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Cantata BWV 202
Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten
Discussions - Part 5 |
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Continue from Part 4 |
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Discussions in the Week of June 17, 2018 (4th round) |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (June 14, 2018):
Cantata 202, Profane Wedding Cantatas
Cantata 202, "Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten," (Give way now, dismal shadows, is a chamber opera lasting 23 minutes in the baroque style of a tableau with nine alternating arias and connecting recitatives turning to arioso for solo singer (soprano), oboe, strings and continuo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2CJkdOxJd4). In keeping with the contemporary opera style, three of the arias are da-capo repeats (ABA; Nos. 1, 3, 7), No. 5 is a two-part (AB) ritornello complex, and No. 9 is a ritornello development (AA'A). Also contemporary are the bourgeois dance-styles: No. 1, a courtly tutti 4/4 allemande-style introductory tripartite Adagio-andante; No. 3, a spare continuo aria in 12/8 giga style; No. 5, a 4/4 pastorale with solo violin; No. 7, a passepied with oboe; and No. 9, a gavotte. Its most popular movement is No. 7, "Sich üben im Lieben" (To become adept in love), which like "Sheep may safely graze" (Cantata 208), is performed at weddings, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO9e9CCOsy0.
Given the outdoor scoring without trumpets and drums, it appears that Cantata 202 was Bach's first profane wedding cantata in the serenade genre involving occasional pieces for persons of standing. This category includes later cantatas that could be adapted for other, related, multiple uses. It is a substantial piece with several mysteries. The occasion is unknown and with it the actual composition date, as early as Weimar or Cöthen.1 Its librettist is anonymous, although one possibility is Weimar court poet Salomo Franck, while the text is not found in his published poetry. The music is part of Bach's occasional wedding cantatas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_secular_cantatas_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach, "For weddings and diverse occasions"; see below, "Wedding Works Context, Significance" and is related to the Handel, et al, Italian secular solo cantatas https://www.loc.gov/audio/?fa=language%3Aitalian%7Ccontributor%3Ahandel%2C+george+frideric%7Csubject%3Asolo+cantatas%2C+secular+(low+voice)&all=true. The characteristics of the Italian model that influenced Bach in Cantata 202 include the text references to mythological characters Flora and Phoebus, the Arcadian natural descriptions (hills, valleys, flowers, fields), and best wishes for the couple. The librettist adds biblical allusions found in certain sacred cantatas and Bach begins to employ his dance-style settings to the aria texts with accompanying obbligato instruments (see below, "Notes on Text, Music").
These arias may be seen as a core forerunner to the German Singspiel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singspiel) with the emphasis on light-hearted simplicity, folk-like character, and ballad-style narrative but without spoken dialogue. Even more significant is Bach's mixed style comedic and first-recognized work for a wedding celebration, the “Hochzeits Quodlibet,” BWV 524, entitled “Der Back Trog” (The Baker’s Tub), may be for a wedding in, the Bach family or circle of friends. The poet is unknown and only a fragmentary score survives in Bach’s hand. The first performance may have been in Erfurt for the wedding of Daniel Friedrich Fuchs and Salome Römer (or ?Sedel) between 18 September and 17 October 1707. It was a special genre that was part of the Bach Family tradition of annual gatherings at Erfurt or Eisenach (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV202-D4.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYrVpN4hbww).
Cantata 208 movements, scoring, text, key, meter
anonymous German text, Francis Browne English translation, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/BWV202-Eng3P.htm).
1. Aria da capo (Adagio-Andante-Adagio), ritornelli [Soprano; Oboe, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo]: A. "Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, / Frost und Winde, geht zur Ruh!" (Give way now, dismal shadows, / Frost and wind, go to rest!); B. "Florens Lust / Will der Brust / Nichts als frohes Glück verstatten, / Denn sie träget Blumen zu." (Flora's delight / will grant our hearts / nothing but joyful fortune, / for she comes bearing flowers.); G Major, 4/4 generic slow dance style ?allemande.
2. Recitative secco, arioso [Soprano, Continuo]: "Die Welt wird wieder neu, / Auf Bergen und in Gründen / Will sich die Anmut doppelt schön verbinden, / Der Tag ist von der Kälte frei." (The world becomes new again, / on hills and in valleys / beauty will unite and be doubly fair, / the day is free from cold.); C Major; 4/4.
3. Aria da capo, ostinato [Soprano, Continuo]: A. "Phoebus eilt mit schnellen Pferden / Durch die neugeborne Welt." (Phoebus hurries with swift horses / through the newborn world.) B. "Ja, weil sie ihm wohlgefällt, / Will er selbst ein Buhler werden." (Yes, since this delights him so much /, he himself wants to become a lover.); C Major; 12/8 giga-style.
4. Recitative secco [Soprano, Continuo]: "Drum sucht auch Amor sein Vergnügen, / Wenn Purpur in den Wiesen lacht, / Wenn Florens Pracht sich herrlich macht, / Und wenn in seinem Reich, / Den schönen Blumen gleich, Auch Herzen feurig siegen." (Therefore Love also seeks his delight, / when purple laughs in the meadows, when Flora's splendour becomes glorious, / and when in his kingdom, / like the beautiful flowers / hearts also are victorious in their ardour); a to e minor; 4/4.
5. Aria bi-partite (AB) with ritornello complex [Soprano; Violino solo, Continuo]: A. Wenn die Frühlingslüfte streichen / Und durch bunte Felder wehn, / Pflegt auch Amor auszuschleichen, / Um nach seinem Schmuck zu sehn." (When the spring breezes blow / and waft through the colourful fields, / it is Love's custom also to sneak out / to see what is his own glory); B. "Welcher, glaubt man, dieser ist, / Dass ein Herz das andre küsst:" and that, people believe, is this: / when one heart kisses another.); e minor; 4/4 pastorale-style.
6. Recitative secco, arioso [Soprano, Continuo]: "Und dieses ist das Glücke, / Dass durch ein hohes Gunstgeschicke / Zwei Seelen einen Schmuck erlanget, / An dem viel Heil und Segen pranget." (And this is good fortune, / when through a lofty gift of fate / two souls obtain one jewel, / which is resplendent with health and blessing.
7. Aria da capo, ritornello structure [Soprano; Oboe, Continuo]: A. "Sich üben im Lieben, / In Scherzen sich herzen / Ist besser als Florens vergängliche Lust." (To become adept in love, / to jest and caress / is better than Flora's passing pleasure.); B. "Hier quellen die Wellen, / Hier lachen und wachen / Die siegenden Palmen auf Lippen und Brust." (Here the waves flow, / here laugh and watch / the palms of victory on lips and breast.); D Major; 3/8 passepied style.
8. Recitative secco, arioso [Soprano, Continuo]: "So sei das Band der keuschen Liebe, / Verlobte Zwei, / Vom Unbestand des Wechsels frei! / Kein jäher Fall / Noch Donnerknall / Erschrecke die verliebten Triebe!" (May the union of chaste love, / beloved couple, / be free from the fickleness of change! / May no sudden accident, /
no thunderclap / frighten your amorous desires.); G Major; 4/4.
9. Aria, ritornello development (AA'A) , "Gavotte" [Soprano; Oboe, Violino I/II, Viola, Continuo]: "Sehet in Zufriedenheit / Tausend helle Wohlfahrtstage, / Dass bald bei der Folgezeit / Eure Liebe Blumen trage!" (See in contentment / a thousand bright and prosperous days, / so thatsoon as time passes / your love may bear its flower!); G Major; 2/2 gavotte style.
Notes on Text, Music
Flora, the Roman Goddess of trees blossoming, appears with flowers of joy. Another classical mythological allusion is Phoebus (No. 3 aria), who "hurries with swift horses," where "hurry" also can allude to the believers going to Christ's tomb in the 1725 Easter Oratorio opening chorus, "Kommt, eilet und laufet" (Come, hurry and run, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ICH1gK5fQ), and the shepherds hastening to Bethlehem in the 1734 Christmas Oratorio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtEPpKBqwQ). Phoebus is the Greek god of prophecy, not unlike the Archangel Gabriel, the messenger who in Luke's Gospel canticles announces John the Baptist's coming birth to his father, Zechariah, and Jesus' coming to his mother Mary, with the greeting, "Fear Not!" Flora returns in the second recitative (No. 4) with flowers and joy. In the next aria (No. 5) with its pastoral description of "spring's breezes" and "colorful field," hearts kiss each other, possibly alluding to Psalm 85:10b, "righteousness and peace have kissed each other," in the Town Council cantata aria, BWV 120/4, "Health and blessing . . . so that justice and loyalty must / Kiss each other in friendship." In the succeeding recitative (No. 6), the two souls find "health and blessing," the incipit of the Cantata 120/4 aria, with embellishment on the word blessing "Segen." The last three movements offer generic hopes for the couple and the two dance arias, No.7 passepied; and No. 9, gigue, prepare the wedding party for communal, celebratory dancing.
There is contextual link between Cantatas 202 and 120 with the Sonata for Violin and Keyboard, BWV 1019, composed sometime in Köthen. Bach's first major biographer, Philipp Spitta, pointed out that this sonata "is known to have been twice remodeled by Bach, and at last furnished with an Allegro, the first subject of which is taken from the C major aria of this cantata" 202/3. "I have previously mentioned the bridal feeling which pervades this sonata, especially in the middle movement, Cantabile, ma un poco Adagio. It would seem that Bach, in remodeling the sonata for the last time, experienced this feeling, and was thereby prompted to use for the last Allegro a subject taken from an actual wedding composition which was written about the same time." Bach scholars now find that the "Cantabile" movement was added in 1729, following its original setting as a da capo aria in 1729 wedding Cantata 120a.
Wedding Works Context, Significance
The difficult dating of Cantata 208, its context among Bach's wedding works, and its significance are explored in Julian Mincham's overview and introduction (http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-72-bwv--202-s/). << Dürr (pp 893-4) notes the problems of dating this work which may have been composed at almost any time in the fifteen years prior to 1730. Certainly, some of the internal evidence which has been offered to indicate that it is an early work is doubtful, one example being the marked differences in tempo of the da capo sections of the opening movement. Bach adopts this practice on various occasions throughout the canon, a notable example being C 151/1 from 1725. Furthermore, in C 123/3 the middle section makes use of both a markedly faster as well as the original tempo.
Bach’s experimentations of this type continued throughout his career. This work and the Coffee Cantata (C 211) are probably the best known and loved of all Bach’s secular cantatas [discography, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV202.htm). We must be grateful that C 202 has survived intact, since it is likely that a number of wedding cantatas have been fully or partially lost. Thus whilst Cs 202, 210, 197, 196 and 195 can be examined in some detail, others have disappeared, survived in fragments or may be partially reconstructed through paraphrased movements (e.g. Cs 34a, 120a, 216, 1164=Anh. 196, Anh. 14). However, it may well be that some wedding cantatas survive through having been recycled for use in the Leipzig churches. Bach composed a number of works which could be conceived as ‘multi-purpose,’ two excellent examples of which are C 117 (vol 2, chapter 52) and C 137 (vol 3, chapter 3). Both begin with a chorale/fantasia which gives rise to the theory that they were later additions intended to fill gaps in the second cycle but this would not necessarily preclude their initial, or even later, use for appropriate secular events.
The text of C 202 concerns itself with renewal, an appropriate theme for weddings. It begins with a picture of the gloom of winter being transformed into the joys of spring, the time for love and commitment. The sixth movement makes specific reference to the coming together of two souls in health and good fortune, an experience which Bach seems to have enjoyed within his own two happy marriages. The cantata ends with the courtliest of movements, a gavotte, which has connotations of the dance as well as suggesting the happy ultimate journey to heaven, a circumstance which the composer often associates with this particular suite movement in the religious cantatas. In 2010, and again in 2013, the author was privileged to hear excellent performances of this work in the church in which Bach was married. It was impossible not to entertain the thought (even hope?) that this work may have been composed for, and performed at, the ceremony of Bach’s second marriage to Anna Magdalena in December 1721.>>
Another commentary is found in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weichet_nur,_betrübte_Schatten,_BWV_202.
Cantata 202 1730 Appearance
The appearance of Cantata 202 in 1730, its mysteries and its appeal are examined in scholar Klaus Hofmann's 2013 liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki recording (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Suzuki-Rec5.htm#S3). <<Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, BWV 202 Merely yield, sorrowful shadows This charming wedding cantata would have been lost forever if a 13-year-old boy, Johannes Ringk, in the province of Thuringia had not made a copy of it in 1730. Might this same boy – who later became a respected musician as organist of the Marienkirche in Berlin – have been the soprano soloist in the cantata? We know nothing about the origins of the work; the name of the librettist is unknown, as are the identities of the bride and groom for whom the piece was intended. Clearly, however, they were from the bourgeoisie; otherwise the focus would have been more on display and the sounds of trumpets and drums, whilst charm, grace, amiability and humour might possibly have been replaced by convention and stately manners. A stroke of luck, in other words.
The cantata text, which the poet presented to the bride and groom as a wedding present, is a loosely arranged set of tableaux in baroque style. Clearly referring to the seasonal events at the time of the wedding, it depicts a landscape that gradually becomes populated with some well-known mythological figures. It is the season in which the ‘sorrowful shadows’ of the long winter nights and spring mists yield, and the ‘frost and winds’ attain ‘peace’; ‘the world becomes new once more’, ‘spring breezes flutter’ – in short: spring has arrived. Flora appears, the goddess of flowers, with a cornucopia of blooms. And she is not alone: Phoebus Apollo, ‘hastens with swift horses through the new-born world’ (third movement). He is followed by Amor (fourth and fifth movements), sneaking through the fields and keeping a lookout for loving couples – and hey presto! here is one: our bride and bridegroom.
After that, the poet himself puts in an appearance with the recommendation: ‘To become proficient at love, to embrace with good humour...’ (seventh movement) and with the friendly wish: ‘May the band of virtuous love, o betrothed pair, thus be free from the fickleness of changeability’ (eighth movement), in other words that their love should be long-lasting and unshakeable – neither by ‘sudden mischance’, giving the composer an implicit cue, nor by ‘clap of thunder’ (at which point the composer promptly includes a rumbling in the continuo). The end of the work is full of good wishes: ‘gratification’, ‘a thousand bright days of prosperity’ and, of course, that love should ‘bring forth blossom’ – in other words, that children should ensue.
Bach was inspired by the sprightly libretto to produce some beautiful music, and has charmingly coloured the poetic images with the broad palette of his formal, descriptive and expressive artistry. The weightiest piece in the cantata is without question the opening aria. It is astonishing how Bach begins the movement, preparing the listener for the first words of the aria even before they are heard by means of a musical depiction full of nature poetry. Before the oboe and vocal line enter, the strings’ calmly rising chords portray the shadows which – as the text will soon inform us – yield and, as Bach’s music shows, are in fact already lifting like spring mists. Then the oboe comes in and, with its long-held note immediately followed by the soprano’s entry, sunbeams seem to penetrate the walls of cloud.
In the other movements, too, Bach writes in an unusually descriptive way. On occasion he appears very folksy, as in the next aria (third movement), in which he sets Phoebus’s horses galloping in an Allegro assai in 12/8-time. And in the next aria (fifth movement) Amor seems to want to tease the lovers with the solo violin’s playful little echo phrases.
In the last movements the dance-like element comes to the fore. The oboe aria ‘Sich üben im Lieben’ (seventh movement) is a sung passepied with folk-like traits. The finale is not even called an ‘aria’ any more, but rather a ‘gavotte’ – which is entirely apt; indeed it is a particularly attractive example of the form which, moreover, must have indicated to the wedding party that it was now time to push the tables to one side and start dancing.>>
© Klaus Hofmann 2013
Response: Two other Bach cantatas have a "folksy" atmosphere and have been staged: Coffee Cantata BWV 211, “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht” (Keep quiet, don’t chatter), 1734-35 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV211-D3.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApNspyM8XzU), and Peasant Cantata BWV 212, "Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (We have a new governor) is a “Cantata Burlesque,” 1742 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV212-D3.htm, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LkbOdQFXKqg&itct=CAwQpDAYBiITCPHUwY_B8NcCFUdjAwodxRIN_zIHcmVsYXRlZEjH6_HXmd24qPQB).
Weimar Period Origin
Cantata 202 is dated to Bach's Weimar period of Bach's first mastery, says Peter Wollny in his 2016 liner notes to the Petra Müllejans' Freiburger Barockorchester 2016 recording (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Mullejans.htm#C3, "Liner Notes"). << The wedding cantata Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten BWV 202 has come down to us only in a copy dated 1730. Nevertheless, it can hardly to be doubted that it was composed during Bach’s Weimar period. The delightful poetry by an unknown author sings of the awakening of nature after the end of winter, and as the flowers burgeon and the sun rises higher in the sky, Cupid once again goes on the prowl. Bach found for this picturesque language an uncommonly varied and appealing musical realisation, which is particularly striking in the five arias, whereas the recitatives are really only brief transitions. In the first aria (‘Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten’), a solo oboe weaves around the string arpeggios a dreamily rapt melody, which is immediately picked up by the soprano. The second aria (‘Phoebus eilt mit schnellen Pferden’), accompanied only by basso continuo, mimics the sun’s course through the ‘newborn world’ in virtuoso garlands. In the third aria (‘Wenn die Frühlingslüfte streichen’), the frolicsome mood is somewhat tempered by elegiac violin gurations. The fourth aria (‘Sich üben im Lieben’) introduces a dancelike tone for the first time; the witty anacrustic and syncopated animation of the oboe is reminiscent of a French passepied. The choreographic gesture is further developed in what follows – the cantata ends with a lively gavotte (‘Sehet in Zufriedenheit tausend helle Wohlfahrtstage’) which is heard three times in all: first played by the instruments alone, then sung by the soprano with reduced scoring, and finally performed by the full instrumental ensemble again. The Weimar period, then, is indeed the time of Bach’s first mastery. The intimately scored, chamber music-like cantatas of these years already contain, fully developed, all the elements that the composer later transferred to a larger scale in his Leipzig works.>>
Peter Wollny; translation, Charles Johnston
Bach's Wedding to Anna Magdalena?
The case for Cantata 202 being for Bach's 1721 marriage to Anna Magdalena, is suggested in Clemens Romijn's 2017 liner notes to the Tulipa Consort 2017 recording (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Zomer-J.htm#C1, "Liner Notes"). <<The wedding cantata BWV 202 Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten [Give way now, dismal shadows] forms the happy ending to this anthology from Bach’s cantatas. The only singer in this work is the soprano soloist, who performs no less than five arias and four recitatives. It has even been suggested that Bach wrote the cantata for his own wedding in Cöthen on 3 December 1721, and that his bride Anna Magdalena sung the part herself. The text reveals that it was written for the wedding feast itself rather than for the service, in view of the many innuendos about the pleasures of lovemaking (which one must diligently practise!). But before all that, the dark shadows of winter must disappear, as the first movement so breathtakingly sketches. Subtle wintery gusts from the strings are pricked by the wonderful melodic curves of the solo oboe and soprano in alternation. Until, in the dancing middle section, the flower queen Flora has gathered a full bouquet, symbol of flowering married life. In the melismatic second aria, warm spring breezes oat above an energetic basso continuo. After references to the courting god Apollo in the third aria, the fourth one is in minor mood as Amor, the god of love, makes his appearance in the spring air, accompanied by the solo violin. In the dancing fifth aria, the soprano and oboe jest about practising how to caress. The cantata comes to an end in a festive gavotte, in which the soprano, oboe and strings join together to offer joyous best wishes that love may blossom.
Clemens Romijn 2017
Another possibile occasion for Cantata 202 is that a week later, on Thursday, December 11, 1721 Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen married Princess Friederica Henrietta of Anhalt-Bernburg (Dok 1:23, known to most Bach lovers as "die Amusa", the term Bach used to describe her unmusical nature); source: Thomas Braatz (January 13, 2007), Cantata 202, BCML Discussions Part 2, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV202-D3.htm.
Reception History
The reception history with pertinent comments about the wedding connections is found in Thomas Braatz's commentary, "BWV 202 Time-line," (January 17, 2007), BCML Cantata 202 Discussions Part 3 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV202-D3.htm). Braatz's article includes the following chronological heaand sources: "1718-1723 (or possibly to circa 1725)" with classical allegorical references to the character Flora; "1730," the Johann Peter Kellner circle of contemporary Bach copyists and Ringk's manuscript copy; "May, 1862, Berlin," the BGA first publication; "Philipp Spitta Bach Biography, 1880," including the Kellner connections and the agreement bridal feeling in the Violin & Clavier Sonata, BWV 1019;3 "1905-1911," is Albert Schweitzer's Bach biography with word painting in Cantata 202; "1939" first recordings; "October, 1952, Berlin," Peters critical edition; "1959, London," W. Gillies Whittaker Bach Cantatas BWV 202 commentary; "1970, Bärenreiter Kassel" NBA critical edition; "1995, Bärenreiter (Kassel, etc)" Alfred Dürr BWV 202 commentary (English 2005); and "1999, Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach" BWV 202 commentary.
Provenance
The title page of the score, signed and dated 1730 by Johannes Ringk, is the designation of "Cantata" for solo voice, with no purpose stated (https://www.bach-digital.de/rsc/viewer/BachDigitalSource_derivate_00076516/Peters_Ms_R_8_0001.jpg. Cantata 202 was not part of the 1750 estate division although its authenticity was never doubted, given its quality and 1730 associations with Bach. Its provenance followed a separate path among Bach manuscript collectors: J. Ringk - ? - K. P. H. Pistor - F. D. E. Rudorff (born Pistor) / A. F. A. Rudorff - E. F. K. Rudorff - Leipzig, Musikbibliothek Peters (1917) - Leipzig, Bach-Archiv (Dauerleihgabe 1950 - 2004) - Leipziger Städtische Bibliotheken, Musikbibliothek - Leipzig, Bach-Archiv (Dauerleihgabe seit 2014). https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003417, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000252
Cantata 202 first came to public attention in Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt's Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Legacy, and Works in 1850, without designation under the category Occasional Cantatas.2 It followed wedding cantatas BWV 195, 197 and 210, and preceded BWV 204, Contentment, the funeral works BWV 198 and 244a, and the comic works BWV 212 and 211.
Profane Wedding Cantata Genre
Cantata 202 was the first of a genre of intimate, profane, mostly solo wedding cantatas (BWV 216, 210, Anh. 196; NBA KB I/40). Since the text of Cantata 202 makes no reference to the couple, it could have served as a per ogni tempo (for anytime) work. Cantata 202 is modeled after the Alesandro Scarlatti type Italian secular cantata for solo voice and continuo or small ensemble, with alternating recitatives and arias. Bach also composed undesignated profane solo Cantatas 203 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV203-D3.htm), 204 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV204-D3.htm), and 209 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV209-D3.htm). He also composed sacred solo cantatas 199 and 54 without chorales in Weimar to texts of Georg Christian Lehms and resumed using his annual cycle texts in 1726 in Leipzig for the third sacred cycle (BWV 35, 170) as well as other texts (?Christoph Birkmann author) in BWV 169, 56, 55, 52, 82, and 84, with no chorales in BWV 170, 35 and 82. The sacred solo cantatas "can hardly be distinguished from the secular 'parent' type, apart from its text, " says Richard D. P. Jones.4 These later cantatas continue the operatic style with increasing vocal displays in more elaborate da capo aria form with the addition of orchestral sinfonias or cantata transcriptions.
The longest and most complex wedding work is Leipzig 1725 Cantata BWV Anh. 196, Auf! süß-entzückende Gewalt (Up! Sweet charming authority), for a noble couple, having four allegorical characters in 13 movements (chorus, scena, five arias and six recitatives) for four voices and small orchestra (two flutes, two oboes, strings and continuo; http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV210-D3.htm, "Cantata BWV Anh. 196"). The Johann Christoph Gottsched German text and Z. Philip Ambrose English translation are found at http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/I.html. One other profane wedding cantata has been linked to Bach but not verified, "Dort wo der Pleissen Urn' und Fluß," BWV deest, 5 July 1729, Johann Georg Artopae and Joanna Judith Hertel5 (https://books.google.com/books?id=SCklDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA516&lpg=PA516&dq=Johann+Georg+Artopae+and+Leaver&source=bl&ots=Qahhatg_Tx&sig=69Kf3M3-vC8nlUlKNE9z6S_OA_g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizheih1dPbAhWk6IMKHZA2DrcQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Johann%20Georg%20Artopae%20and%20Leaver&f=false
Lost Secular Cantatas, Low Regard
Only a fraction of Bach's occasional secular works are extant and half of these survive with texts only (music lost, usually catalogued as BWV Anhang [Appendix]), perhaps due to their temporal limitations as entertainment replacing opera and low regard of succeeding generations, says Christoph Wolff.6 <<The fourth volume of our complete recording of Bach’s cantatas completes the series of secular cantatas from the composer’s years in Leipzig. Seven works are involved here, spanning a period from 1725 to 1742, the year of Bach’s final secular cantata, BWV 212. Of Bach’s occasional compositions, some fifty secular pieces have survived, yet these represent no more than a fraction of what must once have existed. Indeed, there is no other group of works by the composer that has suffered such great – and regrettable – losses. In the case of more than half of the works that are known to have existed, only the words, but not the music, survived. Quite how many pieces may have disappeared without leaving any trace whatsoever is impossible to say.
As with so many of Bach’s missing works, the dispersal of his estate in 1750 is largely to blame for this state of affairs, but an additional factor here is the fact that, even less than with Bach’s sacred compositions, later owners of such secular pieces could have found few practical opportunities to reuse them. It is difficult to say with any degree of certainty how many secular works there may once have been, since far too few original sources and documents have survived. Important pointers are provided by printed editions of texts that name Bach as composer, but since it was by no means a matter of course for a composer’s name to be mentioned when a libretto appeared in print, we must reckon on the fact that Bach was behind relatively large number of other settings of congratulatory and celebratory texts and the like. (Here one thinks, for example, of the collections of poems by Christian Friedrich Henrici, otherwise known as Picander.) Bach’s secular cantatas cover a period of almost exactly three decades. The first surviving evidence of such a work dates back to February 1713, when Bach visited Weißenfels as part of the official celebrations to mark the duke’s birthday: his Hunting Cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd BWV 208 is believed to have been written for this occasion. Conversely, the latest record of Bach’s creative activities in this particular field is afforded by his cantate burlesque, the Peasant Cantata BWV 212, of August 1742, although his dramma per musica, Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan BWV 201, is known to have been revived as late as 1749, in other words, the year before his death.
For Bach, the composition and performance of such works was in part an important source of ofconsiderable extra income: for the funeral music for Prince Leopold of Cöthen, for example, he received 230 thalers by way of a fee and expenses, whereas his basic annual salary as Thomaskantor in Leipzig was no more than 100 thalers. The titles of these works often indicate the piece’s function or poetical structure. Whereas the term “cantata” is taxonomically noncommittal, a “serenata” was designed to be performed in the evening (longer pieces were sometimes also described as Abend Music, while TafelMusic was music written to be played at the prince’s table. A dramma per musica treated of a concrete – generally mythological – subject and was close to an operatic scena in charakter (it is no accident that the same term was used as a standard designation for Italian operas of the time). As such, it constituted a particular attraction for Leipzig audiences, since the city’s opera house had been forced to close for financial reasons in 1720.>>
FOOTNOTES
1 Cantata 202 BCW Details & Discography, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV202.htm; Score Vocal & Piano, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Scores/BWV202-V&P.pdf; Score BGA, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BGA/BWV202-BGA.pdf. References: BGA X1/2 (Secular Cantata 201-205, Wilhelm Rust, 1862), NBA KB I/40 (secular weddings, etc; Werner Neumann, 1970), Bach Compendium BC G 41, Zwang W 5.
2 Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt, Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Wirken, and Werke: ein Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte des achzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Hofmeister, 1850; reprint, Hilversum: Knuf, 1965: 107f).
3 Its source is the alternate added middle movement, "Cantabile, ma un poco Adagio," BWV 1019a (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bocU0Y5qEdY) based on the aria "Heil und Segen" (Health and blessing) from ?1728/29 Town Council Cantata 120, "Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille," (God, one praises Thee in the stillness, Psalm 65:2, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV120-D4.htm), parodied for a sacred wedding, probably 1729 about Easter, BWV 120a, "Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinger" (Lord God, ruler of all things, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIaLqVT86Qk). This aria also may have been parodied in Bach's 1731 St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, with a new Picander text, "Welt und Himmel, nehm zu ohren" (Earth and Heaven, listen), at Jesus' death (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPcsIGDvoDU).
4 Richard D. P. Jones, The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 2, 1717-1750, Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford University Press, 2013: 217f).
5 Source: Hildegard Tiggemann, “Unbekannte Textdrucke zu drei Gelegenheitskantaten J.S. Bachs aus dem Jahre 1729,” Bach Jahrbuch 80, 1994 (Leipzig: Evang. Verl.-Anst.: 7-23; BWV 210a, BWV Anh. 211, 212); Fürstlich Schaumberg Lippischen Hofbibliotek, Bückeburg.
6 Christoph Wolff, "Bach’s secular cantatas from the Leipzig period (II)," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Koopman.htm#C5, "Liner Notes," 1997.
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To Come: Mühlhausen, Weimar Occasional, Non-Liturgical Music of Sorrow. |
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