Lost Pentecost Oratorio
Discussions

Lost Pentecost Oratorio

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 20, 2018):
The prospect that Bach composed an Oratorium Festo Pfingsstag for Pentecost Sunday was first suggested by leading Bach scholar Alfred Dürr in 1961: "Veilleicht was auch ein Pfingst-Orartorium geplant; oder es ist gar componiert worden und später verlorengagangen" (A Whitsun Oratorio may also have been planned: indeed, it may have been written and later lost). Dürr in his Cantatas of J. S. Bach repeats his thesis that "one might imagine a `Whit Oratorio." ¹ Most recently, two Bach scholars also have suggested the possibility of such a work: Marianne Helms and Arthur Hirsch in 1985, "(does a lost Pentecost 'oratorio' also belong to this group?)," and Peter Williams in 2016, "There may also have been a Whitsuntide or Pentecost Oratorium, about which nothing is known." ²

The ingredients for a Christological cycle oratorios for major feast days can be found in various resources such as the biblical narrative of the event and pertinent readings, the Lutheran chorales designated for Pentecost in Bach four-voice harmonizations, and madrigalian music parodied with new text underlay from earlier Bach homage works of joy and sorrow. Bach's feast-day oratorios involve a decade-long development (1725-35) involving the art of parody in an oratorio tradition at the Saxon Court in Dresden dating to 1600 through the use of gospel harmony historia narrative. Models for Bach's realization include a secular serenade for his 1725 Easter Oratorio, a multi-day harmony setting of the Passion for the Christmas Oratorio, and the Ascension Oratorio as the blueprint of a Pentecost Oratorio.

Meanwhile, the existence of the three extant oratorios for the major Christological feast days of six at Christmas time, BWV 248; Easter Sunday, BWV 249; and Ascension Day, BWV 11, were first identified in the initial, comprehensive accounting of Bach's compositions, the Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt (1806-1852) Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Worken, and Werke (Life, Influences, and Works), published in 1850, when the Bach-Gesellschaft began systematically publishing Bach's cantatas for the next half century.³ Hilgenfeldt's was the second major biography, after the Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749-1818) 1802 seminal publication, and the first to explore and categorize the surviving vocal works, following the initial and basic summary by genre in the 1750/52 Bach Obituary. Hilgenfeldt's sources included the Berlin and Hamburg Bach circle of second son Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), and their interconnections through the Berlin Singakademie of Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). Little was known, however about oldest son Friedemann's time in Halle and Berlin after his father's death and the inheritance of the musical estate that the two brothers had shared. In his book, Hilgenfeldt had listed all three feast-day oratorios, under the heading "Grösser Cantaten: Oratorien" (Greater Cantatas: Oratorios), giving their incipits and instrumentation (Ibid.: 105), following the identity of the initial group of 168 church year cantatas from Advent through Trinity Time. Initially, Bach had labeled the three "Greater Cantatas" as "Oratorium" on their title pages to distinguish them from sacred liturgical cantatas.

These three settings of the feast days shared various characteristics as "Greater Cantatas," most important and unique are their use of biblical narrative in the historia tradition, also found in the three recognized Bach oratorio Passions, beginning with the John setting, BWV 245, in 1724.⁴ Another characteristic, also found in the Mark setting, BWV 247, of 1731, was the extensive use of parody in the madrigalian choruses and arias, often drawn from occasional, non-liturgical, profane cantatas and drammi per musica having progressive, operatic styles. Particular to the festive oratorio settings are the use of trumpets and drums in D Major in these jubilant ecclesiastical feasts, in contrast to the Passions. In addition, the oratorios use newly-composed plain chorale settings as well as so-called poetic accompagnato recitatives with orchestra. These movements are interspersed usually with framing choruses and internal arias and accompagnati with continuous narrative, presented in the manner of a mini-sacred sacred opera, observes Christoph Wolff.⁵ In particular, Wolff points out the exordium and applicatio rhetorical technique as well as the theatrical dialogue character and communal audience response as believers in the biblical narrative (Ibid.: 5, 9). The six extant feast day oratorios and oratorio Passions are liturgical works presented in the day's morning main service or Good Friday afternoon vesper service with the two-part Passion presented before and after the sermon.

While there is virtually no source-critical documentation — such as a printed libretto — that a Pentecost Oratorio existed, there is considerable collateral and circumstantial evidence that Bach possessed the motive, opportunity, and method to compose such a work as the completion of a 1734-35 Christological cycle of major, unique works that began with Jesus' incarnation in the multi-day Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, the sacrificial death the Passions, and a trilogy of post-resurrection accounts of Easter Sunday, BWV 249; Ascension into heaven, BWV 11; and the final Pentecost Sunday celebration of the birth of the Christian Church and the baptism in the Holy Spirit of his disciples, most likely on 29 May 1735, 10 days following the premiere of the unique, singular Ascension Oratorio on 19 May.

Bach in Context

The Christological trajectory of a possible Pentecost Oratorio methodology began with the unique six-day liturgical Christmas Oratorio of late 1734-35, spread over 12 days and ending with the Feast of the Epiphany on Thursday, 6 January 1735, which is documented with a special service libretto book and the manuscript score and parts set, later in the possession of Emanuel, as well as the Easter and Ascension Oratorios and the John and Matthew Passions. Friedemann is presumed to have inherited the other oratorio style works which are lost, except for the text of the St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, premiered in 1731 and reperformed in 1744. Using Bach's Easter/Pentecost Season performance schedule of 1731 (BCW as the template for the spring of 1735, it is possible to trace the genesis and compositional process, focusing on the extant Ascension Oratorio. Although no libretto book has been found for Easter and Ascension, the customary printing schedule would have required Bach to submit the text, possibly subject to the approval of the Leipzig Town Council, about four weeks in advance of the use of the book in the congregations, covering the four successive services of the 4th to the 6th Sundays after Easter (Cantate to Exaudi) as well as Ascension Day. Given the proximity to Pentecost, another libretto book soon would have been due for publication and distribution, covering the three-day Pentecost feast and the final Sunday of the Trinitasfest, then ending the first half of the church year, de tempore (Proper Time) in the Life of Jesus Christ, and the beginning of the second half, omnes tempore (Ordinary Time), on the life and teachings of the Church.

The compositional process of a Pentecost Oratorio commenced with the ingredients for an oratorio to be drawn from musical sources and to be set to the libretto. The structural model based on previous works shows that Bach probably used a multi-day Passion harmony (Evangelienharmonie) setting of Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1555), instead of Gospel readings in the six-days of cantatas in the Christmas Oratorio, including the final Epiphany feast Cantata, BWV 248VI template of 11 movements in the Ascension Oratorio.⁶ The actual musical materials began with the parody sources of the chorus that opens the work and the arias interspersed between the narrative recitatives and the commentary accompagnati, with a plain chorale in the middle and a closing chorale. The progressive music to be given new text underlay with same poetic structure and affect (mood) starts on the score manuscript with the music of the opening chorus transcribed in a fair copy with few corrections in the music to accommodate the new text. In the case of the Ascension Oratorio, Bach began producing a virtual calligraphic manuscript Bach Digital), called "a revision copy" of a "parody score," says Robert L. Marshall.⁷

The 11-movement possible model or format of a Pentecost Oratorio, based on the two-section template of the Ascension Oratorio, shows the following movements: 1. opening tutti da-capo chorus (parody), 2. narrative recitative, 3. accompagnato recitative, 4. aria da-capo (parody), 5. narrative recitative, 6. plain chorale, 7. narrative recitative, 8. accompagnato recitative, 9. narrative recitative, 10. aria da-capo (parody), 11, closing plain chorale. In the case of a Pentecost Oratorio biblical narrative, Bach's source would have been based on the Pentecost Sunday Epistle, Acts 2: 1-13 (The descent of the Holy Spirit), and Gospel, John 14: 23-31 (The Promise of the Holy Spirit). The Epistle Pentecost narrative 13 verses (BCW) has seven of the narrator (apostle Luke), five of the crowd ("multitude") in dialogue as an extemded turbae chorus, and a concluding verse. John's Gospel, the valedictory address in his Farewell Discourse to his disciples, is Jesus' sermon and prophecy as a long, nine-verse monologue that refers to the Holy Spirit (Comforter), "whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Since this Pentecost event occurs at the end of the Gospel, just after the Ascension, it uses the description in Luke's sequel to his Gospel, the "Acts of the Apostles" and Jesus' prophecy in the beginning of his Farewell Discourse to his disciples. If Bach were to set this Johannine text, it probably would have been as a vox Christi bass arioso with strings in the manner of similar passages from his three oratorio Passions.

Since the biblical event of the Pentecost, like the Ascension, uses-non Gospel text from Acts, Bach probably would have used the Martin Luther colleague Bugenhagen's 1524 gospel harmony Evangelienharmonie, as Bach had done in the Ascension Oratorio, which condenses, conflates and paraphrases the original biblical text as a harmony single narrative. Bach had musical precedence. The Bugenhagen Easter summa harmony narrative set to a three-day Easter feast celebration was a tradition at the Dresden Court in settings of Scandello, Heinrich Schütz, and Nicolaus Adam Strungk throughout the 17^th century (BCW), and the Bugenhagen Passionsharmonie in five parts had been set as a multi-day Passion beginning in the later 17th century, says Melamed (Ibid.: 102f), the structural, liturgical model for the Christmas Oratorio.

Pentecost Poetic Text Sources

Bach's overall literary sources for a Pentecost poetic commentary in the madrigalian movements would have utilized the general perspective of the librettist, possibly Picander, drawn from the gospel-epistle reading as well as commentary in select Pentecost chorale stanzas. The theological emphasis in this extended musical sermon could have been derived from such sources as the sermons of Martin Luther and the commentary of succeeding Lutheran Theologians, especially Luther’s Haus Postille and his sermon for Pentecost Sunday on the Gospel reading (John 14:23-31), the Johann Olearius commentary Biblische Erklärung of 1681 (also cited extensively in Martin Petzoldt's Bach Commentary⁸ and found in Bach’s library), and prayers for Pentecost in the Leipziger Kirchen-Staat of 1710. The themes of Luther's sermons are: "Sermon of Comfort Christ Preaches to his Disciples," "Love to Christ and the Comfort of the Spirit," "The Promise of the Holy Spirit to those who Love Christ, and his Comfort because of his Departure," and "Christ Gives his Disciples a Five-Fold Promise: Comforter, Spirit of Truth; I will not let you be orphans, My Father will love you, He shall teach you all things, My peace I give unto you."

The most likely candidate for the authorship of the libretto of the Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, is Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-1764), known as Picander (BCW). He was Bach's favorite poet with some 67 texts set to Bach's music, many involving new text underlay, called parody, and some surviving with text only, music lost. Although none of the texts of the Easter, Christmas, and Ascension Oratorios is found in Picander's published poetry, while the two oratorio Passions of Matthew and Mark are, various Bach scholars point to the published libretto books of the Christmas Oratorio and the 1744 St. Mark Passion, with no attribution, as Picander's authorship. In his Preface to the Bärenreiter edition, Dürr says, "The alterations which this revision [of the text by Bach] necessitated perhaps made Picander unwilling to publish the [Christmas Oratorio] text under his own name" (Ibid.)

Another influence could have been Bach's librettos from his previous cantatas composed for Pentecost Sunday — four with a variety of text authors and music with varying perspectives: BWV 172, "Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!" (Ring out, you songs, resound, you strings!, Salomo Franck; BCW), Trinitarian emphasis and the oldest (Weimar 1714) and most performed, at least four times; 1723 BWV 59, "Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten" (Who loves me will keep my word, Erdmann Neumeister; BCW), Gospel dictum John 14:23; 1725 BWV 74, same Gospel dictum (Marianne von Ziegler), emphasizing Luther's Doctrine of Justification in salvation history (BCW); and 1727 BWV 34, "O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe" (O eternal fire, o source of love, parody Picander).

These Bach Pentecost cantatas are described in "Bach's Sacred Cantatas," of Paul Stroble on-line.⁹ <<Shavuot, or Pentecost, is the Jewish festival celebrating the giving of Torah on Sinai. That holiday is described in, among other places, Exodus 23:14-17 and Deut. 16:16-17, and is referenced in 1 Cor. 16:8 and Acts 20:16. In Acts 2, it was the day the Holy Spirit descended upon followers of Jesus, as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-29, where God’s spirit would be poured out to all people. The gift also fulfilled Christ’s promise in Acts 1:8. Thus Pentecost (“fiftieth day”) is sometimes called “the birthday of the church.” In England especially, the festival is also called White Sunday or Whitsunday, after the color of the garments worn by persons to be baptized on that day.>>

Biblical, Theological Sources

Stroble continues: <<These [Pentecost] cantatas are more celebratory and upbeat than the more somber and anxious pieces of last Sunday, when the disciples were waiting uncertainly between Ascension and Pentecost. Some of this joy stems not only from the celebration of the Holy Spirit but also the joyfulness of the harvest festivals that lay in the background of Shavuot. Even the “first fruits” language of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 seems (as conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes) to be an allusion to the holiday’s agricultural origins. Gardiner continues, “Bach often brings to the surface pre-Christian aspects and forgotten connections which mirror the turning of the agricultural year. Now…he comes up with music of unalloyed optimism and exuberance in celebration of the first gifts of newly-awakened nature, as well as the miraculous ignition of the divine Pentecostal spark which allows human beings to communicate across the language barrier.”>> ¹⁰

In Bach first Pentecost Sunday essay in 1714, Cantata 172, of particular interest is the baroque concept of the unio mystica (mystical union) in the inhabitatio (indw) of the Holy Spirit through the Soul (soprano) and Jesus (bass) dialogue, representing bride and bridegroom in the Song of Songs love duet. Here it becomes a duet between the soul (soprano) and Holy Spirit (alto), "Come, let me wait no longer," "I refresh you, my child." Love "was the key to the meaning of Pentecost, encapsulated in Jn 14:23," "Who loves me will keep my word," says Eric Chafe.¹¹ The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ's perpetual presence to the Church are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

"The second cantata with that title is based on a text by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler, which as Gardiner writes is constructed “on three main themes: the paramount need for love, and the need to be in a state of readiness to receive the spirit… Jesus’ announcement of his Ascension and return, and its joyful implications for humankind…. and his triumph over Satan, freeing the believer from condemnation,” says Stroble (Ibid.). Cantata "BWV 34 is a later work of Bach’s [1727], adapted from a wedding cantata and now used for Pentecost. Gardiner writes that it is filled with picturesque writing, evoking the pastoral aspect of the harvest as well as the Temple of the Lord and the flames of the Holy Spirit, all leading to a joyful conclusion."

Pentecost Sunday Cantata Distribution

For the festive Pentecost Sunday, Bach composed four works, two possibly in Weimar, BWV 172 and 59, the Ziegler setting of BWV 74 in 1725 and the 1727 BWV 34, “O ewiges Feuer! o Ursprung der Liebe” (O eternal fire, o source of love). In the 1750 estate division, the first cycle Cantata 172 shows Emanuel receiving the parts set and Friedemann probably the score, now lost. For the second cycle, Friedemann received the Cantata 34 score while the parts set of this non-chorale cantata is lost, although Friedemann could have utilized it to perform the work earlier on Pentecost Sunday 1746-47 in Halle with a repeat in 1756. For the third cycle, Cantata 74 score is lost but the parts set survive through Emanuel. Also in that Emanuel Bach 1790 estate catalogue (p. 78) under the listings for Pentecost Sunday is the score and most of the parts for BWV 59 as well as the parts set of BWV 172. If Bach composed a now-lost Pentecost Oratorio in 1735, the 1750 estate division pattern suggests that Friedemann received the score and parts set for use in Halle, while Emanuel received all the materials for the Christmas and Ascension Oratorios, as well as the surviving version of the Easter Oratorio, while Friedemann could have received the materials for the original 1725 version of this music, now lost. Similarly, Emanuel received the Passion oratorio materials for the Passions of St. John, BWV 245, and St. Matthew, BWV 244, while Friedemann received the St. Mark, BWV 247, and apocryphal St. Luke, BWV 246, both later listed available for copying in the Leipzig Breitkopf 1761 catalogue, the former (BWV 247) now lost while BWV 246 is extant (Bach Digital). Is it possible that Breitkopf also had a Pentecost Oratorio available for copying from Friedemann's original, although none is listed in their catalogues?

Another long-standing source of textual influence on a Bach Pentecost Oratorio — besides his previous music and Lutheran theology — would have been the church's chorales for Pentecost. Martin Luther's settings played "a prominent part in Bach's music for the Pentecost season," observes Jaroslav Pelikan in Bach Among the Theologians.¹² Bach set the following five as free-standing hymns which were composed for lost works or used liturgically in Pentecost services: 1. "Des heilgen Geistes reiche Gnad" (NLGB 126), BWV 295 (D Major, 16 bars); 2. "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend" (4 verses, NLGB 817), BWV 332 (G Major, 8 bars); 3. "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" (3 verses) (no NLGB), BWV 373 (G Major, 10 bars); 4. "Komm Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" (6 verses, NLGB 401), BWV 370 (C Major, 8 bars); and 5. "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist" (Luther, 4 verses, NLGB 402), BWV 385 (A Major, 14 bars).

A likely Bach chorale setting to close a Pentecost Oratorio could have been the Valentin Triller "Des heilgen Geistes reiche Gnad" (The Holy Ghost's rich mercy) in the key of D Major, appropriate for trumpets (bach-chorales.com), that Bach set as a plain chorale, BWV 295 (YouTube).¹³ The text is a seven 4-line (varied) stanza Pentecost chorale, published in the Magdeburger Gesangbüchern of 1583 and 1594, after the hymn Spiritus sancti gratia, to the melody of Johann Hermann Schein (Cantional, Leipzig 1627), a modification of the ancient Latin Hymn, Spiritus sancti gratia (Zahn 3706). It is found in Bach's Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (NLGB) of 1682 as No. 126 under Pentecost (Google Books), Spiritus sancti gratia NLGB 125, 127. It is listed in the Weimar Orgelbuchlein as No. 46 but not set, with Bach's various sources: Ob. 46, Melchior Vulpius (Gotha 1715), and BWV 295 (Wissenfels 1714).¹⁴ The German chorale also is found in the ominbus Schmelli Gesangbuch (Leipzig 1736) as No. 356, Pentecost, with the alternate melody, "Lobt Gott in seinem Heiligthum."

Luther's "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist"

Bach's plain chorale setting, BWV 395 of Martin Luther's Pentecost Leise, "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist" (We now beg the holy spirit) is an ideal candidate for a plain chorale in the first half of a Pentecost Oratorio. It is set in the key of A Major, the dominant of the D Major tonic of Bach's settings of three (Parts 1, 3, and 6) of the Christmas Oratorio, as well as the Easter and Ascension Oratorios. Particularly appropriate would be the 3rd stanza, “Du süße Lieb, schenk uns deine Gunst” (You sweet love, give us the gift of your grace), an expression of the Great Commandment which also is the gospel for Pentecost Sunday, John 14:23, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word." Adding weight to this is the dating of plain chorale in the Johann Ludwig Dietel collection (No. 109), of this Bach student, copied in 1735. This "portion of the Dietel collection falls (very) roughly in order of the liturgical calendar, an arrangement that would suggest that this setting may fall around Whit Sunday, Monday or Tuesday," says Luke Dahn (bach-chorales.com). Luther's hymn, with its emphasis on the Doctrine of Justification, is based on the 13th century melody (Zahn 2029). The Kyrieleis refrain setting of four lines (AABB), four stanzas emphasizes the Great Commandment, to love one's neighbor. Luther's Gradual Song between the Epistle and Gospel lessons in the main service is a contrafaction of the Latin sequence, Veni, sancte spirtus (Come, Holy Spirit), published in the Johann Walther’s 1524 Gesangbuch (5 vv, YouTube, YouTube). Luther added three stanzas about Pentecost 1524. The first stanza is a German leise, vernacular folk song ending in Kyrie eleison, dating to the early Middle Ages and sung at Pentecost after Veni, sancte spirtus (NLGB 122). The pentatonic melody (Zahn 2029) also has old folk origins.¹⁵ It is found in the NLGB as No. 130, Pentecost and in the Schmelli Gesangbuch as No. 365, Pentecost.

Bach also set the 3rd stanza, “Du süße Lieb, schenk uns deine Gunst” (You sweet love, give us the gift of your grace) as plain chorales in Cantata 169, “Gott soll allein mein Herze haben” (God alone should possess my heart), for the 18th Sunday after Trinity 1726, and for the 1736/37 wedding Cantata 197, “Gott ist unsre Zuversicht” (God is our confidence, Psalm 46:1), closing Part 1 (No. 5), in both cases emphasizing love as the Great Commandment (music, YouTube). It also is listed in the Orgelbuchlein asNo. 145 but not set (Bach's Gotha 1715 source, Orgelbüchlein.co.uk).

Parody Settings: Chorus, 2 Arias

Bach's scenario for the composition of the 1734-35 Christological cycle of biblical narrative oratorios, often based on parody, began in 1725 with the composition of the Easter Oratorio, from its model, BWV 249a, a pastoral Shepherd's cantata or serenade, forerunner of the drammi per musica prevalent at the Saxon Court. The reservoir of Bach's musical materials usually came from occasional homage music of joy or sorrow, congratulatory or memorial cantatas, with joyous events such as weddings, birthdays and other royal observances. Most involved members of the Saxon Court, including Leipzig court officials, as well lesser principalities and duchies with allegiance to Saxony, such as Weißenfels and Weimar.¹⁶ By late 1734, Bach had presented almost all of his some 40 occasional, profane, nonliturgical cantatas and had begun producing major works such as the St. Mark Passion in 1731, parodied from the 1727 Funeral Ode, BWV 198, as well as a series of tributes to the Saxon Court, most notably the Missa: Kyrie-Gloria,BWV 232a of 1733, and music for the birthday, name day, or the frequent visits of the Saxon Court to Leipzig. While Bach began composing the Christmas Oratorio, using Cantatas BWV 213-215, in the fall of 1734, he also probably began considering other source materials for the Ascension as well as a Pentecost Oratorio.

To begin a Pentecost Oratorio, Bach had at hand a celebratory da-capo chorus in D major with trumpets, BWV 206/1, "Schelicht, spielende Wellen" (Glide, playful waves, and murmur gently!). It was originally composed for August's Nameday, October 7, 1734, at Zimmermann's Garden but the movement was set aside for two years in favor of music with a more appropriate text, Cantata BWV 215, "Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen" (Praise your good fortune, blessed Saxony). On September 30 it was announced that the Elector and his family would visit the annual fall fair and arrived on October 3. A congratulatory serenade on the first anniversary of his election was put together hastily with Leipzig University students commissioning the text and leading a torchlight parade, on October 5. "It seems likely that between October 1734 and October 1736, this first movement had become part of another cantata, presumably a cantata with a text differing from the original one and referring to matters other than the Elector's birthday or nameday," says Hans-Joachim Schulze.¹⁷ "The whereabouts of such a hypothetical cantata are unknown except for the traces in the source material of Cantata BWV 206." A fair copy of this movement is found in the 1736 score.

The opening movement of the belated Augustus III tribute, BWV 206, is a joyous celebration of the return of the Saxon Elector, beginning with reference to the four rivers of Saxony with "playful waves" that "murmur gently," which his subjects' joyous response turns into torrents that roar — an affect that begins what has been called Bach's ceremonial "Water Music" (YouTube). The text also has the popular Arcadian element of nature in response, "banks and cliffs may resound all the more," with the personified joy "that stirs up our waters" and "bursts through the dams." This text has a similar affect of a profane celebration with images of a force that impacts upon people where water in a Pentecost setting could represent a gift of the spirit such as wind or fire, causing people's "amazement" (Verwundrung).

Schleicht, spielende Wellen, und murmelt gelinde!
Glide, playful waves, and murmur gently!
Nein, rauschet geschwinde,
No, roar on swiftly
Dass Ufer und Klippe zum öftern erklingt!
so that banks and cliffs may resound all the more!
Die Freude, die unsere Fluten erreget,
The joy that stirs up our waters
Die jegliche Welle zum Rauschen beweget,
that makes every wave roar,
Durchreißet die Dämme,
bursts through the dams
Worein sie Verwundrung und Schüchternheit zwingt.
where it is confined by amazement and timidity.

In the Cantata 206 anonymous original libretto the four soloists, rather than being mythological or allegorical figures, represent elements of the character of each of the four rivers of Augustus' kingdom: soprano Pleiße (Leipzig); alto, Danube (Austria, Augustus’ consort); tenor, Elbe (Saxony, Dresden); and bass, Weichsel/Vistula (Poland). Each has a unique character and distinct gifts. Because of this last-minute substitution, the sponsoring Leipzig University students chose a learned professor, Johann Christoph Clauder, to produce a poem to be set hastily to Bach's music, BWV 215, that sings the basic praises of Augutus III, with biographical elements of enlightened patriarchy and mercy, in a time of wealth yet shadows of conflict (Nos.3 and 5), with classical and historical illusions.

The two da-capo arias (Nos. 3 and 5) were probably from earlier sources, hastily assembled with the new Clauder text from Cantata 215. also were available for a Pentecost Oratorio: a tenor G-Major da-capo aria in 4/4, "Freilich trotzt Augustus' Name" (YouTube) and a bass A-Major da-capo bouree in 3/8 time, "Rase nur, verwegner Schwarm" (YouTube). The first aria, after the celebratory chorus and narrative recitative, is an enthusiastic hymn of praise to the King, with some faulty text declamation The second, referring to the Polish War of Secession, was a bass rage aria text but was set by Bach as a satirical song against the King's detractors in a sprightly 3/8 bouree. This aria could betray its origins in a recent homage cantata, except for 28 new measures in the second vocal period of the B section, points out Stephen A. Crist, "The Question of Parody" in BWV 215.¹⁸

BWV 215/5, Freilich trotzt Augustus' Name,
Certainly the name of Augustus,
Ein so edler Götter Same,
who is the seed of such noble gods,
Aller Macht der Sterblichkeit.
defies all the power of mortality.
Und die Bürger der Provinzen
And the citizens of the provinces
Solcher tugendhaften Prinzen
of such virtuous princes
Leben in der güldnen Zeit.
live in the golden time.

BWV 215/5, Rase nur, verwegner Schwarm,
Rage on, presumptuous swarm,
In dein eignes Eingeweide!
in your own bowels!
Wasche nur den frechen Arm,
Go and wash your impudent arm
Voller Wut,
full of rage
In unschuldger Brüder Blut,
in the innocent blood of your brothers,
Uns zum Abscheu, dir zum Leide!
to our abhorrence, to your own harm!
Weil das Gift
For the poison
Und der Grimm von deinem Neide
and the fury of your envy
Dich mehr als Augustum trifft.
hurts you more than Augustus.

The two arias (Nos. 3, 5) may be parodies, originals unknown, perhaps from a salvaged work without published texts. The possible source is BWV deest, no title, homage cantata for August III Nameday (8 August 1734) [Bach Document II, No. 350 lists the Leipzig newspaper account of the court name day visit by the royal couple on 3 August 1734, where at 4 p.m. "the Bachian Collegium Musicum will humbly perform a solemn music, with trumpets and timpani, at Zimmerman's garden, in front of the Grimma gate." As the endnote in the New Bach Reader says (p. 164): "The identity of the work performed is not known."

One other da-capo aria source that may have been appropriate for a Pentecost Oratorio, would be the unique soprano-flute basetto, No. 3, "Blast die wohlgegriffnen Flöten" (Blow the firmly held flutes), from Cantata BWV 214, "Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!" (Sound, you drums! Ring out, you trumpets!), for the birthday of the Saxon Electress, 8 December 1733). Originally, in the fall of 1734, Bach planed to parody this bi-nary dance in Polonaise style, in Part 3, the Adoration of the Shepherds, of the Christmas Oratorio, as No 31, the lullaby "Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder" (Enclose, my heart, this blessed wonder). Instead, Bach eventually composed an original aria for alto and violin. "Oner wonders whether it [BWV 214/3, YouTube] was too militaristic to find a place in the Christmas work, even transformed with a new text, and whether Bach and his librettist deliberately passed over it for that reason," says Melamed (Ibid.: 81). It also should be noted that the Ascension Oratorio also has a basetto soprano aria with violin (No. 10) in minuet style, "Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke / Kann ich doch beständig sehn." (Jesus, your gracious look), which originated in the lost 1725 wedding serenade, ""Auf! süß-entzückende Gewalt" (Up, sweet-enchanting force and pow'r), details, see BCW).

Blast die wohlgegriffnen Flöten,
Blow the firmly held flutes,
Dass Feind, Lilien, Mond erröten,
so that the enemy, lilies and the moon may blush,
Schallt mit jauchzendem Gesang!
ring out with jubilant song!
Tönt mit eurem Waffenklang!
Let the clash of your weapons sound!
Dieses Fest erfordert Freuden,
This festival demands joy
Die so Geist als Sinnen weiden.
that feeds both spirit and mind.

Biblical readings appropriate to Pentecost could have been the sources of Bach accompagnato recitatives preceding the parodied da-capo arias, as found in previous works. Most likely could be a vox Dei bass with strings accompagnato of this biblical prophecy of the descent or emptying (kenosis) of the Holy Spirit upon the people (Joel 2:28-29): "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit."¹⁹

In church year cantatas in Bach's time, the setting of the Old Testament quotation often occurred early in the work, representing the vox Dei, and the Gospel later, representing the vox Christi." In the manner of other Bach oratorio convention pairings, this accompagnato would lead to a da-capo aria, usually to the same affect.

In the spring of 1735, having premiered the Christmas Oratorio the past winter, Bach began at his leisure composition of the Ascension Oratorio and perhaps a Pentecost Oratorio. The source-critical parts of the former (Bach Digital) show the primary parts copyists were: Anon. L 107 = Anon. N1 (Kobayashi Chr); Straube, Rudolf (1717–c1785) = Main copyist G; and Machts, Johann Wilhelm (1724–1805). If such a work as a Pentecost Oratorio existed, its history could have been part of Bach's continuing Christological cycle with the production of his Clavierübung III chorale Catechism and organ Mass for the 1739 bicentennial of Leipzig's acceptance of the Reformation, the publication of the first liturgical congregational hymn book and the visit and sermons of Martin Luther on Pentecost Sunday at two special, elaborate feast-day services. In the 1740s, the saga continues with Friedemann as Halle music director, presenting Pentecost cantatas and in 1750 possibly inheriting a Pentecost Oratorio, which could have been lost along with other inherited works such as the St. Mark Passion and a group of chorale cantata scores.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Alfred Dürr, Preface to the Bärenreiter/NBA edition BA 5014a of the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 (Leipzig 6/1961: VII; X English), and Dürr, Chapter 1, "Development of the Bach Cantata," The Cantatas of J. S. Bach, ed. & trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford University Press, 2005: 44).
² Sources: Marianne Helms and Arthur Hirsch, liner notes, Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, Helmut Rilling "Die Bach Kantate, Vol. 7 (1985), BCW, and Peter Williams, Chapter 6, Leipzig, the middle years: other activities," Bach, A Musical Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016: 356, "A note on the Christmas Oratorio."
³ C. L. Hilgenfeldt, Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Worken, and Werke: ein Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte des achzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Hofmeister, 1850; reprint, Hilversum: Knuf, 1965).
⁴ Pentecost was the last of the three major feast day in the Lutheran service, after Christmas and Easter, and its significance is explained in Martin Petzoldt’s “Liturgy and Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches” (1999) BCW (pp. 5ff); see also Uri Golomb's 2007 article, "Bach's Oratorios" on the oratorio genre and Bach (BCW BCW), especially the "Conclusion."
⁵ Christoph Wolff, "Under the Spell of Opera? Bach's Oratorio Trilogy, in J. S. Bach and the Oratorio Tradition, ed. Daniel R. Melamed; Bach Perspective Vol 8 (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011: 1-12), in conjunction with the American Bach Society.
⁶ Multi-day Passion model for Christmas Oratorio, suggested by Daniel R. Melamed, Listening to Bach: the Mass in B Minor and the Christmas Oratorio (Oxford University Press, 2018: 102f), and the Ascension Oratorio possible model, Richard D. P. Jones, "Oratorio," Part II, the middle Leipzig years: 1729-39, in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. II: 1717-1750, Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: 313f).
⁷ Robert L. Marshall, Chapter 1, "The General Nature of the Bach Autographs: Manuscript types and Their Combinations," in The Compositional Process of J. S. Bach: A Study of the Autography Scores of the Vocal Works, Vol. 1 (Princeton University Press, 1972: 17).
⁸ Martin Petzoldt, Bach Kommentar: Theologisch Musikwissenschaftlicke Kommentierung der Geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs, 3 vols. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2004, 2007, 2018).
⁹ Paul Stroble, "O Eternal Fire: Bach’s Cantatas for Pentecost," in "Bach’s Sacred Cantatas: Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity, October 16, 2014 (A Blog by Paul Stroble).
¹⁰ John Eliot Gardiner notes, BCW BCP, Vol. 26 [PDF]; Recording details, BCW.
¹¹ Eric Chafe, Part IV, Cantatas for Weimar 1714, Chapter 12, "Descent and Indwelling: Cantata 172," Tears Into Wine: J. S. Bach’s Cantata 21 in Its Musical & Theological Contexts (New York: Oxford University Press: 2015: 529ff).
¹² Jaroslav Pelikan, Bach Pentecost chorales, Google Books.
¹³ Valentin Triller (1493-1573 (Google Translate), Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), BCW.
¹⁴ Spiritus sancti gratia: Ob. 46, Melchior Vulipus (Gotha 1715), Gookle Books), BWV 295, Orgelbüchlein: Missing Chorales; Hymnary.org.
15 Luther’s Works, vol. 53, Liturgy and Hymns, ed. Ulrich S. Leupold (Philadelphia PA: Fortress Press, 1965: 263f; Luther's German text and Francis Browne's English translation, BCW.
¹⁶ See William L. Hoffman, "Bach's Drammi per Musica," in Bach’s DramatMusic: Serenades, Drammi per Musica, Oratorios (Bach Cantatas Website, Articles, 2008), BCW.
¹⁷ Hans-Joachim Schulze "Bach's Secular Cantatas - A New Look at the Sources" (BACH, The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (Berea OH) 21, 1990/1: 34); See also Marshall (Ibid.), source material Bach Digital), score (BCW ).
¹⁸ Stephen A. Crist, "The question of parody in Bach's cantata Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215," in Bach Perspectives 1 (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1995: 135-161); source material (Bach Digital ); score (BCW); see also Cantata 215 Discussion, BCW.
¹⁹ Joel 2:28-29, Martin Luther, "Und nach diesem will ich meinen Geist ausgießen über alles Fleisch, und eure Söhne und Töchter sollen weissagen; eure Ältesten sollen Träume haben, und eure Jünglinge sollen Gesichte sehen; auch will ich mich zur selben Zeit über Knechte und Mägde meinen Geist ausgießen" (Bible Gateway).

Lost Pentecost Oratorio: Part 2

William L. Hoffman wrote (May 22, 2018):
The spring of 1735 was a fortuitous time for Bach, having finished his Christological Cycle of feast day oratorios with his Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, possibly followed 10 days later with a now-lost Pentecost Oratorio on 31 May. Two Sundays later Bach took a break from this renewal of vocal composition by beginning a cantata cycle of his Gotha colleague, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (BCW). Previously, Bach had introduced a unique series of six cantatas for the 12 days of Christmas, the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. Bach may have repeated an Easter Season of cantatas from his first three cycles although the record is vague. Another milestone event was Bach's publication about May 1 of his Clavier-Übung II, the second of four keyboard compositional studies to show the diversity of his art and of his renewed interest in instrumental music after his first five years in Leipzig as cantor creating a well-ordered church music. Bach's vocal music interest turned to the Schmelli Gesangbuch collection of chorales and more recent pietist hymns (Leipzig 1736). His interest in chorales from the omnes tempore (Ordinary Time) turned to the Deutsche Messe and Catechism settings, culminating in their publication in the Clavier-Übung III in 1739 when Leipzig staged a year-long celebration of the bicentennial of the Protestant Reformation in Saxony.

About Jubilate, on May 1, 1735, Bach's Clavier-Übung II: Italian Concerto, BWV 971, and French Overture, BWV 831, was published in Leipzig for the annual Easter Fair, which was the traditional time for publications to be offered for sale by Leipzig publishers. Bach previously had published his Clavier-Übung I: six partitas, BWV 825-30 separately, 1726–1730, then grouped in one volume in 1731. Soon after the second set of keyboard studies in 1735 Bach started the most ambitious, Clavier-Übung III: the German Organ Mass and Catechism Chorales, BWV 552, 678-689, 802-805. “There is sufficient cause to speculate that Bach started working on this collection not long after the publication of Clavier-Übung II in 1735, says Yo Tomita in his 2000 liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki recording (http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/essay/cu3.html, BCW). “While his involvement with the Schemellisches Gesangbuch, published at Easter 1736, may have brought to his mind closely such compositions exclusively dealing with chorale tunes, it is highly conceivable that the Kyrie and Gloria from this collection were part of the programme he performed on the new Silbermann organ at the Frauenkirche in Dresden from 2 to 4 on Saturday, 1 December 1736, an occasion marking his conferment of the title of Royal Court Composer that he had received less than a fortnight ago.”

"Gregory Butler¹ reconstructs the prepublication history of Bach’s compositional activity in three layers," says Tomita (Ibid.). "It emerged that an earlier version of the collection contained the entire Missa settings and the pedaliter catechism chorales only (Layer 1). The scope of the work was then expanded sometime prior to the beginning of work on the engraving around late 1738 (Layer 2). This included the prelude and fugue that frame the collection and manualiter catechism settings. And finally, in the summer 1739, the four duets were added (Layer 3).”

The German Organ/Catechism Mass was published in Leipzig for the Michaelmas Fall Fair 1739, while the city observed three celebrations observing the Bicentenary of the establishment of the Reformation in Leipzig. Besides Reformation Day, 30 October, Bach may have performed the music as a “dedicatory piece in commemoration” of the observances, during a special service, says Martin Petzoldt in “Bach as Thomascantor.”² A special service was held on Wednesday, August 12, for the 200th anniversary of the acceptance of Reformation theology and practice by Leipzig University.³ Previously, on Pentecost Sunday, 17 May 1739, a bicentenary commemoration was held for Martin Luther’s sermon preached on 24 May 1539 at the early main service of the Thomas Church, using the Saxony Agenda, das ist Kirchenordnung (Leipzig 1539).⁴ At the Gradualied (Hymn of the Day) was sung "Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott" (Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God), followed by the Gospel, John 14:23-31 (The Promise of the Holy Spirit). At the afternoon vesper service, which Johannes Bugenhagen, superintendent of the Lutheran Church in Saxony, preached to the Epistle Acts 2: 1-13 (The descent of the Holy Spirit, BCW).⁵ Luther's Pentecost chorale "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," (We now beg the holy spirit), was sung with the sermon (Pulpit Hymn). These hymns were presumably sung from the new hymnal published by Valentin Schumann following the Wittenberg model, published in 1539 in Leipzig and updated by Valentin Bapst to the liturgical order as Geystliche Lieder . . . [und] Psalmen . . . (Leipzig 1545), with a new preface written by Luther.

Luther preached that Pentecost 1539 evening in the Pleissenberg Castle chapel to the day's Gospel, John 14:23-31. Following heavy damage in 1547 it was remodeled and became an administrative building and in Bach's time was the residence of the Saxon Governor, Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming. Peter Williams speculates (Organ Music of JSB, 2003: 388) that Bach may have performed the Clavier-Übung III “on his visit to the new organ at [St. George’s Church in] Altenburg Castle in September 1739.” Details of Bach’s visit and possible performance of the Credo chorale, BWV 580, on September 6, the 15^th Sunday after Trinity, are found in the Marshalls’ recent Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach.⁶

The 1739 Pentecost Sunday celebration could have included Bach’s lost Pentecost Oratorio, which would have been repeated in the vesper service. The Leipzig University event on 25 August 25 was observed at the University Paulinerkircke with a speech by Professor Friedrich Christian Börand a Latin ode by Johann Gottlieb Görner. It is possible that Bach could have presented a work such as the motet BWV 226, “Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf,” premiered by Bach on 21 October 1729, at the same church for Johann Ernesti, Thomas School rector and Leipzig University Professor. The Reformation celebration on 31 October could have included Bach’s final version of Cantata 80, “Ein feste burg ist unser Gott” (YouTube), as well as Reformation Cantatas BWV 79, 192, or 76.

For the Pentecost main and vespers services Bach had many resources available, with the liturgical resources in Latin and German (BCW) and motet and chorale settings:

1. Introit (Antiphon): “Spiritus Domini” (Not in NLGB, Liber Usualis 878), The Spirit of the Lord” (Wisdom 1:7), Psalm 68:3 (Let the righteous be glad); Psalm reading: Ps. 68, Praise and Thanksgiving. "Spíritus Dómini / replévit órbem terrárum, / allelúia: / et hoc quod cóntinet ómnia, / sciéntiam hábet vócis, / allelúia, allelúia, allelúia." (The Spirit of the Lord / hath filled the whole world, / alleluia; / and that which containeth all things / hath knowledge of the voice, / alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.).
2. Introit Psalm Motet for the Pentecost Festival Sunday (Pentecost 1) is Psalm 51, Miserere mei, Deus “Have mercy upon me, O God”), or Extensive details of Psalm 51 and Bach’s German setting, BWV 1083, see BCML BCW; also NLGB Psalm 51 settings, Erhardt Hegenwaldt's "Erbarm dich mein O Herre Gott" (No. 256) and "O Herre Gott begande mich" (No. 257), nor set by Bach.
3. Motet: Spiritus sancti gratia (NLGB 125, 127) illuminet sensus et corda nostra,” (May the grace of the Holy Spirit illuminate our senses and our hearts) (Office Hours Ordinary). Orgelbüchlein (OB) organ chorale preludes, No. 46 (not set), “Spiritus sancti gratia” (BCW) or “Des Heiligen Geistes reichte Gnad” (The Holy Ghost carries grace), NLGB 126 (Google Books, YouTube); adaptation of Latin hymn, 6 stanzas, J. Herman Schein 1627; Bach plain chorale BWV 295 (bach-chorales.com, YouTube).
4. Hymn de tempore (Hymn of the Day, Gradualied): “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” (Come Holy Spirit, Lord God), NLGB 123 (Google Books); translation, Pentecost Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus (LU 879, Pentecost Sequence; NLGB 122, 10 3-line stanzas (aab), melody from antiphon Adesto, sancta spiritus (Marchetto di Padua, c1270); hymn text, Luther/Walther 1524, 3 stanzas); also, “O Gottes Geist, mein Trost und Rat” (O God’s Spirit, my trust and Support), Text 2, J. Rist 1652, 12 stanzas (not in NLGB); Bach hymn usage, music (YouTube): "Allelúia. / Véni Sáncte Spíritus, / réple tuórum córda fidélium: / et túi amóris /in éis ígnem accénde." (Alleluia. / Come, Holy Spirit, / fill the hearts of Thy faithful: and kindle in them the fire / of Thy love.).
5. Pulpit Hymn: “Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist” (Now we pray to the Holy Spirit) (Luther/Walter 1524, 4 stanzas (bach-chorales.vom; NLGB 402 Google Books); hymn usage, plain chorale, BWV 385 (bach-chorales.com, YouTube).
6. Hymn for Chancel, Communion & Closing: “Gott Vater, sende deinen Geist” (God the Father, send Thy Spirit”); P. Gerhardt 16 stanzas, 1653, no NLGB; melody,“Kommt her zu mir, spricht Gottes” (Come here to me, says God’s son), Georg Grünwald 1530, melody anon. (NLGB 234), Trinity 1 & 26). Stiller, Ascension, Dresden; Leipzig, “Various Hymns, Pentecost Sunday & Tuesday”; hymn usages: 74/8 (S.2), Pent. Sun.; 108/6 (S.10) Easter 4 (music, YouTube).
7. Vespers Motets: Veni Sancte Spiritus or “Komm, Heiliger Geist, erfüll die Herzen deiner Gläubigen” (Come, Holy Spirits, fill the hearts of your believers), Luther 1524 (NLGB 123, Google Books) vespers litany) OB 42, not set. Si qui diligit me sermonem (Those who love me will keep my word) (John 14:23), David Peebles (d.1579?) 1530 motet (not in NLGB). Apparuerunt Apostolis, anonymous (reponsory, antiphon); Votive Office of the Holy Spirit (chant, mode 7): "Apparuerunt apostolis dispertitae linguae tamquam ignis, seditque supra singulos eorum Spiritus Sanctus, alleluia” (Acts 2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them); NLGB 136, Google Books; also settings of Heinrich Finck, Thomas Pöpel, Ludwig Senfl, Johann Walter, Jakob Froberger.

Bach had set three Pentecost chorales out of 12 mostly omnes tempore hymns in the "Great 18 Leipzig" chorale preludes, with the early Weimar versions available in 1639; a year or two later he began revising these settings: The three appropriate as preludes or postludes are: 1. "Komm, Hiliger Geist, Herre Gott" (Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God); OB 43, not set; BWV 651(18), 651a, 652(a) (Weimar); Emans (Miscellaneous, doubtful) 123, 124; 2. "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" (Come, God Creator, Holy Spirit); Ob. 44. BWV 631; BWV 370 (bach-chorales.com), BWV 667(18), 667(a,b, Weimar 18); Emans (Miscellaneous) BWV deest (2); and 3. "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend" (Lord Jesus Christ! Turn towards us; NLGB 314, Word of God, Google Books); Ob. 49, BWV 632; BWV 332 (bach-chorales.com), BWV 655(18), a (Weimar), b, c; BWV 709 (Kirnberger); BWV 726 (Miscellaneous), and BWV 749 (Miscellaneous, doubtful); and Ob. 51 BWV 633 (distinctius) BWV 288(PC); music YouTube). The specific stanzas which Bach may have used in these "Great 18 Leipzig" settings are explored in Anne Leahy's unique and definitive study.⁷

During the communion distribution in the Pentecost main service, Bach had other chorale settings, both plain and organ prelude, including: Johann Franck's 1653 “Brunnquelle aller Gütter” (Fountain of all Goods; BWV 445 (SG), deest/Wiemer 4 (YouTube, Hymnary.org); V. E. Löscher's 1713“Kommt, Seelen, dieser Tag” (Come, souls, of this day); BWV deest/Wiemer 9(PC); BWV 479(SG) BCW, YouTube); and Anarg von Wildenfels' 1526 “O Herre Gott, dein Göttliche Wort” (O Lord God, your divine word); NLGB 802 (Word of God, Google Books), BWV 184/5; BWV 757, BWV 1110 (BCW, bach-chorales.com, O Herre Gott, dein Göttliche Wort).

For the Pentecost festival vespers Service of the Word, besides vesper motets, Bach also was able to use concerted Latin settings of the Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus. In the later 1730s he composed four settings of the Missae: Kyrie-Gloria,BWV 233-236, based on contrafactions from earlier cantatas with appropriate affect (BCW, YouTube; Sanctus, YouTube). The timing was serendipitous, as the Missa and Sanctus would be most appropriate for Christological vesper feast Services of the Word of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, where they would be performed along with Bach's feast day oratorios as musical sermons, in lieu of chorale settings done during the morning Communion Service distribution, which lasted an hour on feast days. The order of the Lutheran vespers was: Organ Prelude, Introit Hymn, Missa Brevis, Hymn of the Day, Psalm, Sanctus, Lord’s Prayer, Hymn, Announcement of the Sermon, Hymn “Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend,” Epistle Reading, Cantata (on feast days only), Sermon, Prayers, Magnificat (Latin or German), Responsory (Collect and Benediction), and Hymn, “Nun danket all Gott.” An organ postlude probably followed.

An additional element preceding the Missa Brevis would be Bach's organ and chorale settings from the Clavier-Übung III and the Deutche Messe: “Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit” (Kyrie, God the Father evermore), an anonymous contrafactum of the Latin trope, Fons bonitatis, in three trinitarian stanzas, melody first Teutsch Kirchenamt (Erfurt, 1525), text, Johann Spangenberg, 1545 ⁸ (NLGB 144 (Google Books); BWV 371 Google Books, YouTube; BWV 671 Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist 3. Kyrie, God Holy Spirit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7sNw5wrSEo; YouTube.

Friedemann in Halle

The saga of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and his eventual decline begins with his service as music director in Halle. The previously-documented premiere of Cantata 34, “O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe,” according to Tatiana Shabalina,⁹ is now dated to Pentecost Monday, May 29, 1746 in Halle, where Sebastian is believed to have revived the work for his oldest son Friedemann’s debut as music director. Friedemann, who was required to present major works on the first feast day of high festivals (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost), also may have repeated BWV 34 in 1756 on a double bill with his own Pentecost Cantata setting of the Neumesiter text, “Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten” Fk 72. These dates were established by Peter Wollny.¹⁰

"Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten" is a longer work, at almost 30 minutes. The opening is a choral tour de force, though with largely unison singing. Showing his father's influence, other movements present as much contrast as they do convincing devotional concentration.¹¹ Friedemann also presented at least three other Pentecost works in Halle: "Dies ist der Tag, da Jesu Leidenskraft," BR F 13 (1755–58?); "Ertönt, ihr seligen Völker," BR F 14 (based on earlier compositions, BDW 8146); and "Ach, daß du den Himmel zerrissest," BR F 16 (parody of BR F 3/F 93),

Bach possibly even allowed his son Friedemann access to Cantatas BWV 80, 194, 129 in the 1740s in Dresden and Halle, says Wollny (Ibid.). Bach’s oldest son Friedemann apparently had access to the music of Cantata 80 in Dresden where he was the organist at the Sophienkirche from 1733 to 1746. Between 1740 and 1746, Friedemann probably presented his Latin version (contrafaction) of the opening chorale fantasia, Gaudet, omnes populi, and the chorale chorus setting of Mvt. 5, Manebit verbum Domini,” both with three added trumpets and timpani. Three copies of Cantata 80 exist from the second half of the 18th century. Two other cantatas with Reformationfest connections are linked to possible Friedemann performances: Trinity Cantata 194 for a Halle feast day (1746-67), and Cantata 192, for the Dresden peace celebration, January 9, 1746. Apparently Sebastian lent his oldest son these works, as well as Cantata 79.

Friedemann’s Loss

Bach's estate division and Friedemann's subsequent loss are given in Bach's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkkel’s 1802 On Johann Sebastian Bach’s Life, Genius and Works. Heading the list of Vocal Compositions are “Five complete sets of Church Music for all the Sundays and Holidays of the Year,” followed by the “Five Passions,” then “Many Oratorios,” etc. and “Many Motets for one and two choruses.” “Most of these works are now dispersed,” says Forkkel.¹² “The annual sets were divided after the author’s death between the elder sons [Friedemann and Emmanuel] and in such a manner that Friedemann had the largest share [all three cycles] because, in the place which he then filled in Halle, he could make the most use of them.” Eventually, says Forkkel, “circumstances obliged him to part, by degrees,” with what he had obtained. Forkkel was in direct correspondence with both Bach sons. Only three cantata cycles are extant. Fortunately, the scores and parts were divided between the two sons and all the chorale cantata parts went to the Thomas school where they reside today. Friedemann attempted to sell these cantatas to Forkkel and some of the works for Trinity Time are lost.

Friedemann’s situation in Halle is described by Karl Geiringer.¹³ “On May 12, 1764, he resigned his position at Halle, stopping work instantly, and not even appearing for the checking of the instruments entrusted to his care. No dispute has been recorded which might have provoked so sudden a decision; moreover Friedemann had no other position in prospect on which to fall back, though he may have hoped for a chance at Fulda. Apparently the resentment and disappointment engendered in Friedemann's mind for 18 years just had to find an outlet, and the artist felt irresistibly drawn to washing his hands of his ungracious and narrow-minded superiors, and to showing them that he did not depend on their favour. The satisfaction he derived from this act of defiance must have been great indeed, but so was the price he and his dependents had to pay for it. [New paragraph]. Through six more years he stayed on in Halle, getting some help from his friend, the publisher Gebauer, and working as a music teacher.”

Postscript: The only source-critical remnant of a lost Pentecost Oratorio would be the libretto book of its text, as with the lost St. Mark Passion. A pentecost work could survive in other collections of libretto books in St. Petersburg or Warsaw where there have been recent discoveries of Christoph Wolff, Tatiana Shabalina, Christine Blanken, and Szymon Paczkowski. In addition, the Leipzig archives may have a putative text book from its 1739 celebration of the Bicentennial of the Lutheran Reformation. Such a find could show, like the St. Mark Passion, a recovery of the lost madrigalian music through parody and chorales while the narrative is lost except for the biblical text. And like the recovery of the Mark Passion, it would be a significant addition to Bach's calling of a "well-ordered church music to the glory of God."

FOOTNOTES

¹ Gregory Butler, Bach's Clavier-Übung III: the making of a print (Raleigh NC: Duke University Press, 1990: 65ff). See also Christoph Wolff (1991), “The Clavier-Übung Series” in Bach, essays on his life and music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 205-208).
² Martin Petzoldt, “Bach as Cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig , 1723-50” ed. Robin A. Leaver (original address 1997; Bach, Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Volume XLVI, No. 2, 2015: 7-21, with a Leaver introduction, “The Historical Context of Martin Petzoldt’s Paper in Bach’s Cantorate in Leipzig” (Ibid.: 1-6)
³ Cited in Robin A. Leaver, Chapter 20, “Life and Works,” The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian B, ed. Leaver (Abingdon GB: Routledge, 2017: 530).
⁴ Martin Petzoldt’s “Liturgy and Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches” (1999) BCW, 2013 trans. Thomas Braatz.
⁵ Source: Google Books
⁶ Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall, Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach (University of Illinois Press, 2016: 99f), published in cooperation of American Bach Society.
⁷Anne Leahy, J. S. Bach's "Leipzig" Chorales: Music, Text Theology, ed. Robin A. Leaver; Contectual Bach Studies No. 3 (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011; Chapters 1, 4, 11).
⁸ Johann Spanenberg (1484-1550), Google Translate; German text, Musica.net; English translation Musica.net.
⁹ Tatiana Shabalina, “Recent Discoveries in St Petersburg and their Meaning for the Understanding of Bach’s Cantatas,” Understanding Bach, 4, 77-99, © Bach Network UK 2009 BachNetworkUK.
¹⁰ Peter Wollny in “Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Halle performances of Cantatas by his father” in Bach Studies 2, ed. Daniel R. Melamed (Cambridge University Press, 1995; 210, 213).
¹¹ Read more: MusicWeb MusicWeb International
¹² See Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, The New Bach Reader: A Life if Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998); first published 1945; cites BD (Bach-Dokumente), 8 volumes, supplement to the Neue Bach Ausgabe (NBA), 1954-2007.
¹³ Karl Geiringer, The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954, available on-line, Internet Archive.

Addendum

BACH'S LOST PENTECOST ORATORIO, William L. Hoffman (transcript, summary presentation
at Bach Network Dialogue Meting; Wednesday, July 10; Session 8, Flash Announcement 1; Bach NetwokUK ).

The possibility that Bach composed an Oratorium Festo Pfingsstag for Pentecost Sunday was first suggested in 1961 by leading Bach scholar Alfred Dürr (1918-2011, Wikipedia), in his Preface to the Bärenreiter edition of the Christmas Oratorio: "A Whitsun Oratorio may also have been planned: indeed, it may have been written and later lost." (Veilleicht was auch ein Pfingst-Orartorium geplant; oder es ist gar componiert worden und später verlorengagangen).¹ Dürr in his later study, Cantatas of J. S. Bach, repeats his thesis that "one might imagine a `Whit Oratorio."² Most recently, other Bach scholars also have entertained the possibility of such a work: Marianne Helms and Arthur Hirsch in 1985, "does a lost Pentecost 'oratorio' also belong to this group?" and Peter Williams in 2016 suggested, "There may also have been a Whitsuntide or Pentecost Oratorium, about which nothing is known."³

While there is virtually no tangible source-critical documentation — such as a printed libretto or historical account — that a Pentecost oratorio existed, there is considerable collateral and circumstantial evidence that Bach possessed the motive, method, and opportunity to compose such a work for the third of the major high feast days. It could have been the completion of a Christological cycle of major vocal works including Jesus' incarnation in the multi-day 1734-35 Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, his sacrificial death in the three Passion oratorios of John, Matthew and Mark, and a trilogy of post-Passion accounts of his Easter Sunday resurrection, BWV 249; his ascension into heaven, BWV 11; and the final Pentecost Sunday celebration of the birthday of the Christian Church and the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples.

The basic ingredients for a cycle of oratorios for major feast days, also called "grösser Cantaten," can be found in various resources such as the biblical narrative from the day's gospel and epistle, the appropriate Lutheran chorales in Bach four-voice harmonizations, and madrigalian arias and chorus music parodied with new text underlay from earlier Bach profane homage works of joy for the Dresden Court or its supporters. The narrative account would be based on Martin Luther's Pentecost Epistle translation, Acts 2:1-13, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and the closing Markan passage, 16:20. Speculative are possible settings of accompanied recitatives, as in the Christmas and Ascension Oratorios, involving a Vox Christi realization of the text from the Pentecost Sunday Gospel, John 14:23-31, the Promise of the Holy Spirit, and the Old Testament

Literature Review

In late 1734 Bach probably conceived a Christological "cycle of oratorios for the high feast days of the church year," says Peter Wollny in a recent study.⁴ No longer composing and presenting church-year cantata cycles, Bach now was "carefully deliberating and thinking about things in a large context" where "we see for the first time a method/procedure which characterizes Bach's late period of creativity," he says (Ibid.: 91). "Obviously, this ambitious plan could not be completed within the liturgical year (1734/35), but rather the conception of this grand cycle had to mature over several years and be completed in stages."

Bach during the 1735 tempus clausum began to compose the Ascension Oratorio which scholars originally had dated to 1735, says Wollny. An extended compositional process or genesis unfolded in several distinct stages over three years: the first movement in the score clean copy to the modified da capo, then movements 2-7, followed by another parodied movement (8), and finally the closing chorale chorus. In 1738, Bach transformed the 1725 Easter cantata into the Easter Oratorio, "the first performance of this revised version probably on April 6, 1738," Wollny says (Ibid.: 91), followed by the Ascension Oratorio "first performance on May 15, 1738."

Source-critical evidence suggests that a Pentecost oratorio could have begun concurrently during the tempus clausum in 1735, since Bach had on hand prospective parody materials for an opening chorus and two arias, as well as plain chorale settings for a Pentecost observance. As with the composition of the Ascension Oratorio, based on Wollny's research, Bach could have taken several years to complete a Pentecost oratorio in stages. The most likely first performance could have been on 17 May 1739 when Leipzig celebrated the momentous Reformation Jubilee of the 200th anniversary of Saxony's acceptance of the Lutheran confession. In 1539, Luther and Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1555), newly-appointed Superintendent of Saxony, had preached on Pentecost Sunday and the community had published its first hymnbook. Another concurrent Bach creative endeavor was the composition of the Lutheran Organ Mass and Catechism chorale settings, published as the Clavierübung III, also in 1739, which was begun in 1736 and also was composed in three stages. As to the disposition of a putative lost Pentecost oratorio, it is possible that it was inherited by son Friedemann in Halle, which had a tradition of Pentecost cantatas and oratorios most notably by Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, but was lost along with the St. Mark Passion, BW 247, and a portion of the chorale cantata cycle scores.

Pentecost Oratorio textual sources

The multimovement possible model of a Pentecost oratorio, based on the nine-movement template of the Ascension Oratorio, shows the following possible movements: 1. opening tutti da-capo chorus (parody), accompagnato recitative, 3. narrative recitative, 4. plain chorale, 5. aria da-capo (parody), 6. plain chorale, narrative recitative, 8. accompagnato recitative, 9. aria da-capo (parody), 10, narrative recitative, and 11. closing plain chorale. This template is in a modified palindrome form of rhetorical symmetry in two parts, with choruses flanking narratives, accompagnato, and aria da capo. The oratorio movements were presented in the manner of a mini-sacred sacred opera, says Christoph Wolff.⁵ In particular, Wolff points out in Bach's oratorios the exordium and applicatio rhetorical technique as well as the theatrical dialogue character and communal audience response as believers during the course of the biblical narrative (Ibid.: 5, 9).

The Epistle Pentecost narrative of 13 verses, Acts 2:1-13 (BCW) has seven verses of the narrator (apostle Luke), five of the crowd ("multitude") in dialogue as an extended turbae chorus, and a concluding verse. John's Gospel, the valedictory address in his Farewell Discourse to his disciples, is Jesus' sermon and prophecy as a long, nine-verse monologue that refers to the Holy Spirit (Comforter). If Bach were to set this Johannine text, it could have been as a vox Christi bass arioso with strings in the manner of similar passages from his three oratorio Passions. As with the presentations of the six Christmas Oratorio parts and the Ascension Oratorio, the entire Pentecost Oratorio could have been presented before the sermon in an extended, feast-day morning main service, although it is possible that with a central chorale, the music could have been divided into two parts, performed before and after the sermon.

The most likely candidate for the authorship of the libretti of Bach's feast-day oratorios is Christian Friedrich Henrici (1700-1764), known as Picander (BCW). He was Bach's favorite poet with some 67 texts set to Bach's music, many involving new text underlay, called parody, and some surviving with text only, music lost (Bärenreiter, Universtät Leipzig). Although none of the texts of the Easter, Christmas, and Ascension Oratorios is found in Picander's published poetry, various Bach scholars point to the published libretto book of the Christmas Oratorio suggesting Picander's authorship. In his Preface to the Bärenreiter Christmas Oratorio edition, Dürr says, "The alterations which this revision [of the text by Bach] necessitated perhaps made Picander unwilling to publish the [Christmas Oratorio] text under his own name" (Ibid.: x). Adds Werner Breig: Bach “involved himself in the compilation [of BWV 248] to such a great extent that Picander felt unable to claim it as his own work.”⁶

Parody Settings: Chorus, Arias

To begin a Pentecost Oratorio, Bach had at hand a celebratory da-capo chorus in D major with trumpets, BWV 206/1, "Schelicht, spielende Wellen" (Glide, playful waves, and murmur gently!). It was originally composed for August's Nameday, October 7, 1734, at Zimmermann's Garden but the first movement chorus was set aside for two years in favor of music with a more appropriate text, Cantata BWV 215, "Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen" (Praise your good fortune, blessed Saxony). On September 30 it was announced that the Elector and his family would visit the annual fall fair and arrived on October 3. A congratulatory serenade on the first anniversary of his election was put together hastily with Leipzig University students commissioning the text and leading a torchlight parade, on October 5. "It seems likely that between October 1734 and October 1736, this first movement [BWV 206/1] had become part of another cantata, presumably a cantata with a text differing from the original one and referring to matters other than the Elector's birthday or nameday," says Hans-Joachim Schulze.⁷ "The whereabouts of such a hypothetical cantata are unknown except for the traces in the source material of Cantata BWV 206." A fair copy of this movement is found in the 1736 score (Bach Digital).

The opening movement of the belated Augustus III tribute, BWV 206, is a joyous celebration of the return of the Saxon Elector, beginning with reference to the four rivers of Saxony with "playful waves" that "murmur gently," which his subjects' joyous response turns into torrents that roar — an affect that begins what has been called Bach's ceremonial "Water Music" (YouTube). The text also has the popular Arcadian element of nature in repose, "banks and cliffs may resound all the more," with the personified joy "that stirs up our waters" and "bursts through the dams." This text has a similar affect of a profane celebration with images of a force that impacts upon people where water in a Pentecost setting could represent a gift of the spirit such as wind or fire, causing people's "amazement" (Verwundrung).

Because of this last-minute substitution, the sponsoring Leipzig University students chose a learned professor, Johann Christoph Clauder, to produce a poem to be set hastily to Bach's music, BWV 215, that sings the basic praises of Augustus III, with biographical elements of enlightened patriarchy and mercy, in a time of wealth yet shadows of conflict (Nos. 3 and 5), with classical and historical illusions. The two da-capo arias (Nos. 3 and 5) were probably from earlier sources, hastily assembled with the new Clauder text from Cantata 215, also were available for a Pentecost Oratorio: a tenor G-Major da-capo aria in 4/4, "Freilich trotzt Augustus' Name" (YouTube) and a bass A-Major da-capo bourrée in 3/8 time, "Rase nur, verwegner Schwarm" (YouTube). The first aria, after the celebratory chorus and narrative recitative, is an enthusiastic hymn of praise to the King, with some faulty text declamation. The second, referring to the Polish War of Secession, is a bass mock-rage aria text but is set by Bach as a satirical song against the King's detractors in a sprightly 3/8 bourrée. This aria could betray its origins in a recent homage cantata, except for 28 newly-composed measures in the second vocal period of the B section, points out Stephen A. Crist in "The Question of Parody" in BWV 215.⁸

The two arias (Nos. 3, 5) may be parodies, originals unknown, perhaps from a salvaged work without published texts. The possible source is BWV deest, no title, homage cantata for August III Nameday (8 August) [Bach Document II, No. 350] lists the Leipzig newspaper account of the court name day visit by the royal couple on 3 August 1734, where at 4 p.m. "the Bachian Collegium Musicum will humbly perform a solemn music, with trumpets and timpani, at Zimmerman's garden, in front of the Grimma gate." As the endnote in the New Bach Reader says (p. 164): "The identity of the work performed is not known."

One other da-capo aria source that may have been appropriate for a Pentecost Oratorio could be the unique, polonaise-style soprano-flute basetto, No. 3, "Blast die wohlgegriffnen Flöten" (Blow the firmly held flutes), from Cantata BWV 214, "Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!" (Sound, you drums! Ring out, you trumpets!), for the birthday of the Saxon Electress, 8 December 1733). Originally, in the fall of 1734, Bach planeto parody this binary dance in Polonaise style, in Part 3, the Adoration of the Shepherds, of the Christmas Oratorio, as No 31, the lullaby "Schließe, mein Herze, dies selige Wunder" (Enclose, my heart, this blessed wonder). Instead, Bach eventually composed an original aria setting for alto and violin. "One wonders whether it [BWV 214/3, YouTube] was too militaristic to find a place in the Christmas work, even transformed with a new text, and whether Bach and his librettist deliberately passed over it for that reason," says Daniel Melamed.⁹ It also should be noted that the Ascension Oratorio also has a basetto soprano aria with violin (No. 10) in minuet style, "Jesu, deine Gnadenblicke / Kann ich doch beständig sehn." (Jesus, your gracious look), which originated in the lost 1725 wedding serenade, "Auf! süß-entzückende Gewalt" (Up, sweet-enchanting force and pow'r), BWV 1163 (BWV3) details, see BCW ).

Pentecost Chorale, Accompagnato Sources

The church's Pentecost chorales, especially Martin Luther's settings, played "a prominent part in Bach's music for the Pentecost season," observes Jaroslav Pelikan in Bach Among the Theologians.¹⁰ Bach set the following five as free-standing hymns which were composed for lost works or used liturgically in Pentecost services:
1. "Des heilgen Geistes reiche Gnad," BWV 295 (4 verses, D Major, 16 bars);
2. "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend," BWV 332 (4 verses, G Major, 8 bars);
3. "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier," BWV 373 (3 verses, G Major, 10 bars);
4. "Komm Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist," BWV 370 (6 verses, C Major, 8 bars); and
5. "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist," BWV 385 (Luther, 4 verses, A Major, 14 bars).

Bach's plain chorale setting, BWV 385 of Martin Luther's Pentecost Leise, "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist" (We now beg the holy spirit, YouTube) is an ideal candidate for a plain chorale in the first half of a Pentecost Oratorio. It is set in the key of A Major, the dominant of the D Major tonic of Bach's other oratorio settings. Particularly appropriate would be the 3rd stanza, “Du süße Lieb, schenk uns deine Gunst” (You sweet love, give us the gift of your grace, BCW), an expression of the Great Commandment which also is the gospel for Pentecost Sunday, John 14:23, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word." Adding weight to this is the dating of a plain chorale in the Johann Ludwig Dietel collection (No. 109), of this Bach student, copied in 1735. This "portion of the Dietel collection falls (very) roughly in order of the liturgical calendar, an arrangement that would suggest that this setting may fall around Whit Sunday, Monday or Tuesday," says Luke Dahn (bach-chorales.com).

A likely Bach chorale setting to close a Pentecost Oratorio could have been the Valentin Triller "Des heilgen Geistes reiche Gnad" (The Holy Ghost's rich mercy). Bach set the text as a plain chorale, BWV 295 (bach-chorales.com, YouTube).¹¹ It is a seven 4-line (varied) stanza Pentecost chorale, published in the Magdeburger Gesangbüchern of 1583 and 1594, after the Latin hymn Spiritus sancti gratia (Zahn 3706), to the melody of Johann Hermann Schein (Cantional, Leipzig 1627). It is a celebration of the disciples Great Commission in the world and the first and final verse would have been most appropriate (BCW).

Most problematic of any settings in a Pentecost Oratorio would be the pair of accompagnato recitatives preceding the parodied da-capo arias, as found in previous works such as the Ascension Oratorio (nos. 3 and 8). Possible in a Pentecost Oratorio could be biblical vox Christi or vox Dei bass with strings accompagnato of a crucial biblical passage prophecy. One is No. 3, John's Pentecost Sunday gospel, the Farewell Discourse to his Apostles (14:23-24), beginning "Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten" (If a man love me, he will keep my words), and the prophetic passage in Joel 2:28-29, beginning "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh"; describing the descent or emptying (kenosis) of the Holy Spirit upon the people. In the manner of other Bach oratorio conventional pairings, these accompagnati would lead to da-capo arias, usually to the same affect. A similar Old Testament passage is Joel 2:28-29, "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh," movement No. 8.

Oratorio Compositional Proportionality

Another template or model for determining the possible contents of a Pentecost Oratorio, besides the comparison with the movement format of the Ascension Oratorio, is the rhetorical device of an inherent compositional proportionality already consistent in the Ascension and Easter oratorios, as determined by Bach scholar Ruth Tatlow in her recent study.¹² The total number of planned bars at 1400 is a standard found in portions of the Mass in B Minor, Parts 2-4, and the St. Matthew Passion that "strongly suggests that Bach planned 1400 bars as the starting point and unifying structural feature for these large-scale sacred works, she says (Ibid.: 352). "But perhaps the most startlingly obvious personalised number in the oratorios is the 1400-bar total of the Easter and Ascension pair. As a multiple of 100, forming several layers of proportions and parallels and with a self-referential element, their joint numerical structure strongly suggests that Bach had revised them as a pair in preparation for publication" as a church service libretti.

For a Pentecost Oratorio single proportion, based on the Ascension Oratorio model totaling 558 bars (Table 13:14, page 351), the proposed chorus and two da-capo arias from parody models (movements nos. 1, 4, and 9), as well as the two chorales (nos. 6 and 11), can be determined, while the narrative recitatives and turbae choruses can only be estimated, based on the length of the text in the Evangelist's recitatives (no. 2, 5, and 10) and the extended scena with turbae choruses (no. 7), based on the Epistle, Acts 2:1-13. The length of the two accompagnati is indeterminate. Here are the bar totals: opening chorus (parody BWV 206/1): 163 bars plus 104 bars da capo repeat; aria no. 4 (parody BWV 215/ 5), 140 bars plus 72 da capo; aria no. 9 (parody BWV 214/3), 101 bars (A & B sections, no da capo repeat of A designated while a nine-bar ritornello introduces the B section following the opening 37 bars. The chorales (nos. 6 and 11) are 16 bars in the first and 14 bars in the second with an additional 14 bars for a second stanza).

The narrative proportions are estimates, based on the wording of the text: opening recitative (no. 2), Acts 2:1-4, 75 words, estimate 13 bars; second recitative (no. 5, Acts 2:5-6), 42 words, 7 bars; Scena (narrative and turbae), Acts 2:7-12, 131 words, 33 bars; and (no. 10), Mark 16:20, 22, word, 4 bars. Thus, the total narrative could have been about 57 bars. Adding the parodied madrigalian music of a total of 404 bars, the chorales 30 bars, and the narrative of 53 bars, the running total is 491 bars. Using an inductive method, the unknown-texted two accompagnati would have been about 67 bars for a proportion total of 558 bars.

Conclusion

The fragmentary source evidence available and the more substantial external and internal evidence presents the opportunity for a well-informed hypothesis. The source-critical remnant of a lost Pentecost Oratorio would bea church libretto book of its text, similar to the 1744 lost St. Mark Passion. A Pentecost work could survive in other collections of libretto books in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, various sources in Warsaw, and the Biblioteka Jagiellońska in Kraków or elsewhere, as found in recent discoveries of Tatiana Shabalina, Szymon Paczkowski, and Christine Blanken. In addition, the Leipzig church or municipal archives may have materials about its 1739 celebration of the Bicentennial of the Lutheran Reformation, as well as the Sächsiche Landesbibliothek in Dresden. Such a find would show, like the St. Mark Passion, the recovery through parody of lost madrigalian music and chorales while the narrative music is lost except for the gospel text. And like the recovery of the St. Mark Passion, it would be a significant addition to Bach's calling of a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God."

ENDNOTES

¹ Alfred Dürr, Preface to the Christmas Oratorio (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1961: vii; BA 5014a, piano-vocal score: x); also Dürr, Chapter 1, "Development of the Bach Cantata," The Cantatas of J. S. Bach, ed. & trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford University Press, 2005: 44).
² Sources: Marianne Helms and Arthur Hirsch, liner notes, Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11, Helmut Rilling "Die Bach Kantate, Vol. 7 (1985), BCW.
³ Peter Williams, Chapter 6, Leipzig, the middle years: other activities," Bach, A Musical
Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016: 356, "A note on the Christmas Oratorio."
⁴ Peter Wollny, "6. Anonymous Vj (NBA IX/3, No. 200)," in "Neuerkenntisse zu einigen Kopisten der 1730er Jahre" (New Insight Into Some Copyists in the 1730s), in Bach Jahrbuch 2016, Vol. 102: 83ff), Eng. trans. Thomas Braatz.
⁵ Christoph Wolff, "Under the Spell of Opera? Bach's Oratorio Trilogy, in J. S. Bach and the Oratorio Tradition, ed. Daniel R. Melamed; Bach Perspective Vol 8 (Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011: 1-12), in conjunction with the American Bach Society.
⁶ Werner Breig, liner notes to John Eliot Gardiner 1987 Archiv recording of BWV 248, trans. Mary Whittall (BCW), 1987: 10).
⁷ Hans-Joachim Schulze "Bach's Secular Cantatas - A New Look at the Sources" (BACH, The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute (Berea OH) 21, 1990/1: 34); See also Robert L. Marshall (Ibid.), source material Bach Digital), score (BCW).
⁸ Stephen A. Crist, "The question of parody in Bach's cantata Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen, BWV 215," in Bach Perspectives 1 (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1995: 135-161); source material (Bach Digital ); score BCW); see also Cantata 215 Discussion, BCW.
⁹ Daniel R. Melamed, Chapter 4, "Parody and Its Consequence in the Christmas Oratorio," Listening to Bach: the Mass in B Minor and the Christmas Oratorio (Oxford University Press, 2018: 81).
¹⁰ Jaroslav Pelikan, Bach Pentecost chorales, Google Books.
¹¹ Valentin Triller (1493-1573 (Google Translate), Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), BCW.
¹² Ruth Tatlow, Part IV, "Personalized oratorio projects — Easter and Ascension," Chapter 13, "Festive cut-and-paste projects: masses and oratorios," in Bach's Numbers: Compositional Proportion and Significance (Cambridge University Press, 2015: 348ff); also Book Depository, YouTube.

Appendix Note: Further research involves a study of the Pentecost Oratorio Tradition, Yahoo Groups: Discussion , as well as the topics "Clavier-Übung III Odyssey: 1735-39," "1739 Reformation Jubilee," "Friedemann in Halle," and "Friedemann’s Loss" (see "Lost Pentecost Oratorio: Part 2," BCW), and textual influences. These materials are subject to further research as past of a planned doctoral dissertation.

Addendum A

LOST PENTECOST ORATORIO, Hypothetical/Original Parody Text (German & English)

1.. Chorus da capo [SATB; Tromba I-III, Timpani, Flauto traverso I/II, Oboe I/II, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo): original BWV 206/1 D Major; 3/8 ( BCW)

Schleicht, spielende Wellen, und murmelt gelinde!
Glide, playful waves, and murmur gently!
Nein, rauschet geschwinde,
No, roar on swiftly
Dass Ufer und Klippe zum öftern erklingt!
so that banks and cliffs may resound all the more!
Die Freude, die unsere Fluten erreget,
The joy that stirs up our waters
Die jegliche Welle zum Rauschen beweget,
that makes every wave roar,
Durchreißet die Dämme,
bursts through the dams
Worein sie Verwundrung und Schüchternheit zwingt.
where it is confined by amazement and timidity.

2. Recitative, Acts 2:1-6 [Tenor; Violoncello, Fagotto, Continuo, Organo); 4/4: Und als der Tag der Pfingsten erfüllet war, waren sie alle einmütig beieinander. (And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.) Und es geschah schnell ein Brausen vom Himmel als eines gewaltigen Windes und erfüllete das ganze Haus, da sie saßen. (And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.). Und man sah an ihnen die Zungen zerteilet, als wären sie feurig. Und er setzte sich auf einen jeglichen unter ihnen. (And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.). Und wurden alle voll des Heiligen Geistes und fingen an, zu predigen mit andern Zungen, nachdem der Geist ihnen gab auszusprechen. (And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.). Es waren aber Juden zu Jerusalem wohnend, die waren gottesfürchtige Männer aus allerlei Volk, das unter dem Himmel ist. (And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.). Da nun diese Stimme geschah, kam die Menge zusammen und wurden bestürzt; denn es hörete ein jeglicher, daß sie mit seiner Sprache redeten. (Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

3. Arioso vox Christi (bass; Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo); 4/4: John 14:23-24. "Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten; und mein Vater wird ihn lieben, und wir werden zu ihm kommen undWohnung bei ihm machen. Wer aber mich nicht liebet, der hält meine Worte nicht. Und das Wort, das ihr höret ist nicht mein, sondern des Vaters, der mich gesandt hat." (If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me).

4. Aria da capo (Alto; Oboe, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo); transposed to G Major, 3/8 bouree style (original text BWV 215/5 parody, BCW, YouTube ).

Rase nur, verwegner Schwarm,
Rage on, presumptuous swarm,
In dein eignes Eingeweide!
in your own bowels!
Wasche nur den frechen Arm,
Go and wash your impudent arm
Voller Wut,
full of rage
In unschuldger Brüder Blut,
in the innocent blood of your brothers,
Uns zum Abscheu, dir zum Leide!
to our abhorrence, to your own harm!
Weil das Gift
For the poison
Und der Grimm von deinem Neide
and the fury of your envy
Dich mehr als Augustum trifft.
hurts you more than Augustus.

5. Chorale plain (SATB, tutti orch.), Martin Luther "Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist" (We now beg the holy spirit), Stanza 3, "Du süße lieb'! schenk uns deine gunst"; G Major (bach-chorales.com, YouTube. "Du süße lieb'! schenk uns deine gunst, / Laß uns empfinden der liebe brunst, / Daß wir uns von herzen einander lieben, / Und im friede auf einem sinn bleiben. / Kyrieleis!" (You sweet love, grant us your flavour / let us feel your burning love / so that we may love each other from the heart and in peace remain of one mind / Lord, have mercy).

[? Part 2]

6. Narrative recitative Acts 2:6. "Da nun diese Stimme geschah, kam die Menge zusammen und wurden bestürzt; denn es hörete ein jeglicher, daß sie mit seiner Sprache redeten." (Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

7. Scena, Acts 2:7-13): Recitative (tenor); turba (SATB), Bc: Sie entsetzten sich aber alle, verwunderten sich und sprachen untereinander: "Siehe, sind nicht diese alle, die da reden, aus Galiläa? (And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, "Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? Wie hören wir denn ein jeglicher seine Sprache, darinnen wir geboren sind? (And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?). Parther und Meder und Elamiter, und die wir wohnen in Mesopotamien und in Judäa und Kappadozien, Pontus und Asien. (Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,). Phrygien und Pamphylien, Ägypten und an den Enden der Libyen bei Kyrene, und Ausländer von Rom, (Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome,). Juden und Judengenossen, Kreter und Araber: wir hören sie mit unsern Zungen die großen Taten GOttes reden. (Jews and proselytes Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.)." Sie entsetzten sich alle und wurden irre und sprachen einer zu dem andern: "Was will das werden?" (And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, "What meaneth this?"). Die andern aber hatten's ihren Spott und sprachen: "Sie sind voll süßen Weins." (Others mocking said, "These men are full of new wine.")

8. Arioso accompagnato Vox Dei. Bass. Joel: 2:28-29. "Und nach diesem will ich meinen Geist ausgießen über alles Fleisch, und eure Söhne und Töchter sollen weissagen; eure Ältesten sollen Träume haben, und eure Jünglinge sollen Gesichte sehen; auch will ich mich zur selben Zeit über Knechte und Mägde meinen Geist ausgießen. (And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.).

9. Aria BWV 215/3 parody, G Major (Tenor; oboe d'amore I/II, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo [+bassoon], da capo form), score, see No 4 above.

Freilich trotzt Augustus' Name,
Certainly the name of Augustus,
Ein so edler Götter Same,
who is the seed of such noble gods,
Aller Macht der Sterblichkeit.
defies all the power of mortality.
Und die Bürger der Provinzen
And the citizens of the provinces
Solcher tugendhaften Prinzen
of such virtuous princes
Leben in der güldnen Zeit
live in the golden time.

10. Recitative Mark 16:20: "Sie aber gingen aus und predigten an allen Orten; und der HERR wirkte mit ihnen und bekräftigte das Wort durch mitfolgende Zeichen. (And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.)

11. Chorale plain S. 1. "Des heil'gen Geistes reiche gnad' /Die herzen der apostel hat / Erfüllt mit seiner gütigkeit, / Geschenkt der sprachen unterscheid. / Halleluja!." (The rich grace of the Holy Spirit / fills the hearts of the apostles / with its goodness / bestows upon them different languages. / Alleluia!). S. 7. "Also mit großem freudenschall / Laßt uns dem Herren singen all; / Der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit / Sagen wir dank in ewigkeit. / Halleluja!" (Therefore with loud joyful songs / let us sing to the Lord; / let us forever give thanks / to the holy Trinity. / Alleluia!).

Optional Aria, original text 3/4 polonaise (soprano, 2 flutes, basso continuo), A Major, BWV 214/3)

Blast die wohlgegriffnen Flöten,
Blow the firmly held flutes,
Dass Feind, Lilien, Mond erröten,
o that the enemy, lilies and the moon may blush,
challt mit jauchzendem Gesang!
ring out with jubilant song!
Tönt mit eurem Waffenklang!
Let the clash of your weapons sound!
Dieses Fest erfordert Freuden,
This festival demands joy
Die so Geist als Sinnen weiden. .