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Cantata BWV 58
Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid [II]
Discussions - Part 4 |
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Continue from Part 3 |
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Discussions in the Week of September 20, 2009 (3rd round) |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (September 19, 2009):
BWV 58: Intro., Sources & Fugitive Notes
Cantata BWV 58
Following his first Leipzig cantata (BWV 153) for the Sunday falling between the festivals of Christmas and Epiphany, called the Sunday after New Year's on Jan. 2, 1724, Bach, for the comparable Sundays in his next two years, composed celebratory works for the Sunday After Christmas, with the second cycle chorale Cantata BWV 122 followed by the third cycle Cantata BWV 28.
SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR (NBA KB I/4, Neumann 1964)
Gospel, Matthew 2: 13-15 (Flight Into Egypt), or Matthew 2:1-7 (Magi)*, Epistle, Titus 3:4-7 (Justification)
Date(Cy.) BWV Title Type
1/2/24(1) BWV 153 Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind ATB Solo
1725 (no church year date, instead Sun. after Xmas, 12/31/24, BWV 122)
1726 (no church year date, instead Sun, after Xmas, 12/30/25, BWV 28)
1/5/27(2) BWV 58 Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II SB Solo
1/2/29(4) deest (P10) Steh auf, mein Herz text only
?1/4/33 or /3/34(2) (BWV 58) Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II SB Solo repeat
1/2/35 248V Ehre sei dir Gott, gesungen* Chorus, parody
The next interim Christmas Festival Sunday fell on January 2, 1727 when Bach had ceased composing weekly service cantatas. Instead, he composed the new Cantata BWV 58, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II. It is quite similar his to initial piece for the Sunday after New Years, BWV 153, observing the readings of suffering turned to joy with intimate music cast in symmetrical form and emphasizing the chorale.
SUNDAY AFTER NEW YEAR: BWV 58, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid II [SB Solo]
1/5/27 (Cycle 2), repeated ?1733-34; ?1/3/62, Ölsnitz (Nache-Penzel); earlier version incomplete, later parts revised (add 2 oboes & taille, new #3); dialogue (S=Soul, B=Jesus); borrowed material: #5, lost concerto movement).
Sources: (1) score (SPK P.66, WFB, Nacke, Hauser), (2) parts set (Thom); (3) 3 parts (vn 1 & 2, bc) copies (SPK St.389, Nacke, Penzel, Hauser).
Literature: BG XII (Rust 1863); NBA KB I/4 (Neumann 1964); Whittaker I:300-4; Robertson 43 f; Young 134 f.; Dürr 166-69, Thomas Braatz (provenance, recit. accomp., text): http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/BWV58-Ref.htm
Text: #1, Moller cle. (S. 1), #2-4, ?Bach; #5, Behm cle. "O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht" ("O Jesus Christ, My Life's Light") (S. 2); Gospel (ref. #2); Epistle, Titus 3:4-7 (Justification, ref. #2).
Forces: SB, 2 ob, taille, str, bc.
Movements: 3 arias (SB, S, SB), 2 recits. (B, S).
Mvt. 1. Aria (tutti): Ah God, how many a heart-ache (chorale fantasia).
Mvt. 2. Rec. (B): Presecute Thee even now the evil world) (Is. 54:10).
Mvt. 3. Aria (S, vn): For God is my confidence.
Mvt. 4. Rec.-aso. (S): Ah...that I my Eden might see.
Mvt. 5. Aria (tutti): Only trust ye hearts (chorale fantasia).
BCW Discussion, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV58-D.htm, especially Part 2 Discussions in the Week of March 9, 2008. I take the liberty of reproducing the Introduction summary of the music:
Jean Laaninen wrote (March 6, 2008):
Introduction to Cantata BWV 58
Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (Ah God, How much heartbreak)
BWV 58 page: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV58.htm
BWV 58 discussion page: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV58-D.htm
Composed from an anonymous libretto, this cantata used for the beginning of Epiphany (January 5, 1727 the probable first date) contrasts temporal suffering with heavenly joy (Dürr, p. 167). According to Robertson (p. 43) and Schweitzer (p. 360), however, this is a selection for the second Sunday after Epiphany-a variation in research and opinion. The subject of the flight into Egypt is recounted ultimately focusing on the idea of God leading the believer into eternity.a new land. According to Unger (p.196-198) the believer shares in sufferings of Christ as Mary and Joseph did in the flight to Israel.
Mvt. 1. Adagio, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (Ah God, How much heartbreak)
Chorale plus Aria (Soprano, Bass, Oboe, Tenor oboe, Strings and continuo)
Opening with a serious orchestral sentence, the listener is prepared to hear of the tribulation of living a narrow Christian life, and words of encouragement reflect the idea of hope placed in the virtue of patience. Listen for a duet between the bass and strings. Some commentators consider the duet between the soprano and bass to be a discussion between two souls-one troubled, one encouraging (Robertson), while others see the duet as a conversation between the soul and Christ. Schweitzer points out that the cantus firmus is in the bass here-an unsual position. He describes the orchestral movement as sorrowful, and assigns a `sighing' motive to the first violins. Describing the movement as march-like, he sees the pattern as text painting for the narrow and calamitous way to heaven.
Mvt. 2. Recitative (Bass plus continuo)
Verfolgt dich gleich die arge Welt (Though the evil world persecutes you.)
The reiteration of the story of the flight into Egypt is presented by the bass. The analogy for the Christian according to the story-teller is to take hold of this example and know that even though the world intends evil toward the believer, in the end God has a word that invites trust.He will never forsake `you' even in the case of the consequences of catastrophic planetary destruction. Unger's translation (IMO) emphasizes that God rescues the belivers in the manner Joseph was rescued from Herod. The subtle sounds of the continuo supply simplicity to the message.
Mvt. 3. Aria (Soprano, Violin Solo and continuo)
Ich bin vergnügt in meinen Leiden (I am content with my suffering...)
The believer responds to God's promise by expressing contentment in suffering since the promise of God cannot be broken even by hell's gates. Dance like motion in the violin in this section stands eloquently against the cantabile singing of the soprano vocally/instrumentally emphasizing her struggle with contentment in the face of much conflict surrounding.
Mvt. 4. Recitativo (Soprano and continuo)
Kann es die Welt nicht lassen (Since the world cannot resist...)
Expressive longing in minor tonalities tells forth the day the soul will see heaven in the face of a world that cannot desist from negative attacks. Here the recitative flows into arioso on the last line with (Robertson) "eager little rushes of semi-quavers over the quiet, confident basso continuo."
Mvt. 5. Chorale plus Aria (Soprano, Bass, tenor oboes, strings, continuo)
Wenn sol les doch bescheben (When it shall all come about.)
Jubilantly, the music changes to sounds of celebration, looking to those believers who have already gone ahead, as the contrast is drawn between anguish on earth and glory in heaven. Dürr calls this movement an overtly concerto-like chorale arrangement, with a 1-3-5 (C, E, G) motive in the bass repeated in thoboe and violin parts. Rising notes here might be considered a rising Trinitarian motive. Of special note -- the soprano sings the words of Martin Behm's hymn Mein Lebens Licht, verse ii (1610) while the bass has a C-major run on the word glory.
Key movement through this cantata is as follows: C with a ¾ f. b., a-minor to F - e, followed by d -e, F - a - e, and finally back to C with a ¾ f. b. bringing symmetry to the grouping.
Commentary cited by Aryeh Oron (March 23, 2003): http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Guide/BWV58-Guide.htm (Carl de Nys | Spitta | Voigt | Schweitzer | Dürr | Eric Chafe):
de Nys (1978): "The cantata `Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid' BWV 58 must have been sung for the first time on the Sunday after the Circumcision, on 5 January 1727; but the work has not come down to us in its original form. The version we know must have been prepared in 1733 or 1734. It was then that Bach added the three oboes and transformed the soprano aria with solo violin: he probably even transformed the text too. The similarity between the text of this aria (n° 3) and that of the first aria in Cantata BWV 84 (Septuageisma 1727) seems to show that the text is by Picander: the original librettist has not been identified." (NB: It is possible that Picander was the original librettist. He was responsible for three of the other four works composed in early 1727: BWV 84; BWV 157, funeral and purification; and BWV 244, the St. Matthew Passion. The librettist for BWV 82 for Purification has not been determined.)
Dürr: "Bach included BWV 58 in his yearly cycle of chorale cantatas, although it may be somewhat difficult at first to see why this should be so, particularly since some choral mvts. would be expected. The outer mvts. (1st and last) are not even based upon the same chorale. But as a replacement for a missing chorale cantata it is nevertheless a reasonable substitution."
Chafe (Tonal Allegory): "One of the means by which Bach represents the destruction/restoration dynamic in his cantatas is that of tonal descent followed by ascent." "The theme of suffering turned into joy effects a transformation of a somewhat different kind in BWV 58. The work is symmetrical." (NB: It is a mirror or palindrome form. The keys of each movement constitute a tonal mirror: 1=C, 2=a-F, 3=d, 4=F-a, 5=C. The movements constitute a chiastic or cross-like cantata: chorale fantasia duet 1& 5, aria 3, recitative 2 & 4.)
Fugitive Notes:
Bach's original composition and revision. Only the continuo template survives from the original 1727 version, showing a different middle aria (No. 3). Dürr (Cantatas: 165f). conjectures that "the newly composed soprano aria (of 1733 or '34) was designed to replace a simpler predecessor." The opposite view is taken by David Humphries in his OCC:JSB article on BWV 58 (p.3), He says, "the relatively undemanding voice part of the later aria raises the possibility that the singer may have found the first one too difficult." Listen to this free-da capo aria with solo violin and decide for yourself about its degree of vocal difficulty.
At the same time, Dürr suggests that the original version accompaniment for strings only was done "to ease the burden on musicians exhausted by festive demands." He also sounds this theme for the earlier Cantata BWV 153. Thus, Dürr observes, Cantata BWV 58 has no parts for alto or tenor soloist or a chorus. In the second version of 1733 or '34, Bach adds two oboes and a taille or tenor oboe, found only in the opening and closing duet chorale fantasias (Nos. 1 and 5), primarily doubling the upper strings.
Several commentators have pointed out the influence of violin music in BWV 58 and Bach's possible use of existing music, a technique employed often in the third cantata cycle, especially with opening sinfonias from instrumental music. Besides the substantial soprano aria with violin obligatto -- Whittaker, Dürr, and Humphries all note the violin concerto style of the closing movement.
Julian Mincham wrote (previous BCW discussion, March 16, 2008): "Incidentally another piece of evidence supporting Whittacker's theory (p.303f) about the last movement being an adaption of an existing concerto is the fact that the chorale phrases all lie in the episodes which connect the tutti sections (which are as one would expect to find in such a movement). It would have been a relatively simple matter (for Bach!) to adapt the harmony and the figuration of the episodes to the chorale without having to recast the form of the entire movement."
Dialogue Cantatas
Julian Mincham (March 7, 2008): "Dialogue Cantata, Cantata BWV 58 is the fourth and last of the Dialogue cantatas that Bach composed for the third cycle, the earlier ones being Cantata BWV 57 (part of the Christmas music of the previous year) [Lehms libretto], Cantata BWV 32 (performed less than three weeks later) [Lehms] and Cantata BWV 49 [unknown librettist]." Others so-called dialogue cantatas are BWV 59 (Neumeister), BWV 152 (Franck), and BWV 60 (ATB, librettist unknown)
Chorale Cantata Cycle.
While Bach already had composed a chorale cantata for the Sunday between Christmas and Epiphany, BWV 122, 12/31/1724, Cantata BWV 58 is part of the chorale cantatas cycle (see Dürr above), based upon its distribution identical with the other Cycle 2 cantatas. Technically, there are three versions of the so-called Chorale Cantata Cycle:
1. The actual chronological cycle of some 58 cantatas which Bach composed from BWV 20 for the First Sunday After Trinity, 6/11/1724, to BWV 176, Trinity Sunday, 5/27/1725;
2. The expanded cycle after 1725, filling in gaps for Trinity Sundays +4 (BWV 177), +6 (BWV 9), ?+12 (BWV 137), +27 (BWV 137), Misericordias (BWV 137) Epiphany +4 (BWV 114), as well as the per omnes versus chorale cantatas (BWV 192, BWV 117, BWV 97, BWV 100) undesignated, probably for weddings or other sacred services;
3. The actual Cycle 2, scores and parts sets which were divided and distributed between Friedemann (scores) and Anna Magdalena (parts sets), which includes works not technically chorale cantatas: BWV 58, and BWV 128 and BWV 156, which have chorale incipits. Further, seven chorale cantatas were never divided, with Friedemann keeping for himself both the parts sets and the scores for Cantatas BWV 80, BWV 111, BWV 113, BWV 115, BWV 130, BWV 135, BWV 180, as well as BWV 68 for Pentecost Monday, which opens with a chorale chorus but is not technically a chorale cantata.
Post-1727
In 1728-29 Bach apparently sparingly resumed presenting original cantatas found in the Picander complete published cycle. Only ten were set to music, primarily for feast days or occasions Bach apparently deemed as special. Many chorales survive among the texts for the other 60 church services, including one for the Sunday after New Years, January 2, 1729. It is designated P10 as the 10th text after Advent, in which Picander furnished settings for all four Sundays in Advent. The cantata text, with the dictum "Steh auf, mein Herz," follows BWV 171, which Bach composed for the previous Day, the Feast of New Year's. The structure of the cantata text shows a typical layout of alternating arias and recitatives, with the pattern of the first five movements identical with Bach's previously cantata composed for that Sunday, BWV 58, of 1727.
The Picander draft closes with the chorale text designation of the second stanza of Johann Franck's "Jesu, meine Freude,"
"Beneath your protection
I am free from the attacks
of all my enemies"
(Francis Browne translation). A corresponding plain-chorale setting is found in Bach's collected chorale settings, designated BWV 358, opening in d minor and closing in D Major.
Browne's BCW text and translation: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale062-Eng3.htm
shows that Bach composed eight other plain-chorale settings of "Jesus, my joy," including six in the chorale motet of the same name, possibly written in 1723 for a memorial service. The other two settings are the closing chorales in Cantatas BWV 64/8, for the Third Day of the Christmas Festival 1723, and BWV 81/7, for the Fourth Sunday After Epiphany, 1724.
Günther Stiller in <JSB & Liturgical Life in Leipzig> notes the setting of BWV 64/8 as a non-Christmas hymn, and the second stanza in BWV 81/7, also found in P10/6 above. Stiller points out (p.249) that hymn books used by Bach did not contain a section of chorales headed Epiphany, between New Year's Day and Lent, but carried the heading "Jesus Hymns" and included "Jesu, meine Freude," as well as three other hymns Bach used in other cantatas for the Epiphany season.
Thus, to make a long story even longer, the second verse of "Jesu, meine Freude," found in Picander's libretto for Cantata P10 for the Sunday after New Year's, is entirely appropriate. It is possible that Bach composed chorale BWV 358 for the service on January 2, 1729, and in the realm of speculation, could have attached it to the end of a repeat performance of the initial version of Cantata BWV 58, which does not survive.
SUN. AFTER NEW YEAR: BWV deest (P10), Steh auf, mein Herz [text only]
1/2/29 (Cycle 4); no music found
Literature: Häfner, Der Picander-Jahrgang, BJ 1975
Text: Picander 1728; chorale, Franck "Jesu, meine Freude" ("Jesus, My Joy") (S.2, ? BWV 358)
1. Aria (?tutti) Stand up, my heart
2. Recit.
3. Aria
4. Recit
5. Aria
6. Chorale (tutti): BWV ?358,
Beneath your protection
I am free from the attacks
of all my enemies
(Francis Browne transl.), d minor/major.
Bach still had other plans for new music for the Sunday after New Year's during the first half of then 1730s, when he no longer composed cantatas but did present repeats of cantatas from the first three cycles. It is documented that Bach presented cantatas for the Easter season in 1731, primarily reperformances from the various cycles. While the record for 1730-34 is sketchy, scholars have suggested that Bach could have presented the entire chorale cantata cycle, the performing parts sets of which came to reside in the Thomas School after Bach's death. No cycle could have been presented in 1733 since no music was allowed between February 15 and July1, for the mourning of August the Strong. In 1732, no Sunday after New Year's was celebrated, since the Feast of the Epiphany fell on Sunday, January 6. Finally, in 1733 or 1734, Bach took up a revision of Cantata BWV 58. Bach wasn't finished. He composed BWV 248V, the fifth part of the Christmas Oratorio, for January 2, 1735, the Sunday after New Year. |
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Douglas Cowling wrote (September 21, 2009):
BWV 58: Whacked-Out Orchestra
William L. Hoffman wrote:
< At the same time, Dürr suggests that the original version accompaniment for strings only was done "to ease the burden on musicians exhausted by festive demands." He also sounds this theme for the earlier Cantata BWV 153. >
Dürr is such a careful musicologist. Does he ever present documentary evidence for either the Exhausted Choir or Whacked-Out Orchestra Hypothesis? From a purely practical point of view, Bach's musicians performed the great Passions on Good Friday and then the most elaborate festival music two days later on Easter Day. What made the year of the Christmas Oratorio special? The first three parts performed on successive days are some of the most difficult music Bach ever wrote.
And since when does "strings-only" mean easier music? This cantata is no cake-walk for the string players. It is elaborate technically demanding music. If any group was particularly overworked during the great festival weeks of Christmas and Easter it would be the strings. I just don't believe that a case can be made that any of the so-called "solo cantatas" (not a term used by the composer) are "easier" music. In fact, they are among the most demanding in Bach's repertoire. Bach could have chosen an easier 17th-century motet for this day: he didn't. |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (September 21, 2009):
Douglas Cowling wrote:
< Dürr is such a careful musicologist. Does he ever present documentary evidence for either the Exhausted Choir or Whacked-Out Orchestra Hypothesis? >
William L. Hoffman replies: While I don't fully subscribe to the exhausted/whacked-out performers hypothesis, I would like to present the following evidence for a more generous view of the issue:
1. The key to a larger orchestra are the trumpets and drums. Bach used them almost exclusively on feast days, including the three days of Christmas, New Year's Day, and Epiphany. That's five of the six services for the festival of Christmas, in 12 days! I would suggest that the deployment of these prominent brass instruments could have caused Bach to add additional string instruments as well as a four-voice chorus. (I won't get into the issue of more-than-one-per part vocalists.) Thus it's not so much a matter of challenging music but of the total number of forces required.
2. About the time Bach wrote his letter advocating well-appointed music to the Town Council in 1730, he ceased to present cantatas every Sunday, new or otherwise. Instead, he turned to the Leipzig Collegium musicum, especially for brass instruments, and yes, better players. As compensation, I believe the University Church got a special allowance from the Council, something which Bach's employers continually denied Bach for his church performances.
3. As for sheer work under deadline pressure, the more musicians, the more staves are needed to fill in the score and parts to copy which take time and energy. Also, a larger ensemble may have required more rehearsal time to get the right balance, especially with the use of boy sopranos and altos who can't produce the volume of sound that adults can. We also know that Bach did make accommodations for individual vocalists and instrumentalists, depending upon ability and availability, substituting other voices or instruments.
4. I think tradition and practice had a lot to with Bach's use of specific forces. Speaking of Passion resources, why didn't Bach use brass instruments -- Telemann, Handel and others certainly did. Anyone care to tackle that one? |
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Douglas Cowling wrote (September 21, 2009):
William L. Hoffman wrote:
< I think tradition and practice had a lot to with Bach's use of specific forces. Speaking of Passion resources, why didn't Bach use brass instruments -- Telemann, Handel and others certainly did. Anyone care to tackle that one? >
Now we're on more reasonable grounds. Bach uses often uses orchestration to indicate the rank and importance of an occasion. The most obvious is the use of trumpets or horns on the principal feasts such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Reformation, Michelmas. It's not an absolute rule, of course, but it's an important aural signifier which gives the progress of the year a texture. We tend to ignore Advent and Lent because there were no cantatas, but there were musical forms which defined those times: the Litany and the absence of the Gloria. The contrast of polyphonic "a capella" works during the penitential seasons with concerted works of the festive seasons is part of Bach's well-regulated church music. I frankly view it as incredible that Bach ever wrote music which his musicians were incapable of performing or that he compromised his art because his violists were complaining.
Actually, violists complain all the time ... |
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Neil Halliday wrote (September 21, 2009):
William L. Hoffmanwrote:
>Speaking of Passion resources, why didn't Bach use brass instruments --Telemann, Handel and others certainly did. Anyone care to tackle that one?<
One is tempted to think that Bach regarded the particular solemnity of the Passion story/occasion as precluding the use of brass, ie, it was a deliberate, personal decision of his, regardless of what other composers did. In any case, the opening and closing choruses of the SMP (BWV 244) and SJP (BWV 245) are unrivalled in their dramatic impact, no brass required! |
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Julian Mincham wrote (September 21, 2009):
Instrumentation
William L. Hoffman wrote:
>>Speaking of Passion resources, why didn't Bach use brass instruments --Telemann, Handel and others certainly did. Anyone care to tackle that one?<<
Neil Halliday wrote:
< One is tempted to think that Bach regarded the particular solemnity of the Passion story/occasion as precluding the use of brass, ie, it was a deliberate, personal decision of his, regardless of what other composers did. In any case, the opening and closing choruses of the SMP (BWV 244) and SJP (BWV 245) are unrivalled in their dramatic impact, no brass required! >
While it is clear that Bach did use trumpets and drums with some consistency for certain ceremonial events I suspect that his choice of instruments was dictated as much by availability as the nature of the event. He used only one solo trumpet in BWV 75 his debut cantata at Leipzig--written before he took up the appointment formally. It is not until the third cantata BWV 21 that he uses trumpets and drums? (and bassoon as listed as well) in a chorus (BWV 21/11) but in the next cantata for this same day BWV 135 (the 3rd after Trinity) he reverts to the chamber ensemble of 2 oboes and strings---i.e. there is no particular correlation between event and orchestration.
One might infer from this that he used smaller forces for his first cantata as he didn't know what would be available before he began working at Leipzig but by the third Sunday he knew what he could call upon and when he?brought back?some earlier movemnts for reuse he was confident that he would have brass and timps available.Also the SMP (BWV 244) and SJP (BWV 245) were designed for reuse over the years and it may be that Bach wasn't sure if he could? call upon the brass players for future occasions. He cetainly would not have wanted to create a situation where he was needlessly rescoring works because of this particular problem.
An interesting exercise (which I have only?done in part) is to look at the forces used for cantatas written for the same day. In many cases there are three extant works, occasionly four and the odd one or two with more. This is a reasonable basis from which to draw inferences. |
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Continue of this part of the discussion, see: Instrumentation [General Topics] |
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Douglas Cowling wrote (September 21, 2009):
Neil Halliday wrote:
< One is tempted to think that Bach regarded the particular solemnity of the Passion story/occasion as precluding the use of brass, ie, it was a deliberate, personal decision of his, regardless of what other composers did. In any case, the opening and closing choruses of the SMP (BWV 244) and SJP (BWV 245) are unrivalled in their dramatic impact, no brass required! >
Here too the Passions, especially the Matthew Passion (BWV 244), are marked by extraordinarily lavish orchestration even without brass. The scale of the scoring is chosen to mark the importance of Good Friday in the church year. We can't over-estimate the effect which the opening choruses had on the congregation after five weeks of stile antico polyphony, as expressive as a chromatic motet by Schütz or Gabrieli was. Bach knew how to use the musical sequence of the church for superb effect.
So too the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) which is really Bach's treatise on orchestration. There is no other work -- perhaps the Brandenburgs -- in which orchestral colour is used for such dazzling effects and in the service of the compelling narrative of the Christmas story. Again the decision to make this work a spectacular exercise in orchestration is tied to his listeners' expectations for something new. Is there any other work of Bach's which is so awesome and playful at the same time?
If I had been a singer or player for Bach, I would have looked forward with the eagerest anticipation of being exhilarated by the physical and artistic demands of these periods in the year. |
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Continue on Part 5 |
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