael’s Day, the Autumn Mass (then called Michael’s Mass) took place in Leipzig , so that there were certainly numerous external trade fair visitors at the service in the St. Thomas Church on this feast day, and an elaborate cantatas performance was appropriate for such an occasion appeared.
The compositional principle is that of a permutation fugue , in which individual motifs appear within a fugue , which can be interchanged and offset at will. The main motif in D major and in 3 ⁄ 4 time is introduced at the beginning in the bass of the first choir colla parte with the basso continuo , it comprises seven bars. Seven is to be thought of here as the number of perfection. With the words "Heil", "Kraft", "Reich" and "Macht" the melody jumps to the third , fourth , fifth and octave of the first note. This creates a stable building of consonant intervals. For the section of text because it has been rejected , the first topic is contrasted with an opposing one in figured eighth movements. This is followed by the remaining voices of Choir I, then Choir II homophonic with the reversal of the theme, until after the use of the instruments the musical shape finally increases to an eight-part choir fugue with partly obbligato voices of the instruments.
Doubts about the authorship
In 2000 Joshua Rifkin doubted the authorship of Johann Sebastian Bach for this choral piece. However, its conclusions remain controversial in musicology .
literature
- Günther Zedler: The preserved church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach (Mühlhausen, Weimar, Leipzig I). Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-4401-0 , pp. 220-22.
- Klaus Hofmann: Bach's double choir "Now is salvation and strength" BWV 50. New reflections on the history of the work. In: Bach Yearbook 1994. Merseburger Verlag, Kassel 1994, pp. 59–73.
Web links
- Now is salvation and strength, BWV 50 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- text
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Alfred Dürr : The cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. 2nd edition 1975. Bärenreiter / dtv, ISBN 3-423-04081-5 , p. 575
- ↑ Klaus Hofmann: Bach's double choir "Now is salvation and strength" BWV 50. New considerations on the history of the work . In: Bach Yearbook 1994 . Merseburger Verlag, Kassel 1994, p. 59ff.
- ↑ Joshua Rifkin: Victory cheers and typographical errors. To the problem of “Now there is salvation and strength” (BWV 50) . In: Bach-Jahrbuch 86 (2000), pp. 67–86
