O eternity, you word of thunder, BWV 60
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| O eternity, you word of thunder | |
| BWV: | 60 |
| Occasion: | 24th Sunday after Trinity |
| Year of origin: | 1723 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | ATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Co 2Oa 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| unknown | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort ( BWV 60) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity , November 7th, 1723.
Story and words
Bach wrote the cantata, a dialogue cantata for solo voices, in his first year in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on November 7th, 1723.
The prescribed readings were Col 1,9-14 LUT and Mt 9,18-26 LUT , the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus. The unknown lyricist sees the girl's resurrection as a sign of the resurrection, which is expected with mixed feelings, fear and hope. As two allegorical figures, fear and hope lead a dialogue. The cantata begins and ends with a chorale , the first stanza from Johann Rist's O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort as an expression of fear, and the fifth stanza from Franz Burmeister's Es ist Enough . In further symmetry, two words from the Bible are opposed to each other in sentences 1 and 4 , Lord, I am waiting for your salvation ( Gen 49.18 LUT ), spoken by Jacob on his death bed, as an expression of hope, and blessed are the dead ( Rev. 14 , 13 LUT ) as an answer to fear.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is set for three soloists, alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir in the final chorale, horn , 2 oboe d'amore , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Aria (alto, horn, chant - tenor): O eternity, you thunder word - Lord, I am waiting for your salvation
- Recitativo (alto - tenor): O difficult walk to the last fight and arguments! - My support is already there
- Aria (alto tenor): My last bed wants to frighten me - the hand of the Savior will cover me
- Recitativo (alto - bass): Death remains hated by human nature - blessed are the dead
- Chorale: It's enough
music
The cantata is sometimes referred to as a solo cantata because apart from the final chorale, only soloists sing. Bach had had three weeks earlier in I believe, dear sir, help my unbelief! designed an inner dialogue. In this cantata he divides the dialogue into two voices and lets the fear of the alto sing, the hope of the tenor, leading to a dialogue in three movements. In sentence 4 the recitative of fear is answered by the bass as the Vox Christi (voice of Christ) with Blessed are the dead .
In the first duet, a chorale sings the alto, amplified by the horn, the chant, while the strings in high tremolo express fear in a way that John Eliot Gardiner on Monteverdi's stile concitato (excited style) can think. The tenor contrasts with Jacob's line.
The second duet is a secco recitative that is intensified twice as arioso : fear sings the word martert as a chromatic melisma on short chords in continuo, hope emphasizes enduring the last word with an expressive melisma .
The third, central duet is dramatic and therefore not in da capo form, but rather similar to a motet . Orchestra ritornelles ensure formal cohesion. Three different sections are structured in the same way: fear begins, hope answers, both sing at the same time, hope has the last word. The instruments also contrast, sometimes simultaneously: the solo violin is assigned to hope and plays soft scales against dotted rhythms in the oboes d'amore and continuo.
In the last duet, fear receives the answer from the bass, who sings the words from Revelation three times as Arioso, each time somewhat expanded.
The melody of the final chorale begins with an unusual sequence of three whole-tone steps. Alban Berg used Bach's sentence in his violin concerto .
In 1724 Bach began his second cycle of cantatas with a chorale cantata on the entire chorale, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20 on the 1st Sunday after Trinity.
reception
In 1914, Oskar Kokoschka created an 11-part series of illustrations for the libretto of the cantata.
Recordings
- CD
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 5 - Sundays after Trinity II. Karl Richter , Munich Bach Choir , Munich Bach Orchestra , Hertha Töpper , Ernst Haefliger , Kieth Engen . Archive production, 1964.
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 3. Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Tölzer Knabenchor , Concentus Musicus Wien , Paul Esswood , Kurt Equiluz , Ruud van der Meer . Teldec , 1976.
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 59. Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Helen Watts , Adalbert Kraus , Philippe Huttenlocher . Hänssler, 1983.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 8. Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Bogna Bartosz , Jörg Dürmüller , Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 1998.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 15 (Solo Cantatas). Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Robin Blaze , Gerd Türk , Peter Kooij . UP , 2000.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 12. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Robin Tyson , James Gilchrist , Peter Harvey . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- DVD
- "O eternity, you word of thunder". Cantata BWV 60. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Miriam Feuersinger , Claude Eichenberger , Bernhard Berchthold , Markus Volpert . Including an introductory workshop and reflection by Peter Gross. Gallus Media, St. Gallen 2008. Online
literature
- Alfred Dürr: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of JS Bach's Cantatas , 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-Verl.)
- Christoph Wolff, Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006 ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 60 O Ewigkeit, you thunder word in bach-cantatas (English)
- O eternity, you word of thunder, BWV 60 on the Bach website
- BWV 60 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ bach-cantatas.com
- ↑ bach-cantatas.com
- ^ A b c John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity All Saints, Tooting ( English , PDF) solideogloria.co.uk. 2010. 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 November 5, 2010.
- ↑ bach-cantatas.com
- ↑ O Ewigkeit - Du Donnerwort (Bach cantata) on the MoMA website , accessed on February 5, 2019.
