Watch! pray! pray! watch!

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Bach cantata
Watch! pray! pray! watch!
BWV: 70a / 70
Occasion: 2nd Advent / 26th Sunday after Trinity
Year of origin: 1716/1723
Place of origin: Weimar / Leipzig
Genus: cantata
Solo : SATB
Choir: SATB
Instruments : Tr Ob Fg 2Vl Va Bc
AD : approx. 22 min
text
Salomon Franck , Unknown
Christoph Demantius , Christian Keymann
List of Bach cantatas

Watch! pray! pray! watch! ( BWV 70a and 70) is the title of two church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed a cantata in six movements in Weimar in 1716 for the 2nd Sunday in Advent , and expanded it in Leipzig in 1723 into a two-part cantata for the 26th Sunday after Trinity .

Story and words

Bach wrote the cantata in 1716 shortly before the end of his time as concertmaster at the court of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar for the 2nd Advent and performed it for the first time on December 6, 1716 in the castle church. The prescribed readings were Rom 15.4-13  LUT and Lk 21.25-36  LUT , the second coming of Christ . The court poet Salomon Franck wrote the text and published it in 1717 in Evangelical Sundays and Feast Day Devotions . He composed a chorus and four arias and ended with the fifth stanza of the chorale My Jesus will not be let by Christian Keimann .

Since the tempus clausum prevailed in Leipzig in Advent and no cantata music was allowed to be performed in the service, Bach rededicated the cantata for the 26th Sunday after Trinity with a similar theme. The prescribed readings for this Sunday were 2 Petr 3,3-13  LUT and Mt 25,31-46  LUT , the last judgment . An unknown poet kept the existing sentences and added recitatives and a chorale at the end of the first part, the last stanza of Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele by Christoph Demantius .

In his first year in Leipzig, Bach performed the extended cantata for the first time on November 21, 1723, and again on November 18, 1731.

Occupation and structure

The cantata is set in Leipzig for four soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, trumpet , oboe , bassoon , two violins , viola and basso continuo . The movement numbers of the early cantata are in brackets.

First part

  1. Coro: Watch! pray! pray! watch! (1.)
  2. Recitativo (bass): Terrified, you stubborn sinners
  3. Aria (old): When the day comes when we move (2.)
  4. Recitativo (tenor): Also with the heavenly desire
  5. Aria (soprano): Let the mocker's tongues revile (3.)
  6. Recitativo (tenor): However, for the naughty sex
  7. Chorale: Be very happy, O my soul

Second part

  2. Aria (tenor): Lift up your head (4th)
  3. Recitativo col accompagnamento (bass, chorale in tromba): Oh, shouldn't this big day
  4. Aria (bass): Blessed day of refreshment (5th)
  5. Chorale: Not to the world, not to heaven (6.)

music

The music of the cantata is only available in the BWV 70 version. Bach designed the opening choir in a varied da capo form and built the choir into the concerto of instruments. A characteristic trumpet blows wake-up calls and evokes figurative movement in the other voices. The choir contrasts short calls "Wachet!" with long chords "pray!".

All instruments accompany the first recitative , which successively describes the fear of the sinner, the calm of the elect, the destruction of the universe and the fear of those called to judgment.

The first part is concluded by the last stanza of Be very happy, o my soul, in a four-part sentence.

The recitative in movement 9 begins with a furioso describing the “unheard-of last beat”, while the trumpet quotes the chorale It is Certainly Time , which was understood as a kind of dies irae during the Thirty Years War . The recitative ends in a long melisma to the words “Well, I will end my run with joy”. The following bass aria follows immediately, without the usual ritornello , called molt 'adagio . After the intimate contemplation of the thought “Jesus leads me to silence, to the place where lust is abundant”, the final chorale is richly cast, three independent high string voices give the four-part choir a special shine.

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Cantatas (BWV), oratorios and passions by Johann Sebastian Bach
Sacred cantatas

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69a • 70 / 70a • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 80a • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 • 87 • 88 • 89 • 90 • 91 • 92 • 93 • 94 • 95 • 96 • 97 • 98 • 99 • 100 • 101 • 102 • 103 • 104 • 105 • 106 • 107 • 108 • 109 • 110 • 111 • 112 • 113 • 114 • 115 • 116 • 117 • 118 • 119 • 120 • 121 • 122 • 123 • 124 • 125 • 126 • 127 • 128 • 129 • 130 • 131 • 132 • 133 • 134 • 135 • 136 • 137 • 138 • 139 • 140 • 143 • 144 • 145 • 146 • 147 / 147a • 148 • 149 • 150 • 151 • 152 • 153 • 154 • 155 • 156 • 157 • 158 • 159 • 161 • 162 • 163 • 164 • 165 • 166 • 167 • 168 • 169 • 170 • 171 • 172 • 173 • 174 • 175 • 176 • 177 • 178 • 179 • 180 • 181 • 182 • 183 • 184 • 185 • 186 • 187 • 188 • 190 • 191 • 192 • 193 • 194 • 195 • 196 • 197 • 199 • 244a

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Secular cantatas

30a • 34a • 36c • 134a • 173a • 198 • 201 • 202 • 203 • 204 • 205 • 206 • 207 • 207a • 208 • 209 • 210 • 210a • 211 • 212 • 213 • 214 • 215 • 216a • 249a

Cantatas not preserved

App. 1 • App. 2 • App. 3 • App. 4 • App. 4a • App. 5 • App. 6 • App. 7 • App. 8 • App. 9 • App. 10 • App. 11 • App. 12 • App. 13 • App. 14 • App. 15 • App. 16 • App. 17 • App. 18 • App. 19

Passions

St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) • St. John Passion (BWV 245) • St. Luke Passion (BWV 246) (Bach's authorship questioned) • St. Mark Passion (BWV 247)

Oratorios

Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) • Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) • Easter Oratorio (BWV 249)