Middle Trinity Time Cantatas

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 18, 2023)
Bach's first church-year cantata cycle was unique in many ways. It was a heterogeneous cycle of varied madrigalian text authors and sources (biblical, hymnal) as well as musical forms utilizing old and new materials; the beginning of a systematic realization of his calling for a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God"; and an innovative collection of biblical, liturgical, hymnic, and theological studies. At the beginning of his tenure in Leipzig as cantor and music director in May 1723, initially, Bach intentionally and systematically exploited previous compositions while planning new cantatas in a matrix of musical sermons for the some 60 Sundays and feast days of the church year. About half of the resulting cycle involved old cantatas presented in Weimar that were reperformed virtually unaltered for the same service, 17 (BWV 21.3, 185.2, 199.3, 161, 162.2, 163, 61, 63, 152, 155, 72, 18.2, 4.2, 31.2, 12, 172.2, 165), expanded five Weimar cantatas with new materials for a different service (BWV 70.2, 186.2, 147.2, 182, 80.2), or revised extensively with new text underlay five Cöthen profane serenades (BWV 66.2, 134.2, 173.2, 184.2, 194.3) for de tempore feast days, that initiated a significant, transformative practice. Since Bach's first cycle did not rely on one librettist, as did his cantata cyclical colleagues Telemann, Stölzel, and Graupner, he plotted various mini-cycles, usually in some six successive printed settings in a libretto book distributed during the actual services. The first cycle began with mini-series: Trinity 1 to Trinity 7 with the feasts of John the Baptist and the Visitation of Mary in dual or two-part presentations old and new; Trinity 8 to Trinity 14 almost all new cantatas in movement structural form that is the same with an opening biblical chorus, alternating recitatives and arias, and a closing chorale, called Scheide Cantata Form 3 or Alfred Dürr Cantata Form A. In Middle Trinity Time, Bach made a sudden and significant shift to a new text format that embraced opening chorale chorus and recitative trope, a harbinger of his second, abbreviated chorale cantata cycle.

First Cantata Mini-Series, Trinity 1 to 7

Most significant was the initial dual mini-series of the first seven Sundays after Trinity blending old and new cantatas as Bach produced dual pairings or two-part cantatas.

05/30 Trinity 1, BWV 75, "Die Elenden sollen essen, daß sie satt werden" (*)

06/06 Trinity 2, BWV 76, "Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes" (*)

BWV 75, 76, same format: Part I, OT-R-A-R-A-R-Cl; Part II, S-R-A-R-A-R-Cl.
06/13 Trinity 3, BWV 21.3, "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" (*), presumably Salomo Franck: Part I, S-Cs-A-R-A-Cl; Part II, R-A-Cs+Cl-A-Cs.
06/20 Trinity 4, double bill: BWV 185.2, "Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe," Salomo Franck 1715: A+Inst.Cl-R-A-R-A-Cl; and BWV 24, "Ein ungefärbt Gemüte," Erdmann Neumeister 1714: A-R-Cs-R-A-Cl.
06/24 John the Baptist Feast, double bill: BWV 165, “O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad,” Salomo Franck 1715: A-R-A-R-A-Cl. and BWV 167, "Die Menschen rühmet Gottes Liebe," unknown 1723: A-R-A-R-Cl.
06/27 Trinity 5 (no performance recorded, ?BWV 165, 167 reperformances¹).
07/02 Visitation Fest, BWV 147.2, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (*), Salomo Franck 1717 4. Adv.; recits. 2, 4. 8, ?Christian Weiss Sr. 1723: Part 1, Cs. R-A-R-A-Cl; Part II, A-R-A-Cl; Magnificat in E-Flat, BWV 243.1.
07/04 Trinity 6 (no performance recorded, ?BWV 147.2, 243.1 reperformance¹).
07/11 Trinity 7, BWV, 186.2 Agre dich, O Seele, nicht (*), Salomo Franck 1717 2 Adv.; recits. 2, 4, 7, 9, ?Christian Weiß Sr. 1723: Part I, Cs-R-A-R-A-Cl; Part II, R-A-R-A-Cl.
* Two-part cantatas

This first outline of Bach's initial cantata church-year mini-cycle involves several major guiding factors. The initial double bills, Cantata 75 for the 1st Sunday after Trinity and Cantata 76 for the second Sunday after Trinity, possibly to texts of Leipzig Mayor Gottfried Lange, who wrote Bach's probe texts for BWV 22 and 23 for Estomihi Sunday, 7 Feb. 1723. Cantatas 75 and 76 use a basic movement format involving an opening statement (chorus, sinfonia) followed by alternating recitatives and arias in the style of Italian opera seria as fostered by Erdmann Neumeister c.1700. It was a format expanded in the 1704 Rudolstadt printed texts of Sachsen-Meiningen Duke Ernst Ludwig (1672-1724, Wikipedia) or his half-brother Duke Anton Urich (1687-1763, Wikipedia), mostly in two parts with Old Testament text in Part I and New Testament in Part II, often with opening chorus and closing chorale, found in the Johann Ludwig Bach cantatas that Sebastian presented in 1726 (BCW). Easter Cantata BWV 15, "Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen" (For you will not leave my soul in hell, Ps. 16:10), was originally attributed to Sebastian but William H. Scheide proved that its was by Johann Ludwig (Bach-Jahrbuch 1959, 1961, 1962). One new work which Scheide omitted in the first mini-cycle was the Magnificat in E-Flat, BWV 243.1,² Bach's first extant major vocal work, which scholars recently determined was premiered for the Feast of the Visitation of Mary on 2 July 1723, paired with Cantata 147.2, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben," and the liturgical Sanctus in C major, BWV 237.

Second Cantata Mini-Series: New Chorus Cantatas

Having stressed his young chorus with weekly double assignments, Bach then turned to new chorus works in the second series from the 8^th to the 14^th Sunday after Trinity with selective librettists (see BCW). The movement structural form is the same (6 movements Bib-R-A-R-A-Cl), involving almost all "new" works, BWV 136, 105, 46, 179-199.3, 69a, 77, 25). The similarity of form in these new works suggests that Bach commissioned one or two Leipzig librettists, probably learned writers with theological backgrounds, based upon the Epistle and Gospel readings for the Sunday services, closing with plain chorales prescribed from established hymnbooks.

(Cycle 1 (1723), Opening Chorus Mini-Series
07-18 Trinity 8, BWV 136, Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BCW.
07-25 Trinity 9, BWV 105, Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht, BCW.
08-01 Trinity 10, BWV 46, Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei, BCW.
08-08 Trinity 11, BWV 179, Siehe zu, daß deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, BCW; and BWV 199.3, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BCW.
08-15 Trinity 12 BWV 69.1(a), Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BCW.
08-22 Trinity 13 BWV 77 Du sollst Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BCW.
08-29 Trinity 14 BWV 25 Es ist nichts Gesundes an meinem Leibe, BCW.

Third, Unique Mini-Cycle with Chorales

Beginning the third segment or mini-series in the middle-late portion of Trinity Time, from the 15th to the 20th Sunday after Trinity, Bach made an abrupt change in his cantata movement text-form format of his first church-year cycle. Bach in the unique format Scheide calls the "138-95" text form for the first two cantatas, BWV 138 and 95, for the 15th and 16th Sundays after Trinity, respectively introduces the opening chorale with recitative trope in both (Ibid.: 51). Some "eighteen of the twenty works with more than one chorale come after the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity and Ratswechsel," observes Scheide (Ibid.: 89). "All this bears witness to the continuing importance of chorales in B's church music at a level which was not reached gradually but suddenly, and even dramatically on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity." The composite text format for BWV "138-95" Form is: 1. Chorale (Cl) or Cl w/Recitative (R), 2. R, 3. Aria (A), 4. R, 5. Cl. Between the second and third mini-cycles is the transitional, expanded Ratswechsel (Town Council inauguration) Cantata 119, "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn" (Praise, O Jerusalem, the Lord, Ps. 147:12, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose) in the text form OT-R-A-R-A-R-Cs-R-Cl, a variant of Text Form 3 (Dürr Form A), which reuses materials from Cöthen and has a single printed text separate from the multi-cantata service textbook.

Cycle 1 (1723) Third Mini-Cycle

08-30, Town Council, Cantata BWV 119, "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn," BCW.
09-05, Trinity 15, Cantata BWV 138, Was betrübst du dich, mein Herz?, BCW.
09-12, Trinity 16, Cantata BWV 95, Christus, der ist mein Leben, BCW.
09-19, Trinity 17, lost or ?Cantata BWV 148 Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens, BCW.
09-26, Trinity 18, lost cantata
09-29 St. Michael's Day, ?lost; possibly Johann Christoph Bach (1642– 1703), “Es erhub sich ein Streit”; BWV 50, “Nun is das Heil und die Kraft” (Rev. 12:10), BCW; ? G.P. Telemann: Cantata BWV 219=TVWV 1:1328, "Siehe, es hat uberwunden der Lowe," BCW.
10-03, Trinity 19, Cantata BWV 48, "Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen," BCW.

Mini-Cycle Gap

After Cantata 138 and hybrid proto chorale Cantata 95, “Christus, der ist mein Leben” (Christ is my life) for the 15^th and 16^th Sundays after Trinity, Bach reached another Sundays-feast day challenge with the 17th Sunday after Trinity in Cantata 148, "Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens,"³ another festive cantata 3/A form, related to a poem by Picander with its exact dating still disputed between 1723 and 1725 (Scheide favors the latter, Ibid.: 140). Here in the 17th and 18th Sundays after Trinity (Sept. 19 and 26), and St. Michael's Day is a significant gap "the only place in Jahrgang I where significant [three] losses may be assumed," says Scheide (Ibid.: 43). The feast of St. Michael's on Sept. 29 was significant as the beginning of the Leipzig Fall Fair, the most important of the three fairs (Winter, Spring, Fall), when Bach would provide an important music for all the visitors, possibly double chorus Cantata 50, "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft" (Now is the health and the strength, Rev. 12:10 [altered], trans. Z. Philip Ambrose),⁴ which Scheide had authenticated. Other speculation suggests that for the feast, Bach presented Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), “Es erhub sich ein Streit,” or ? G.P. Telemann: Cantata BWV 219=TVWV 1:1328, "Siehe, es hat uberwunden der Lowe," BCW. Meanwhile, a unique text form variant of Form 3 also is found in Cantata 48, "Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen" (A poor man am I; who will set me free, Rom 7:24, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose) for the 19th Sunday after Trinity. Thus the 3/A form involved 10 new Cantatas 136, 106, 46, 179, 69a, 77, and 25, for the 8th to 14th Sundays after Trinity, two more, Cantatas 109 and 89 for the 21st and 22nd Sundays after Trinity, and BWV 104 for the 2nd Sunday after Easter. Bach's Jahrgang I features 37 new texts with 22 different forms, Scheide shows (Ibid.: 52). "Accordingly, we feel forced to the conviction that one of the most acute problems of [heterogeneous] Jahrgang I is to explain how an instinct which on the one hand gives so much evidence of desiring to create uniform patterns of cantata architecture nevertheless created so many different forms. The answer must surely be sought in a study of both texts and music. For the present we are restricting ourselves to textual matters." One element is the gospel sermon thematic patterns for Trinity 9-19, generally alternating a parable with a teaching or miracle. The first cycle also has four works which possibly derive (borrow) materials from Cöthen: Cantata 136 for the 8th Sunday after Trinity, Cantata 119 for Ratswechsel, Cantata 190 for New Year's Day 1724, and Cantata 153 for the Sunday after New Year's, 2 Jan. 1723. Five Cöthen serenades provide derived musical materials for de tempore feast days in 1724: BWV 66.2, 134.2, 173.2, 184.2, 194.3, observes Scheide (Ibid.: 140 from Part II, Section 4, Cöthen Cantatas: 129-140). As noted above in the first paragraph, 17 Weimar cantatas were repeated unaltered for the same services in the Leipzig Jahrgang I while five were expanded with new materials for different services: BWV 70.2, 186.2, 147.2, 182, 80.2 (Ibid.: 3. Weimar Cantatas, 93-128).

ENDNOTES

¹ Reperformances: "It looks as though Bach intended the feast day cantata to be repeated on the following Sunday in the other church," says William H. Scheide, Bach Achieves his Goal: His first Year of Regular Church Music Following the Lutheran Calendar, ed. Berndt Koska (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2022: 34); movement abbreviations: A = aria, Cl = chorale, Cs = chorus, OT = Old Testament text, R = recitative, S = sinfonia.
² Magnificat in E-Flat: 1723 calendar, Carus-Verlag; music and commentary, Carus-Verlag.
³ Cantata 148: performance date of 1723 or 1725, commentary (BCW: block "Composed"), Bach Digital, Baach Digital; Carus score Forward: 4, Carus Media.
⁴ Cantata 50: Wikipedia, Wikipedia; Carus score, Carus Media: Foreward: 3); Bach Digital, Bach Digital.

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To come: Late Trinity Time Cantatas, Reformation Festival.