If God were not with us this time, BWV 14
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| If God weren't with us this time | |
| BWV: | 14th |
| Occasion: | 4th Sunday after Epiphany |
| Year of origin: | 1735 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | STB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | Cc Tr 2Ob 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| Martin Luther , unknown | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
If God weren't with us this time ( BWV 14) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed the choir cantata in Leipzig for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany based on the hymn by Martin Luther and performed it for the first time on January 30, 1735.
Story and words
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany (apparition of the Lord). In his first year in Leipzig he had Jesus asleep on this occasion , what should I hope? composed. In 1725, when he was composing an annual cycle of choral cantatas, there was no Sunday because Easter was early. In 1735, shortly after the first performance of his Christmas Oratorio , he filled this gap. For Christoph Wolff it is obvious that Bach performed his cycle of choral cantatas again in 1735 and between Was mein Gott wants, das g'scheh allzeit, BWV 111 for the third Sunday after Epiphany and I have a new cantata in God's heart and mind for Septuagesima needed.
The prescribed readings for Sunday were Rom 13,8-10 LUT , “So now the love of the law is fulfillment”, and Mt 8,23-27 LUT , the calming of the storm . The cantata text is based on the hymn of the same name in three stanzas by Martin Luther , a rewording of Psalm 124 , published in 1524 in Johann Walters Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn . According to John Eliot Gardiner , the song was sung regularly in Leipzig this Sunday. The wording of the text of the first and last stanza was retained for the cantata, an unknown librettist rewrote the middle stanza to a sequence of aria , recitative and aria, Wolff names Andreas Stübel as a possible poet. The theme of the song relates generally to the gospel: our lives are in need of God's help and are lost without him. Another connection is given by the pictures of flooding water in the Psalm, which Luther rephrased. From this, the cantata poet developed "Your anger would have flooded us like a wild flood and as foamed water".
Bach first performed the cantata on January 30, 1735. It is one of his latest preserved church cantatas.
Occupation and structure
The cantata is made up of three soloists, soprano , tenor and bass , four-part choir, corno da caccia , two oboes , two violins , viola and basso continuo .
- Coro: If God weren't with us this time
- Aria (soprano): Our strength means too weak
- Recitativo (tenor): Yes, if only God would have admitted it
- Aria (bass): God by your strong archer
- Chorale: Praise and thanks to God who did not admit
music
The chorale is sung to the tune of Where the Lord God does not hold us . Bach also dedicated a choral cantata to this song, Where the Lord God Doesn't Stop With Us, BWV 178 . The opening choir is an unusual composition that does not follow the scheme of ritornelles in which the soprano sings the cantus firmus in long notes. In a movement reminiscent of motets , the strings play colla parte with the voices, each line of the chorale is prepared by a four-part counterfugue . The chorale melody is not sung, but performed in long notes by the winds. This creates a five-part movement that is unique in Bach's cantatas. The only other piece of similar complexity, also with an instrumental cantus firmus, is the opening chorus of Einfest Burg ist Unser Gott, BWV 80 , which, however, does not contain a counterfugue.
In the first aria, the soprano is accompanied by the strings and the horn, which underlines the text contrast “strong” and “weak” together with the singing voice. Gardiner notes that the horn is playing in its highest register, in the autograph as “Corne. par force and tromba ”. The high register of the brass part can be explained more easily by the fact that this movement is written in B for trumpet. In the central recitative, the flowing waters are illustrated by quick passages in continuo on words like “anger”, “flood” and “flooded”. Similar word painting paints the waves in the middle section of the bass aria in octave leaps and "downward-shooting runs", as Alfred Dürr describes it. The final chorale is a four-part movement with lively lower voices, which is similar to the chorales of the Christmas oratorio performed shortly before. Wolff emphasizes the mature compositional technique in Bach's late church cantatas, in which his experiences between 1723 and 1729 were incorporated.
Recordings
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 1 , Gustav Leonhardt , Tölzer Knabenchor , King's College Choir , Leonhardt-Consort , soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Marius van Altena , Max van Egmond , Teldec 1972
- The Bach Cantata Vol. 8 , Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn , Krisztina Láki , Aldo Baldin , Philippe Huttenlocher , Hänssler 1984
- Bach Made in Germany Vol. 4 - Cantatas III , Hans-Joachim Rotzsch , Thomanerchor , Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum , Monika Frimmer , Eberhard Büchner , Andreas Scheibner , Eterna 1984
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 19: Greenwich / Romsey , John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Joanne Lunn , Paul Agnew , Peter Harvey , Soli Deo Gloria 2000
- Bach Edition Vol. 18 - Cantatas Vol. 9 , Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Ruth Holton , Knut Schoch , Bas Ramselaar , Brilliant Classics 2000
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 20 , Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Johannette Zomer , James Gilchrist , Klaus Mertens , Antoine Marchand 2002
literature
- Alfred Dürr : Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantatas. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
- Werner Neumann : Handbook of the cantatas by Johann Sebastian 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 . Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, ISBN 3-374-02390-8 ; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006 (Edition Bach Archive Leipzig), ISBN 3-89948-073-2
- Christoph Wolff / Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas . Verlag J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4
Web links
- If God were not with us this time, BWV 14 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 14 If God weren't with us this time on the bach-cantatas website
- If God weren't with us this time on the Bach.de website
- BWV 14 If God weren't with us this time Text, structure and composition on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Christoph Wolff : The Cantatas of the Picander early 1730s ( English , PDF; 5.3 MB) bach-cantatas.com. 1995. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
- ↑ If God weren't with us this time / Text and Translation of Chorale ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ↑ a b John Eliot Gardiner : Cantatas for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany / Abbey Church of St Mary and St Ethelflaeda, Romsey ( English , PDF; 85 kB) bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Where the Lord God doesn't stop with us ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
