What God does is done well, BWV 98
| Bach cantata | |
|---|---|
| What God does is well done | |
| BWV: | 98 |
| Occasion: | 21st Sunday after Trinity |
| Year of origin: | 1726 |
| Place of origin: | Leipzig |
| Genus: | cantata |
| Solo : | SATB |
| Choir: | SATB |
| Instruments : | 2Ob Ot 2Vl Va Bc |
| text | |
| Christoph Birkmann | |
| List of Bach cantatas | |
What God does is done well ( BWV 98) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach . He composed it in Leipzig in 1726 for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and performed it for the first time on November 10, 1726.
Story and words
In his fourth year in office in Leipzig, Bach composed the cantata in 1726 for the 21st Sunday after Trinity. It is assigned to his 3rd cantata cycle. The prescribed readings for Sunday were Eph 6.10–17 LUT , “Take hold of the armor of God”, and John 4.46–54 LUT , the healing of the son of a royal. The cantata begins with the first stanza of Samuel Rodigast's chorale What God does, that is well done (1674), but it is not a chorale cantata, unlike two other cantatas of Bach, which are based on the complete chorale, What God does is well done BWV 99 (1723) and What God does is well done, BWV 100 (1732). The text of the chorale focuses on trusting God, while the two cantatas that Bach had previously written for the occasion, I believe, dear Lord, help my unbelief! And out of deep need I cry to you, BWV 38 , both started from doubt and need.
The lyricist Christoph Birkmann (1703–1771) makes general reference to the gospel. He emphasizes that a prayer for salvation is answered, so in sentence 4 based on Mt 7.7 LUT , “knock and it will be opened to you”, continued in the final sentence 5 as a rewording of Gen 32.26 LUT , “I. do not let yourself, you bless me ”. This sentence is not a chorale, but it begins exactly like Christian Keymann's My Jesus I don't let (1658).
Occupation and structure
The cantata is occupied by four vocal soloists, soprano , alto , tenor and bass , four-part choir, two oboes , waist (tenor oboe), two violins , viola , and basso continuo .
- 1. Coro: What God does is done well
- 2. Recitativo (tenor): Oh God! when you will me once
- 3. Aria (soprano): Stop crying, you eyes
- 4. Recitativo (Alto): God has a heart that is abundant in mercy
- 5. Aria (bass): I will not leave my Jesus
music
The cantata has chamber music ensembles, which is particularly noticeable in comparison to the two choral cantatas on the same chorale with the melody by Severus Gastorius . In the opening choir, the predominantly homophonic movement of the vocal parts, which are reinforced by the oboes colla parte , is contrasted with a string composition, which is performed by the first violin as an obligatory instrument. The last line is set in free polyphony , which is continued into the long final note of the melody. All voices sing extended melisms on the word "walten". Strings and voices alternate in the two tunnels of the bar form while they play the swan song together.
Both recitatives are secco. The first aria is accompanied by an oboe oboe. The first two bars of the oboe theme are derived from the chorale melody. The ritornello is repeated after a first vocal section, and again after a different second vocal section in which God's work is represented by a series of triplets . The second aria, an unusual ending to the cantata, is structured like the first. Here the violins take over the accompaniment in unison . Bach succeeds in hinting at the expected final chorale by not adding the ornate melody of this chorale by Andreas Hammerschmidt to the opening words of Keymann's chorale Meinen Jesum ich ich . These opening words appear repeatedly in four out of five entries in the singing voice.
Recordings
- LP / CD
- Les Grandes Cantates de JS Bach, Vol. 14. Fritz Werner , Heinrich Schütz Choir Heilbronn , Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra , Agnes Giebel , Claudia Hellmann , Helmut Krebs , Erich Wenk . Erato , 1963.
- JS Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas, Vol. 5. Gustav Leonhardt , Knabenchor Hannover , Leonhardt-Consort , soloist of the Knabenchor Hannover, Paul Esswood , Kurt Equiluz , Max van Egmond . Telefunken , 1979.
- The Bach Cantata, Vol. 55. Helmuth Rilling , Gächinger Kantorei , Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , Arleen Augér , Julia Hamari , Lutz-Michael Harder , Walter Heldwein . Hänssler, 1983.
- Bach Edition Vol. 5 - Cantatas Vol. 2. Pieter Jan Leusink , Holland Boys Choir , Netherlands Bach Collegium , Ruth Holton , Sytse Buwalda , Knut Schoch , Bas Ramselaar . Brilliant Classics, 1999.
- Bach Cantatas Vol. 11: Genova / Greenwich / For the 20th Sunday after Trinity / For the 21st Sunday after Trinity. John Eliot Gardiner , Monteverdi Choir , English Baroque Soloists , Joanne Lunn , William Towers , Paul Agnew , Gotthold Schwarz . Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas, Vol. 18. Ton Koopman , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir , Johannette Zomer , Bogna Bartosz , Christoph Prégardien , Klaus Mertens . Antoine Marchand, 2003.
- JS Bach: Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year, Vol. 1: "I would like to carry the cross staff" - Cantatas BWV 98, 180, 56, 55. Sigiswald Kuijken , La Petite Bande , Sophie Karthäuser , Petra Noskaiová , Christoph Genz , Dominik Wörner , BIS , 2004.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol. 48 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1723. Masaaki Suzuki , Bach Collegium Japan , Hana Blažíková , Robin Blaze , Satoshi Mizukoshi , Peter Kooij . UNTIL 2010,
- DVD
- What God does is well done. Cantata BWV 98. Rudolf Lutz , choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation , Sibylla Rubens (soprano), Jan Börner (alto), Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Markus Volpert (bass). Including an introductory workshop and reflection by Tilmann Moser . Gallus Media, 2016.
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 Archive Leipzig), ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evang. Verl.-Anst.); ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verlag).
- Christoph Wolff / Ton Koopman : The world of Bach cantatas. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2006, ISBN 978-3-476-02127-4 .
Web links
- Cantata BWV 98 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Cantata BWV 98 “What God does is well done” at Bach-Digital of the Bach-Archive Leipzig
- Cantata BWV 98 “What God does is well done” on bach cantata's website
- “What God does is done well” on the Bach website
- BWV 98 What God does is well done on the personal homepage of Walter F. Bischof at the University of Alberta
Individual evidence
- ↑ What God does, is well done ( English ) 2005. Accessed September 26, 2011th
- ↑ a b c d e Julian Mincham: Chapter 31 BWV 98 What God does is well done ( English ) jsbachcantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
- ↑ Christine Blanken: A Cantata-Text Cycle of 1728 from Nuremberg: a Preliminary Report on a Discovery relating to JS Bach's so-called 'Third Annual Cantata Cycle'. In: Understanding Bach , 10/2015, pp. 9–30, especially p. 22; accessed on the Bach Network on November 19, 2015.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / What God does, that is well done ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
- ↑ Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / I don't leave my Jesus ( English ) bach-cantatas.com. 2010. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
- ↑ Product information on the JS Bach Foundation website, accessed on May 16, 2016.
