See! We are going up to Jerusalem

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bach cantata
See, we are going up to Jerusalem
BWV: 159
Occasion: Estomihi
Year of origin: 1729?
Place of origin: Leipzig
Genus: cantata
Solo : ATB
Choir: SATB
Instruments : Ob 2Vl Va BC
text
Christian Friedrich Henrici
List of Bach cantatas

See, we're going up to Jerusalem ( BWV 159) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig for the Sunday Estomihi and probably performed it for the first time on February 27, 1729.

Story and words

Bach wrote the cantata in Leipzig for the Sunday Estomihi , the Sunday before Ash Wednesday . In Leipzig it was the last Sunday before Good Friday on which a cantata was performed, as the tempus clausum was observed in Leipzig during the Passion . The date of the first performance is not documented, but the lyricist Christian Friedrich Henrici (called Picander), who also wrote the St. Matthew Passion , published this cantata in his year 1728. It can therefore be assumed that it was first performed on February 27, 1729 has been. Bach had composed two cantatas for the Sunday Estomihi of 1723, as test pieces for his application for the office of Thomaskantor : You true God and David's son (BWV 23) and Jesus took the twelve (BWV 22).

The prescribed readings for Sunday were 1 Cor 13 : 1–13  LUT and Lk 18 : 31–43  LUT , the healing of a blind man and the associated announcement of suffering in Jerusalem. While Bach also deals with healing in the earlier cantatas, this work focuses on the path to passion. The poet emphasizes their enormity in sentence 1, regards them as exemplary in sentence 2, in sentence 3 as a reason to say goodbye to worldly joy, and finally as a reason for thanks. In sentence 2, the recitative and the 6th stanza of Paul Gerhardt's chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden , of which these and four other stanzas appear in the St. Matthew Passion, complement each other. Sentence 4 begins with the words It is finished ( Joh 19.30  LUT ), one of the Seven Last Words . It is already indicated in the announcement of the Sunday Gospel: "and everything that has been written will be completed" Lk 18,31  LUT . Bach's St. John Passion contains an alto aria based on these words, a summary of the Passion immediately after the death of Jesus. The final chorale is the 33rd and last stanza of Paul Stockmann's Jesus Leiden, Pein und Tod (1633).

The St. Matthew Passion was performed on Good Friday 1729.

Occupation and structure

The cantata is made up of three soloists, alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir only in chorale, oboe , two violins , viola and basso continuo with bassoon . The soprano chorale in movement 2 can be sung solo or in a choir.

  1. Arioso e recitativo (bass, alto): See, we're going up to Jerusalem - come, look, my mind
  2. Aria e chorale (alto, soprano): I will follow you - I want to stand here with you
  3. Recitativo (tenor): Now I want me, my Jesus
  4. Aria (bass, oboe): It's done
  5. Chorale: Jesus, your passion is pure joy to me

music

Sentence 1 is a dialogue between Jesus and the soul. The soul is sung by the alto, not by the soprano as in many other such dialogues, Jesus by the bass as the Vox Christi (voice of Christ). Bach achieves a dramatic contrast by setting the Jesus words as arioso, which is accompanied only by continuo, while the excited answers of the soul are accompanied by strings as recitativo accompagnato . This treatment is the opposite of the St. Matthew Passion, where the Jesus words are intensified by a string quartet. In movement 2, the expressive line of the alto part is supplemented by the chorale verse I want to stand here with you in the soprano. The climax of the cantata is movement 4, in which the Vox Christi considers the completion of the Passion. The opening words It is accomplished are sung on a motif presented by the oboe, supported by a “harmony-filling string composition” (Alfred Dürr). In the middle section, the section “Now I want to hurry” is illustrated by runs in the voice, oboe and violin. A quasi da capo takes up the starting motif again, this time on the words “Welt, Gute Nacht”. The final chorale is simply set in four parts.

Recordings

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b David Vernier: Jesus, Your Passion - Bach: Cantatas Bwv 22, 23, 127 & 159 / Herreweghe, Mields, White, Et Al ( English ) arkivmusic.com. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  2. David Smith: Bach Cantata BWV 159 “See! We are going up to Jerusalem ” ( en ) lectionarycentral.com. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  3. ^ Erik Eriksson: Cantata No. 159, “See, we're going up to Jerusalem,” BWV 159 ( English ) Allmusic . 2011. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  4. Julian Mincham: Chapter 41 BWV 159 See! we're going up to Jerusalem ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2011.