Early Trinity Time Cantatas: Bach's Grand Design

William L. Hoffman wrote (September 3, 2023)
Although Bach began his Leipzig tenure as cantor and music director on Pentecost Sunday, 16 May 1723 (having received his first salary payment the previous day), his official service began two weeks later on the First Sunday after Trinity (known today as the Second Sunday after Pentecost), My 30, which was the beginning of the second half of the church year, omnes tempore (Ordinary Time), on the life of the Christian Church. This also was the beginning of his first church year cantata cycle in the Nikolaikirche with Cantata 75, "Die Elenden sollen essen" (The hungering shall be nourished, Ps. 22:27, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose). The next day, Monday, as cantor of the Thomaskirche, Bach was officially introduced to the students, faculty, and staff at the beginning of the annual scholastic term.

Occurring before the mid-summer equinox in June, the first cycle (Wikipedia), inaugurating Bach's grand design of utilizing various sources in the first seven Sundays after Trinity involves two-part and double-bill cantatas as a unique mini-cycle format not repeated elsewhere. It began with the two newly composed Cantatas 75 and 76 for the 1st and 2nd Sundays after Trinity, respectively, followed by an unaltered, previously-composed work, Cantata 21 from Weimar for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity, then two short works as a double presentation, unaltered Cantata 185 from Weimar and newly composed Cantata 24 for the 4th Sunday after Trinity; then a newly-composed John the Baptist feast day Cantata 167; then two enlarged Cantatas 147 and 186 from Weimar (added recitatives) for the Marian Visitation feast. Because of the festive nature of Cantatas 167 and 147, the adjacent Trinity Time Sundays had no new compositions although William Scheide¹ suggests that "It looks as though Bach intended the feast day cantata to be repeated on the following Sunday in the other church." This was particularly important since the Ordinary Trinity Time had only four important Christological fixed feast days, John the Baptist on June 24, the Visitation on July 2, St. Michael's on September 29, and Reformation Day on October 31, as well as 20-plus Sundays after Trinity (BCW). Scheide also suggests² that for the 24 June 1723 feast of John the Baptist, Bach also presented Cantata 165, "O heilges Geist und Wasserbad" (O Holy Spirit's water bath, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose ) to a Salomo Franck 1715 text for Trinityfest Sunday.

Cycle 1 (1723), Dual-Cantata Mini-Series

05/30 Trinity 1, BWV 75, Die Elenden sollen essen, daß sie satt werden(*), BCW.
06/06 Trinity 2, BWV 76, Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes(*), BCW.
06/13 Trinity 3, BWV 21.3, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis(*), BCW.
06/20 Trinity 4, BWV 185.2, Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BCW, and BWV 24 Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, BCW.
06/24 John the Baptist Feast, BWV 165, “O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad,” BCW, and BWV 167 Die Menschen rühmet Gottes Liebe, BCW.
06/27 Trinity 5 (no performance recorded, ?BWV 165, 167 reperformance³).
07/02 Visitation Fest, BWV 147.2, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben(*), BCW.
07/04 Trinity 6 (no performance recorded, ?BWV 147.2 reperformance³).
07/11 Trinity 7, BWV, 186.2 Agre dich, O Seele, nicht (*), BCW.
* Two-part cantatas

Bach Using Earlier Materials

Bach's compositional calendar shows that in early Trinity Time he composed only two cantatas for the Sunday main services on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Sundays after Trinity (see BCW), and in one other period, certain Sundays after Easter Sunday, Quasimodogeniti (1st), Kantate (4th), Rogate (5th) and Exaudi (6th). The updated Revision of Bach's Performance Calendar is found in Scheide at pp. 143-145 with 24 pre-Leipzig "old" works and 39 "new," "others presumably composed in 1723-24" (Ibid.: 145) for a total of 63 involving 58 main Sunday and feast day services. Initially, in the first nine services in Trinity Time, "Bach was pressing into service every early work he could lay his hands on that conceivably could be made to fit into this period," says Scheide (Ibid.: 146). Bach also did reworkings of his and other composer's church cantatas, particularly at the 1725 Trinity Time interim between the 2nd and 3rd cantata cycles when he adapted Cantata 75a, "Was hilft des Purpurs Majestät" (What use are royal robes [lit.purple]) and 76a, “Gott segne noch die treue Schar” (May God bless his faithful flock) (see BCW), as well as works of Telemann (BCW), Johann Ludwig Bach (BCW), and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (BCW), as well as Bach's Cantatas 168, 137, 164, and 79 filling gaps in Bach's cycles (BCW). In addition, Bach is presumed to have presented some 31 "ganzte Brautmeße" (full bridal masses) recorded at St. Thomas Church between 1723 and 1747.³ While the wedding date, couple, and officiating pastor are identified from the St. Thomas archives, no music is extant but it is possible that Bach repeated previous wedding cantatas with only minor changes in the texts. The first of the wedding works was presented on 13 July 1723, "Cantata performed at the marriage of Johann Gottfried Hübner and Beata Regina Hennig; composition unknown. Other Bach occasional music commissions in the summer of 1723 are found at BCW: "Occasional Music Commissions."

Cantata Mini-Series Formats.

With his first nine cantata performances from the 1st to the 7th Sundays after Trinity, Bach established a template for mini-series in his first church-year cantata cycle of 1723-24.⁴ Besides the various cantata sources of new, previous, previous enlarged, and derived from previous, these mini-cycles may have involved three distinct movement structures as identified by Alfred Dürr and known as Dürr Music Forms A, B, and C.⁵ For the next segment or mini-series, from the 8th to the 14th Sundays after Trinity, the movement structural form is the same (6 movements Bib-R-A-R-A-Cl), involving almost all "new" works, BWV 136, 105, 46, 179-199.3, 69a, 77, 25). The similarity of form in these new works suggests that Bach commissioned one or two Leipzig librettists, probably learned writers with theological backgrounds, based upon the Epistle and Gospel readings for the Sunday services, closing with chorales prescribed from established hymnbooks. Following the practice of his immediate predecessors, Bach began having his cantata texts published and distributed as text books which in Trinity Time through Epiphany Time involved some seven consecutive services in a series published a week before the first service. This also enabled Bach to have the oversight of the Town Council prior to publication. The most likely candidates for these librettos were the two principal pastors of the alternating churches, Salomon Deyling, Leipzig superintendent, at the Nikolaikirche and Christian Weiß Sr., Bach's father confessor, at the Thomaskirche, who also preached many of the sermons upon which the cantata text was based.⁶

Common Cantata Forms, Themes, Theology

The first four , for the 8th to the 11th Sundays after Trinity, have several similarities: opening biblical chorus; the general gospel theme of hypocrisy embedded in a parable, miracle, or other teaching; the Lutheran principle of moving from stern Old Testament penitential caution to Gospel affirmation; and the compositional technique of tonal allegory to reveal the over-arching theme of the new life of righteousness found in the early-middle Trinity Time services with increasing pietistic sentiments appropriate for the omnes tempore (Ordinary Time) second half of the church year focusing on Christian teachings. The 12th Sunday after Trinity marks a significant shift from penitential to affirmative in the Middle Trinity Time and Bach set as Cantata 69.1(a) an appropriate published text in sermon style by pietist poet Johann Oswald Knauer (BCW). All three of Bach's cantatas for this Sunday are affirmative works, the others being BWV 137 and 35. Cantatas 69.1 and 137 were composed in August and also were appropriate as double duty for sacred installation of the Town Council on the Monday following the Feast of St. Bartholomew, an annual Leipzig observance that Scheide considers part of the cantata cycle. For the 13th Sunday after Trinity, Cantata 77, Bach set only the second half of a Knauer text (Z. Philip Ambrose Website). This form is similar to the two parts of Cantatas 75 and 76 which began the first-church-year cycle and are classified as Dürr Music Form A. Bach's initial Trinity Time cantatas established a working template and reveal an intentional process yielding works for all three cycle with occasional gaps or reworkings such as the 17th and 18th Sundays after Trinity and St. Michael's Day (September 29), festivals for Reformation Day (October 31) and Christmas Day (December 25) at the Paulinerkirche. Other gaps are found in each of the three cantata cycles showing only two works for certain Trinity Time services such as the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 18th Sundays after Trinity, as well as Quasimodogeniti, Kantate, Rogate, and Exaudi Sundays after Easter, and Pentecost Tuesday (see BCW).

(Cycle 1 (1723), Opening Chorus Mini-Series

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

In late August 1723, Bach had compiled two distinct mini-series to begin his first church-year cycle, the dual cantatas from the 1st to 7th Sundays after Trinity, and the new compositions mostly using dramatic, biblically-based choruses in sermon-stye texts for the 8th to the 14th Sunday after Trinity. Bach turned to an ambitious nine-movement setting in Cantata 119, "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn" (Praise, O Jerusalem, the Lord, Ps. 147:12-14, trans. Z. Philip Ambrose) as he experimented with "the concentration of unique forms," says Scheide (Ibid.: 49), particularly multi-voice choruses and chorale settings with tropes, achieving unity through diversity.

ENDNOTES

¹ William H. Scheide: Bach Achieves his Goal: His first Year of Regular Church Music Following the Lutheran Calendar, ed. Berndt Koska (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2022: 34), American Bach Society: Bach Notes 11; The main service performances alternated between the two main Leipzig churches, St. Nicholas and St. Thomas; in the initial 1723-24 Jahrgang I cantata cycle, Bach was able to present two works for both the feast day of St. John (BWV 165, 167) on June 24 and the 5th Sunday After Trinity on June 27 Scheide's monograph is an extensive analysis of major factors in Bach's first church-year cycle, particularly the primary movement structural forms, chorale/chorus texts, and biblical texts (see BCW).
² Scheide also suggests BWV 165 and 167 on a double-bill, June 24, Nikolaikirche, reperformance June 27, Thomaskirche, Ibid.: 143). All of Bach's first cycle cantatas begin with a mini-series of two-part or double-bill works presented before and after the sermon as musical sermons designed to show his compositional abilities, blending new and older pieces, and his liturgical understanding. Trinityfest Cantata 165 is appropriate for other feast days while Scheide says that Cantata 165 was not reperformed on Trinityfest Sunday 1724 when two-part Cantata 194, an expanded parody from Cöthen, was presented (Ibid.: 145). It appears that Bach ceased the series of two-part/double bills following concerns from the overworked Thomas School choir and in the second group mini-series from the 8th to the 14th Sundays after Trinity, he presented mostly single new cantatas. Bach selectively resumed dual pairings only for specific occasions such as the 11th Sunday after Trinity, Cantatas 179 and 199.3; the last (26th) Sunday after Trinity, Cantata 70.2; 1st Sunday in Advent, Cantatas 182 and 61; pre-Lenten Sexagesimae Sunday, Cantatas 181 and 18, and Estomihi Sunday, Cantatas 22 and 23; Easter Sunday, Cantatas 31.2 and 4.2; Pentecost Sunday, Cantatas 172.2 and 59; and Trinityfest Sunday, Cantata 194 (see Carus Cycle 1 calendar Carus Media).
³ Ganzte Brautmeße, see JSB, Neue Ausgabe Sämtlicher Werke, I/33, critical commentary Frederick Hudson (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1958: 12-16), Bärenreiter; also listed in Robin A. Leaver, "20 Life and Works 1685-1750," in The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (London: Routedge, 2017: 501-537), Amazon.com.
⁴ First Church-Year Cantata Cycle materials: BCW, Carus Verlag, Carus Media, Wikipedia, BCW; see also Artur Hirsch, "Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantatas in Chronological Order," in BACH, Vol. 4, 1973: 18-35 (Berea OH: Riemenschneider Bach Institute), and Harald Streck, "Die Verskunst in den poetischen Texten zu den Kantaten J. S. Bachs" (The Art of Verse in the Poetic Texts of J. S. Bach's Cantatas), in Hamburger Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 5 (Wagner 1971), table of contents GBV|VZG [PDF].
⁵Alfred Dürr, Cantatas of J. S. Bach, revised and translated by Richard D. P. Jones (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005: 26-28), Amazon.com; There are three basic Leipzig Cycle 1 music forms in cantatas and services, according to Alfred Dürr. They involve beginning biblical text and closing plain chorale with alternating arias and recitatives while two also have internal plain chorales. They are: Music Form A (6 movements Bib-R-A-R-A-Cl) involving 10 cantatas (BWV 136, 105, 46, 179, 69a(.1), 77, 25, 109, 89, and 104) for the services of the Eighth to the 14th Sundays after Trinity, 21st and 22nd Sundays after Trinity and Second Sunday after Easter (Misericordias Domini); Music Form B (7 movements Bib-R-Cl-A-R-A-Cl) involving BWV 48, 40, 64, 153, 65 and 67; Trinity 19, for the services of Christmas 2 and 3, Sunday after New Years, Epiphany, and First Sunday after Easter (Quasimodogeniti); and Music Form C (usually 6 movements, Bib-A-Cl-R-A-Cl) involving five cantatas (BWV 144, 166, 86, 37, 44) for the services of Septuagesima, Cantate Sunday (Easter 4), Rogate Sunday (Easter 5), Ascension, Exaudi (Easter 6).
⁶ Sermon preachers are identified in Martin Petzoldt, Bach Kommentar: Die geistlichen Kantaten des 1. Bis 27. Trinitas-Sontagges, Vol. 1; Theologisch Musikwissenschaftlicke Kommentierung der Geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2004), Theodore Front Musical Literature.

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To Come: Middle Trinity Time cantatas.