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Cantata BWV 205
Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft
Cantata BWV 205a
Blast Lärmen, ihr Feinde!
Discussions - Part 4 |
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Continue on Part 3 |
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Discussions in the Week of July 15, 2018 (4th round) |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 13, 2018):
Drammi per Musica: Academic Cantatas 205, 207 and Parodies
While Bach in Leipzig as music director in the mid 1720s continued to composed chamber-style serenades for local dignitaries, especially homage and wedding pieces that brought him additional income for a growing family, he expanded his attention to the genre of drammi per musica which brought even great benefit to him. Many of the commissions involved the University of Leipzig where students engaged him to present these extended, learned works often involving symbolic classical figures of mythology and allegory (http://unichor.uni-leipzig.de/index.php?page=festmusiken. These included congratulatory works for professors, the birthdays of visiting courts, most notably from Saxony celebrating name days and birthdays, and other events, and included two memorial works, the BWV 198 Funeral Ode for the Saxon princess Christiane Eberherdine in 1727, and the funeral motet, BWV 226, "Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit" (The Spirit helpeth our infirmities’), an eight-voice double chorus setting of Romans 8:26-7), in 1729 for funeral of Johann Heinrich Ernesti, Thomas School rector and university professor. Most impressive was a string of six (four original) drammi per musica (BWV 213, 214, 205a, 215, 207a, 206) from 1733 to 1736 for the new Saxon Elector, Augustus.
Above all, Bach had for his use the musical resources of the university Collegium musicum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collegium_Musicum, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Collegium-Musicum[Braatz].htm), which enabled him to use as many as 50-some students and guest musicians to present 30- to 40-minute secular works similar in scope to his sacred oratorios and two-part cantatas, with full orchestra and chorus. Bach’s first extant, titled dramma per musica, BWV 205, was composed in 1725 to a text by Picander. The term “dramma per musica” is a catch-all term, like, “serenade,” “opera” and “oratorio.” It was used by Picander to describe an expanded Bach serenade, usually with four characters, acquiring special meaning and usage. “Later, the term ‘serenata’ died away and was replaced by ‘dramma per musica’, a name that still more clearly denotes a usually modest plot, often ending in general congratulation of the person honoured in the festivities,” observes Alfred Dürr.1 Generically speaking, it was a phrase found on the title page of many Italian librettos in the 17th century to designate a “text expressly written to be set by a composer . . . and by extension also to the composition,” says Grove Music.
Bach’s particular brand of four-character dramma per musica in Leipzig, in contrast to his German contemporary opera composers' occasional serenades and oratorios -- Telemann in Hamburg, Hasse in Dresden and Carl Heinrich Graun in Berlin -- consistently involved opening and closing choruses, the alternation of recitatives and arias, and Italian-style of music but with German texts, says Alberto Basso in his “Oper und ‘Dramma per Musica’ chapter in the World of the Bach Cantatas, pp.48-63 (BCW summary translation by Thomas Braatz). 2 Bach’s more elaborate drammi per musica, which began in the same tradition as Buxtehude's Abendmusik, contains between 10 and 15 movements each (see "Royal Court at Köthen: Serenades," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/HoffmanBachDramaII.htm#P3).
Dramma per musica was the closest Bach’s compositions came to opera in Leipzig, says Basso. Bach faced two obstacles: the lack of an opera house and “the hindrances caused by Gottsched [who despised all opera] and his theater reforms” Bach had experienced opera in Hamburg at the beginning of the 18th century and later had considerable encounters with opera in Dresden, beginning with his first trip to Dresden in 1717, and especially in the 1730s. From the Dresden experience, Bach between 1727 and 1742 performed 10 subtitled "dramma per musica," commissioned by Leipzig authorities for public performances honoring the elector’s family and other notables. In all, Bach composed 16 works that his librettists subtitled dramma per musica. The nine Dresden cantatas are: BWV Anh. 9 (BC G 14), BWV 193a (G 15), BWV Anh. 11 (G 16), BWV 213 (G 18), BWV 214 (G 19), BWV 205a (G 20), BWV 215 (G 21), BWV 207a (G 22), BWV 206 version 1 (G 23) and BWV 206 version 2a (G 26). The remainder are: BWV 249b (G 28), BWV 30a (G 31), BWV 205 (G 36), BWV 207 (G 37), BWV 201 (G 46) and BWV 211 (G 48).
Leipzig University Commissions, Connections
"Three of Bach’s first major surviving profane cantatas – BWV 36c, 205 and 207 -- were composed between 1725 and 1726 for celebrations associated with the University of Leipzig" [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV205-D3.htm]. <<It was the beginning of a reorientation in his creative direction and launched a transition from church year cantata cycles to the worldly domain. There were three primary reasons: to acquire and display new compositional techniques that could be applied to instrumental music such as suites as well as larger vocal works such as sacred oratorios, to explore and reflect on this wider world, and to gain more interaction and influence upon that world of enlightenment and pragmatism. As an example, two of the three cantatas, BWV 205 and 207, were parodied with few changes almost a decade later, for the coronation and name day, respectively, of Augustus III, Saxon Court elector. The 15-movement Cantata 2053 has dance styles in five arias and the closing chorus: no. 3, 4/4 gavotte; no. 5, 3/8 pastorale-giga; no. 9, 12/8 passepied-menuett; no. 11, 3/8 gigue-passepied; no. 13, 3/4 polonaise; no. 15, 2/2 gavotte (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKTe4au1ggk).4
Bach’s repertory of more than 50 secular cantatas, being utility music for special events, was driven by motive, method and opportunity, usually with little warning or preparation. Opportunity was the determining factor and most of Bach’s profane works created in Leipzig were related to his municipal employment as Leipzig music director. As such, Bach from his first days living in Leipzig in early May 1723 sought out opportunities in the civic realm before he assumed his demanding cantor’s position to create music for weekly sacred church services.
He is believed to have made his initial contact with members of the Collegium musicum group of university musicians based at the progressive New Church with ties to the Leipzig University St. Paul Church, as well as university faculty and patrons. As an employee technically of the Leipzig City Council, Bach signed his contract and made the acquaintance of its leaders, particularly members of the so-called absolutist party, favoring his appointment, with their connections to the governing Saxon Court in Dresden, and their support of the university and progressive cultural pursuits. Of secondary concern by this time, was Bach’s responsibilities in the academic interests of the Thomas School where he and his family were housed and where he spent most of his time as cantor teaching, administering, and creating music.>>
Bach Secular Cantatas: Overview
An overview of Bach's secular cantatas is provided in Klaus Hofmann's 2013 liner notes to the now just-completed series of Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Suzuki-Rec5.htm#S4). <<Introduction. This recording explores the modestly proportioned genre of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Nowadays this group of works, which suffers more than most fthe loss of many of its members, contains only slightly more than twenty completely preserved cantatas. In addition there are a dozen or so cantata texts that Bach set but for which the music itself has not survived. In total we know of around fifty secular cantatas that Bach composed; in fact, however, their number must have been significantly larger.
Most if not all of Bach’s secular cantatas were envisaged as occasional pieces, their text and music written to order, in exchange for a fee, and intended for specific occasions of widely varying character. They included festive and congratulatory music for court, political tributes (for instance to the Prince of Saxony and his relatives) and also works for celebrations among Leipzig’s bourgeoisie or academia. Among the various literary forms used in secular cantatas, Bach accorded particular significance to the so-called ‘dramma per musica’. In such works the libretto is constructed dramatically, i.e. the cantata has a plot, and the singers embody various roles. The proximity of opera is unmistakable, although the ‘drammi per musica’ do without the scenic [and costume] element, confining themselves to verbal interaction.
The libretti of these ‘dramatic’ cantatas are often based on mythological stories from antiquity, as told by Latin Classical poets such as Virgil (70–19 B.C.) or Ovid (43–18 B.C.). It was common to juxtapose the gods, demigods and other characters from this world of legend with freely invented allegorical figures – personifications of ideas that embody specific human characteristics or of abstract concepts such as time or fate. The ‘dramma per musica’ was especially widespread in the lofty realms of princely tribute and academic festivity: educated people were familiar with these literary traditions. And by delegating the unavoidable flattery to literary, fictional figures, it became easier for all involved not to take things too literally. The two works on this recording [BWV 205, 207] exemplify this type of dramatic cantata.>>
Cantata 205: "Aeolus Appeased"
Cantata 205 background is provided in Hofmann's notes. <<Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft, BWV 205 (Tear Asunder, Smash, Lay Waste to the Vault. The cantata with the subtitle ‘Aeolus Appeased’ was written for the name day of the Leipzig academic and later university professor Dr August Friedrich Müller (1684–1761) on 3rd August 1725, and was probably commissioned by the student body. Müller taught law and philosophy at the university and enjoyed exceptional popularity among his students. It appears that some special event in his academic career was celebrated together with his name day in 1725, but we have no details of what that event might have been. The cantata text is by the Leipzig poet Christian Friedrich Henrici, also known as Picander (1700 – 64), who shortly afterwards would begin a closer collaboration with Bach. One could well imagine the performance taking place outdoors during the evening, perhaps accompanied by a torchlight procession of students.
The summer weather that would have been desirable for such an occasion is also – indirectly – the subject of the cantata’s dramatic happenings. First of all it takes us back to the world of antiquity and legend, to the Mediterranean, to the islands near Sicily, to Aeolia. There – according to Virgil’s Aeneid – Aeolus, the King of the Winds, holds the mighty autumn storms captive, letting them loose on the world at the appointed time. In the opening chorus they are already raging, stirring each other up, ready to break free from their prison, burst out and overcome the air, water and earth with their havoc. Aeolus appears and announces that, ‘after summer has soon ended’, he will release his ‘loyal subjects’, and give them free rein to cause chaos. Aeolus, himself rather churlish, is already looking forward to the time ‘when everything becomes disordered’ (third movement).
Then, however, supplicants of all kinds make an appearance: Zephyrus, the soft west wind and god of mild summer breezes, asks Aeolus for compassion and invokes memories of idyllic summer evenings in the open air – without, however, fully managing to convince the King of the Winds (movements 4–6). Pomona too, goddess of fruitful abundance, attempts in vain to win over Aeolus. Finally Pallas Athene, goddess of wisdom and the arts, succeeds in making Aeolus relent, requesting that Zephyrus alone should attend the feast ‘upon my hilltops’ (i.e. on Mount Helicon, home of the Muses), and that no other wind should disrupt the celebrations in honour of the famous scholar August Müller (movements 7–10).
Aeolus then summons the winds to return and to blow more gently, to the delight of Pomona, Zephyrus and Pallas, who immediately turn their attention to preparations for the feast (movements 11–13). Pallas invites everybody to the celebration (movement 14) and finally there is a vivat for August Müller.
Wealthy patrons seem to have played a part in the work’s origin, as Bach’s festive orchestra is unusually lavishly proportioned. In addition to the standard complement of strings and continuo, two flutes and two oboes, he calls for three trumpets and timpani as well as two horns – not to mention the viola d’amore, viola da gamba and oboe d’amore, all of which are featured as solo instruments in the arias. Bach could hardly have wished for a more colourful orchestra. The libretto, too, left nothing to be desired, giving Bach the opportunity to frame the entire piece with two splendid choral movements and to portray a very wide range of emotions in a series of musical images – from the raging of the wind at the beginning to the mellow lament of Zephyrus (fifth movement). It also provided plenty of opportunities to illustrate the events by means of numerous musical details.
In this work Bach writes one display piece after another. The opening chorus [in 3/4] is a colossal portrayal of the powerfully raging winds, angrily rattling their prison gate. These are depicted musically by wild rising and falling scales, in the same and opposite directions, a turmoil into which the choir injects lively coloraturas and shouts of ‘tear asunder’. At the same time this movement, from a purely musical point of view, is a skilfully written polychoral concerto in which the various groups of musicians are effectively contrasted. Right at the outset the trumpets, strings and horns, in lively alternation, play the motif that is later associated with the words ‘tear asunder’ in the choir, while the flutes strike up the scale motif and immediately pass it on to the oboes, who in turn relay it to the strings. The interplay of the various groups of per- formers, in constantly changing combinations of motifs and colours, dominates the entire movement.
The second movement, a recitative in which Aeolus addresses the winds, is vividly illustrated by the orchestra. Almost untameable, the winds constantly rise up in protest; every time there is a pause in the King of the Winds’ speech, they make themselves heard vociferously. The following aria, ‘How I shall laugh merrily’, depicts Aeolus as a ruffian, looking forward to the chaos that the storms will cause. His laughter is heard in striking coloraturas, and the string orchestra portrays the general confusion. Then, however, Zephyrus’s recitative (fourth movement) shifts the musical emphasis: the roaring of the winds and the blustering of the King of the Winds yield to the quieter tones of the supplicant. Now we hear chamber music of a most exquisite kind. Quiet instruments – viola d’amore and viola da gamba – accompany Zephyrus’s gentle lament (fifth movement). The oboe d’amore, the personification of sweetness, supports Pomona’s attempt to soften the King of the Winds (seventh movement). And in Pallas’s aria (ninth movement), Bach uses a solo violin to illustrate the wish that the ‘pleasant Zephyrus’ might, with his gently breeze, fan the summit of Helicon; the charming solo line explores the instrument’s very highest register.
In the dialogue between Pallas and Aeolus (tenth movement), the turning point of the action, Bach cannot resist surroundthe name of the learned Dr August Müller with a halo of flute sound. The taming of the winds in Aeolus’s aria (eleventh movement) is presented by Bach in a musical costume that is without equal: it is accompanied only by continuo, trumpets, timpani and horns. Such an exquisite piece for wind instruments had surely never before been heard in Leipzig. At the end, nothing but joy prevails among the successful supplicants. The finale is a merry march in a concise rondo form, dominated by calls of ‘Vivat’. One can almost see the assembled party raising their glasses and drinking the health of the learned professor – and the instruments, too, constantly add their own ‘vivat’ motif to the festive mayhem.
© Klaus Hofmann 2013
Production Notes [Masaaki Suzuki]. <<BWV 205. The only extant material for this composition is the original full score (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Mus. ms. Bach P 173). The orchestral parts no longer exist, but the instrumentation can be ascertained, since it is quite clearly written down at the beginning of the manuscript. An interesting question concerns the viola d’amore in the fifth movement. In Bach’s time, the leader usually played such solos. In this case, however, he would have been required to play the violin in the tutti in the third movement, change instrument to the viola d’amore during the short recitative in the fourth movement, while having an extremely challenging solo for the violin ahead of him in the ninth movement. This would seem like a nearly impossible demand on the player. Apart from in this work, the viola d’amore appears in Bach’s vocal music only in BWV 36c, BWV 152 and the St John Passion, but in none of these works is it clear who in the orchestra played this instrument. In BWV 205/5 the viola da gamba is also required, so in the case of this instrument, too, one of the players must have switched instruments in the course of the work.
A final brief remark regards the trumpets and horns. Following our recent practice, the brass instruments adopted for this recording are constructed entirely according to original baroque practice, which means that they lack the so-called tone holes (or venting holes) with which the intonation may be adjusted on a modern-day ‘baroque trumpet’. In consequence, it is physically impossible for their 11th (Fa) and 13th (La) overtones to be completely in tune. It is, however, our firm belief that the sound, undisturbed by the use of any holes, remains rounded and vivid, and that the player is able to achieve a more legato and singing character. We hope that the listener will enjoy this ‘natural’ character which should also be close to the original sound that Bach himself will have heard.>>
© Masaaki Suzuki 2014 [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001040; Provenance: J. S. Bach – W. F. Bach – J. N. Forkel – G. Poelchau – BB (now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz) (1841)].
Cantata 205 Commentary
"The festive feels is paramount, says the late Peter Williams.5 Bach shows "enthusiasm and a wish to please," a delighted turn away from the first two years' liturgical repertory, with its brilliant choruses and arias, its unmistakably graphic depictions (rushing winds, etc), all melodically not only inspired but quite distinctive." The brass and drums in the opening and closing choruses [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKTe4au1ggk] as well as the Aeolous aria (no. 11) "establish the cantor as a municipal music director." It "sustains that distinctive quality" that also "was perfectly appropriate with other words to celebrate the coronation of the new elector as King nine years later," as Bach strengthened his ties to the Saxon Court. The some 15 drammi per musica genre enabled Bach to compose the latest music while achieving, perhaps surpassing, the church cantatas of such high musical quality for to be reused, revised, or mined for other music. says Williams (Ibid.: 331). These cantatas were "not entirely secular either, given the divinity of the monarchy and the secular hierarchy," says Williams (Ibid.: 334), particularly Cantata 205(a), fit for a professor and a king.
During Bach's first Leipzig period from 1723 to 1729, Bach had increasing opportunities to create occasional works of joy and sorrow for many different occasions, observes Richard D. P. Jones. 6 "In these secular cantatas we often encounter Bach recycling his own music for subsequent occasions." One of the most prominent and substantial of these profane works was the genre of drammi per musica with sung roles of characters from mythology, as in the contemporary opera seria, and allegorical figures from entertaining German serenades. Cantata 205 in particular closes with a fully-scored chorus finale involving all four characters as "binary, rondeau and da capo form are united" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW3kCePph9s] in a unique binary dance.
Cantata 205 "is a model of sumptuously scored open air music," requiring a full orchestra, says Dürr (Ibid.: 854f). Beginning with a "graphic tone-picture of the impatient winds," it offers a variety of aria musical forms and styles, including a "shade aria" (no. 5, Zephyr's gentle breeze contemplative description of nature, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QY1Vdxx6s), "an exceptional gem that leaves its model's far behind (Handel's "Largo" from Serses, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7XH-58eB8c); and the Pomona-oboe da-amore aria (no 7, Können nicht die roten Wangen, 15:41), and the Aeolus unique brass aria (no. 11, Zurücke, zurücke, geflügelten Winde" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKTe4au1ggk, 26:17).
Bach parodied two other arias with different afffect in Cantata 205, points out Malcolm Boyd.7 They are Pallas' lullaby with solo violin (no. 9, "Angenehmer Zephyrus," 19:40) which became "Jesus soll mein erstes Wort" (Jesus should be my first word, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1ZO2DZUQc) in Cantata 171, "Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm" (God, as your name, so also is your fame; Psalm 48:10), the 1729 New Year's Day Cantata possibly with Collegium musicum forces, and the Pamona-Zephyrus polonaise-style duet with flutes (no. 13, Zweig und Äste," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZ1m30youA) which became the aria "Heil und Segen (Health and blessing) in the parody homage cantatas BWV 216, "Vergnügte Pleißenstadt" (Contented Pleisse-town), for an intimate 1728 secular wedding (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV216-D2.htm, and BWV 216a, Erwählte Pleißenstadt" (Chosen Pleisse-town), for a c1728 homage to Leipzig. Boyd calls Cantata 205 "one of the most substantial works of its kind," "notable for its inventive instrumentation," which also includes the use of the second allegro (3rd movement) of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in the succeeding 1726 Cantata 207 University tribute (see below).
1734 Saxon Parody Cantata 205a
Cantata BWV 205a, "Blast Lärmen, ihr Feinde" (Enemies, blow the alarm), BWV 205a for the coronation of Augustus III as King of Poland and was first performed on 19 February 1734. The music for the work is lost but the libretto is extant. The eighth, twelfth and fourteenth movements were newly composed recitatives, while the other movements Bach derived as a virtual parody exclusively from BWV 205 (?Picander text, Z. Philipp Ambrose notes & translation, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV205a.html).8 The original four learned characters — Pallas (soprano), Pomona (alto), Zephyrus (tenor), Aeolus (bass) — now are virtues of the Elector and his realm: Val(bass), Justice (tenor), Grace (alto), and Pallas (wisdom & the arts, soprano). The performance was held at Zimmermann's coffee house with the Collegium musicum (BD 2:346-48; BJ 53 (1967): 87f). 9
Friedemann Bach presented a textual sacred parody of BWV 205a, "Blast Lärmen, ihr Feinde," as music director at Halle. Two dated text books document performances at the inaugural sermon of F. E. Rambach, 21 November 1756, and the Thanksgiving Service for Vistory at Lissa, 18 December 1757, finds Peter Wollny.10 Friedemann inherited the original Cantata 205 score, which is extant, with 87 bars of the opening chorus having "the fresh words written under the original" (https://www.bach-digital.de/rsc/viewer/BachDigitalSource_derivate_00002796/db_bachp0173_page001.jpg), says W. Gillies Whittaker, although the performing parts which Friedemann presumably also inherited and used are lost.11 The original BWV 205 Picander libretto "is a monstrously inflated conceit," says Whittaker (Ibid.).
Although there is no recording of the parodied Cantata BWV 205a (the original score is lost), conductor Ton Koopman has composed new recitatives. He explained the process in a 2003 interview with BCW’s Uri Golomb: Like the St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, “where I composed the missing recitatives; and at the moment I am working on a similar project, reconstructing Cantata BWV 205a – my first version is ready. We’re going to perform that in Dresden, it’s not for a recording. There are major problems, nothing is 100% clear. Musicologists have made suggestions on how things should go; but BWV 205a is lost, and I think it is impossible to reconstruct it as Bach performed it.”
Adaptation Commentary: Although adapted a decade later, Cantata 205 may be the only extant, complete musical version, since the parody only has textual changes with a newly-published text extant. Where other Bach occasional music was parodied for a sacred version with some musical changes, a new score and parts could have been copied, as in the case of Cantata 36, "Schwingt freudig euch empor" (Up joyous raise your song), where its original 1725 professor homage version, BWV 36c, survives (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000868), as does the definitive 1731 sacred version (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000878), details https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BachCantatas/conversations/messages/39583, https://carusmedia.com/images-intern/medien/30/3103600/3103600x.pdf "Foreward"). In several other instances of secular-sacred versions (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Parody-Tables.htm), BWV 34, 69, 120, 134, 173, 193, and 197, some of the materials (parts, scores) are lost. It is possible that some of these were inherited by Friedemann and subsequently lost, like the Cantata 205 parts that he could have used for his parody performances in 1756-57.
Cantata 207 Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten
A year later in 1726, Bach received another commission for an installation cantata involving another favored Leipzig University professor. In this case, BWV 207, dramma per musica, "Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten (United division of strings ever changing), Bach provided a more concise treatment of just nine movements and used borrowed instrumental material for an indoor ceremony at the university on 11 December 1726. The "three borrowed numbers suggested a hurried production," says Whittaker (Ibid.: II545, 551). There are two Cöthen Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 parodies which may have originated in a lost Cöthen secular cantata: The opening chorus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ypkKbOdRI) was previously found as the second Allegro (3rd movement, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJGguNoBovg), and the Trio II (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KY-32aOu_k) was adapted as the closing ritornello in the cantata soprano-bass duet (no. 5, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbshsiyb_g). The alto aria (no. 7) through its faulty declamation appears to be from an earlier secular cantata, possibly from Cöthen and the same original source as the Brandenburg movements.
The printed libretto is not extant so the designation of the four characters is lacking. References in the manuscript score suggest the following allegorical figures: Soprano [Glück = Happiness], Alto [Dankbarkeit = Gratitude], Tenor [Fleiss = Dilgence], Bass [Ehre = Fame]. In the score Bach used a full orchestra,12 probably with members of the Collegium musicum, but eliminate the horns while adding a march (see Thomas Braatz BCW commentary, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/BWV207Marche.pdf) which is more appropriate for the virtual parody, BWV 207a, "“Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten” (Up, pealing sounds of lively trumpets) for the Elector’s Nameday, probably August 3, 1735, at Zimmerman’s coffee garden (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV207-D3.htm). Bach's instrumental music was an addendum and the only extant such addition to a secular work (music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRHEKKGffMw)
The occasion for Cantata 207, its character and possible librettist are discussed in Klaus Hofmann's 2013 liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki BIS recording. <<Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten, BWV 207
United Division of Changing Strings. This cantata, too, takes us into the ambit of Leipzig University. It was composed for the jurist Dr Gottlieb Kortte (1698−1731). The occasion was Kortte’s appointment as a professor extraordinarius. The festive performance probably took place on 11th December 1726, the day on which Kortte gave his inaugural address – from memory, as absent-mindedly he had left his manuscript at home. Kortte had just celebrated his 28th birthday – hardly older than his students – and he enjoyed particular popularity among the young academics. The instigators of the cantata performance were probably to be found among his students. Even the text may have been written by one of his students, namely Heinrich Gottlieb Schellhafer (1707−57), later a professor of law in his own right, who in his later years also wrote texts for works by Telemann.
As was popular at the time, the text of this congratulatory cantata is placed in the mouths of four allegorical characters, and in Bach’s music these are distributed between the four vocal registers. The characters represent four academic virtues: Happiness (soprano), Gratitude (alto), Diligence (tenor) and Honour (bass). Bearing this distribution of roles in mind, it is by no means difficult to follow the events in the cantata. According to the opening chorus, the cantata is all about saying ‘with your exultant notes... what is the reward of virtue here’. First to speak is Diligence: addressing himself to the students, he canvasses for allegiance and promises his followers happiness and honour (movements 2−3). Then Happiness and Honour themselves appear and confirm: indeed, for those who are diligent, the dwellings of honour and the cornucopia of happiness will not remain locked away (movements 4−5). After that, Gratitude joins in and points out Kortte: these are no empty promises; in this man everything has come true. Preserve his memory, etch it into marble or, betstill, raise a memorial to him by means of your own actions (movements 6−7). In the last recitative Diligence, Honour and Happiness attest how deeply they feel devoted to Kortte, and Gratitude urges the friends of the appointee to join in with the good wishes of the four allegorical figures: ‘Long live Kortte, may Kortte flourish!’
Bach set this attractively conceived libretto in music that is even more appealing, and he did so – as always – with great care and artistry. Admittedly profundity and depth of meaning were not uppermost in his mind – and there is no reason why they should have been, in such cheerful ‘Studentenmusik’. At two places in the score he had recourse to an earlier work: the Brandenburg Concerto No.1; its third movement appears here, skillfully transformed, as the opening chorus, whilst its second trio (originally for horns and oboes) is rescored as a postlude to the duet aria of Happiness and Honour (fifth movement).
Bach’s musical style reacts to the text, as usual, with great agility – to the ‘rolling drums’ mentioned in the opening chorus and which do in fact ‘roll’ – and likewise, in the middle of the final chorus, to the ‘laurel’, the tendrils of which curl mellifluously in the two flute parts. In the seventh movement there is a particularly original illustration of the text. Gratitude demands a memorial for Kortte: ‘Etch this remembrance into the hardest marble!’ Bach sets this as a beautiful, contemplative aria with two flutes. Within this music, however, he already depicts the stone- mason working on the marble: we hear his hammer blows chiselling the name into the stone, quietly but unmistakably, in the unison strings. One wonders if Bach ever imagined that his music might serve as a musical memorial, making the professor’s name familiar in centuries to come.>>
© Klaus Hofmann 2013
Production Notes [Masaaki Suzuki] <<BWV 207. The original full score (Mus. ms. Bach P 174) and the orchestral parts (St93) at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin are the reference materials that remain of this cantata. Although the original manuscript has survived, many questions arise regarding the performance of the piece. Several problems must be addressed, for example in the woodwind parts for the first movement, which include notes outside of the instruments’ ranges. Also, the two parts marked for the oboe have not been transposed and we can only assume that they were written for oboe d’amore. As for the flutes, the second part often descends below the instrument’s lower register so that the player must double the first flute part each time this occurs. Another problem is that in the original full score, there is an independent movement called Marche; however, it is unclear where it should be inserted within the composition. For this performance, we have decided to play the movement as a prelude to the final chorus.
© Masaaki Suzuki 2014 [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001041; Provenance: J. S. Bach – C. P. E. Bach – C. F. G. Schwencke – G. Poelchau (1824) – BB (now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz) (1841)
1735 Saxon Parody Cantata 207a
Bach's parody technique has various facets and one in Cantata 207a13 is the writing of new recitatives (nos. 2, 4, & 6, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV207a.htm) by an unknown librettist, possibly Picander, for the Saxon Court, says Klaus Hofmann in his 2016 liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki BIS recording (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Suzuki-Rec5.htm#S9). << Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten, BWV 207a (Up, Strident Sounds of Cheerful Trumpets). Bach’s parody technique has various facets. The use of existing material offered him an opportunity for a renewed involvement with the work, and the chance to improve and refine it. A further strong incentive for Bach was the possibility of salvaging for posterity the artistic substance of secular occasional pieces, written for a single performance, by providing them with a new religious text and transforming them into religious compositions that could be reused every year in the context of church services. For Bach it was very appealing to take a work designed for a single use and bring it back to life in this way. And, not least, the parody technique offered practical advantages: the composer’s task could to some extent be confined to a few procedures such as substituting a new text, plus of course slight compositional changes and additions; and often the parts for the original version could be used again without extensive alterations.
[Cantata 207, <<Related music. Different attempts have been made to make the closing chorus suitable to more general occasions, by adaptations with a different text. In German, Carus published in 2008 a version "Lob und Preis dem Herrn / Festlicher Schlussgesang zum Gottesdienst (Lauds and praise to the Lord / Festive closing chorus for a service), edited by Karl Kremer and using Bach's scoring.14 A version "Jauchzet, lobet", with a middle section referring to Christmas or Easter/Pentecost, was adapted for choir and organ.>>15 ]
The cantata Auf, schmetternde Töne der muntern Trompeten is an example of the kind of parody in which Bach was clearly primarily concerned with practical considerations. In this form the cantata was prepared for the name day of the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus III on 3rd August 1735. Bach based it on a cantata from 1726, Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten (United Division of Changing Strings), BWV 207 [BIS-2001], written to congratulate the Leipzig academic Dr Gottlieb Kortte on taking up his law professorship. Most of the work in converting it into its new version for the royal name day fell to the – unknown [?Picander] – librettist. It was his task to imitate the metre and rhyme structure of the 1726 cantata text in a replacement, parallel text about the sovereign. Only in the wording of the three secco recitatives (second, fourth and sixth movements) did Bach allow the poet free rein to write something independent of the earlier version; movements of this kind are hard to parody effectively, and could in any case quickly be composed anew [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pyLtCUc6bU]. The rest of the cantata – the opening and closing choruses, the arias and the single recitative with orchestral accompaniment (eighth movement) – received a new text. At times Bach’s librettist remained close to the original not just formally but also in terms of content, as is shown by a comparison of the opening lines. In both cases the cantata begins by calling upon the participating instruments to delight the listener with their music. The final chorus of the 1726 version started with ‘Kortte lebe, Kortte blühe!’ (‘Long live Kortte, may Kortte flourish!’); in the new version the wording is rather similar: ‘August lebe, lebe, König!’ (‘Long live Augustus, may the King live!).
In the inner movements the poet has gone to a lot of trouble to capture in verse the virtues and achievements of the sovereign and the alleged enthusiasm of his subjects – with the exaggeration that was typical of the period. Although the reference to the instruments at the beginning of the cantata takes the existing music into account, there are otherwise – as one might expect – hardly any illustrative allusions. An exception to this is the newly composed tenor recitative [no. 2] ‘Die stille Pleiße spielt mit ihren kleinen Wellen’ (‘The calm river Pleiße plays with its little waves’; second movement), in which Bach imitates the wave motion of the river in the continuo. On the other hand, some musical images in the original piece have lost their textural context, but this seems not to have bothered Bach very much. This applies for example to the energetic dotted motif, repeating a single note, that the strings interject in the otherwise charming alto ariawith flute ‘Preiset, späte Folgezeiten’ (‘Praise, later generations’; seventh movement). It has nothing to do with the new text, but plenty to do with the original one: ‘Ätzet dieses Angedenken in den härtsten Marmor ein!’ (‘Etch this remembrance into the hardest marble!’) – and the string motif depicts how the stonemason is already working on the marble with his hammer and chisel. Clearly Bach just trusted in the power of his music. [NB. The "three borrowed numbers suggested a hurried production," says Whittaker (Ibid.: II545, 551). Besides the two Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 parodies, the alto aria (no. 7) through its faulty declamation appears to be from an earlier secular cantata, possibly from Cöthen and the same original source as the Brandenburg movements.]
We should not neglect to mention that Bach had already had recourse to existing and established music in the congratulatory score of 1726, which thus returns for a second time in the name day cantata. The opening chorus is a free arrangement of the third movement from the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, BWV 1046, with the addition of the choir and with trumpets and timpani instead of horns. The ritornello that appears after the fifth movement also originates in the same concerto, where it was the third trio of the concluding minuet. Bach later added one more instrumental piece to the score – a march that does not appear in the original performance parts. Even if it is not part of the cantata, this march was probably performed in the context of the festivities surrounding the sovereign’s name day.>>
© Klaus Hofmann 2016
Cantata 207(a) Commentary
Another facet of Bach's parody technique or reuse of existing music is the arrangement he made adapting music for one performing group from another. Most notable are his transcriptions of music in the Brandenburg Concerti and other instrumental concerti, particularly in the third sacred cantata cycle of 1726. Bach's facility at adapting music was related to the baroque da-capo repeat form and the vocal style which developed from instrumental music which, while preserving the basic melodic line of ornamental phrasing, sought to add text that made effective use of the music while preserving its inherent, idiomatic "voice." The best example is the opening chorus of Cantata 207(a). "Malcolm Boyd has argued persuasively that the vocal version is the original and the instrumental version [Brandenburg Concerto No. 3/3, Allegro] a derivative, both having had a common source in an older work, presumably a lost secular cantata from Bach's years at Cöthen (1717-21)," says Dürr. He cites Boyd's findings in Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993:61-70, as well as Michael Talbot. The cantata version of Brandenburg 1/3 is "one of Bach's most successful parodies," says Boyd (OCC:JSB, Ibid.: 488). Boyd also notes the possible parody of BWV 207(a)/ 7, cited above by Whittaker and Hofmann. Additional information on prof. Gottlieb Kortte is provided. Boyd's book is a great summary of Bach's vocal works.
Cantatas 205 and 207 reveal "an attempt over this period to provide quite splendid music for events involving university people," says Williams (Ibid.: 553). All three university-commissioned works (BWV 205, 207 and 198) "gave listeners new musical experiences of very high quality," particularly "No. 205's rattling opening" and 207's adaptation of the Brandenburg concerto in the opening chorus which "no one had heard anything like," he says.
Cantatas 207, 207a Provenance
The entire manuscript package containing Cantata 207 and the surviving materials of BWV 207a 15 were inherited by Bach’s son, Emmanuel, and found in his estate catalogue of 1790, on Page 71 with non-annual sacred cycle works. It is listed as “Cantata for Herr Dr. Korte (also parodied for King Augustus’ Nameday)” in score and also parts. The provenance is: J. S. Bach – C. P. E. Bach – C. F. G. Schwencke – G. Poelchau (1824) – BB (now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz) (1841). All four versions of Cantatas BWV 207 and 205 and their parodies first surfaced in Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt's 1850 Bach study, under the rubric "Occasional Cantatas."17
Other Academic Cantatas
Besides drammi per musica Cantatas 205 and 207, other works commissioned or connected to Leipzig University (http://unichor.uni-leipzig.de/index.php?page=festmusiken) include Cantata 36c for an unknown teacher and its parody, BVWV 36b for Johann Florenz Ravinius in 1735 and 1723 BWV Anh. 195 (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/XXVI.html), as well as serenades for Leipzig academic people and occasions, BWV Anh. 18, 1732 Thomas School renovation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froher_Tag,_verlangte_Stunden,_BWV_Anh._18, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001326?lang=en, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/IV.html), BWV Anh. 19, Johann August Ernesti Thomas School installation 1734 (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/VIII.html, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001327?lang=en); and BWV Annh. 210, 1734 leave-taking of Thomas School rector Johann Matthias Gesner (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001521?lang=en), especially Gesner's description of Bach, https://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/js-bach-performing-by-jm-gesner-1738/).
FOOTNOTES
1 Alfred Dürr, Introduction, Cantatas of J. S. Bach, rev. & trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2005: 9).
2 Basso, Alberto. “Oper und ‘Dramma per Musica’”. Die Welt der Bach-Kantatan: Der Komponist in seiner Welt. Editors, Christoph Wolff, Ton Koopman. Stuttgart: Metzler and Kassel: Bärenreiter. 1997. Summary translation, Thomas Braatz, BCW.
3 Cantata 205 Details & Discography, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV205.htm; Score BGA, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BGA/BWV205-BGA.pdf. References, BGA X1/2 (secuar cantatas, Wilhelm Rust 1862), NBA KB I/38 (Leipzig Secular, Werner Neumann, Bach Compendium BC G 36, Zwang W 9; Commentary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerreißet,_zersprenget,_zertrümmert_die_Gruft,_BWV_205); Picander text and Z Philipp Ambrose notes & English translation, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV205.html).
4 Doris Finke-Hecklinger, Tanzcharaktere in Johann Sebastian Bachs Vokalmusik (Trossingen: Hohner, 1970: 155ff), Tübinger Bach-Studies, vol.6.
5 Peter Williams, "Leipzig, the first years," in Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016: 330f).
6 Richard D. P. Jones, "Secular Cantatas," in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 2, 1717-1750, Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2013, 194, 108f).
7 Malcolm Boyd, Cantata 205 essay, "Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft," in Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Boyd (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 1999: 534f).
8 Cantata 205a Details & Discography, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV205a.htm. References, BGA: 34 (secular cantatas, Paul Graf Waldersee, 1887, NBA KB I/37 (Dresden nobili, Werner Neumann 1960), Bach Compendium BC G 20, no Zwang; Picander text and Z Philipp Ambrose notes & English translation, http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV205a.html).
9 Source: Robin A. Leaver, Part 6, Chronology, Chapter 20, "Life and Works 1685-1750," The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (London, New York: Routledge, 2017: 523)
10 Peter Wollny, “Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Halle Performances of Cantatas by His Father,” in Bach Studies 2, ed. Daniel R. Melamed (Cambridge University Press, 1995: 208, 212, 226.
11 W. Gillies Whittaker, The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: Sacred & Secular (London: Oxford University Press, 1959: II: 526.
12 Cantata 207 Details & Discography, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV207.htm; Score BGA, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BGA/BWV207-BGA.pdf. References, BGA XX/2 (secular cantatas, Wilhelm Rust, 1873), NBA KB I/38 (Leipzig University Cantatas, Werner Neumann 1960), Bach Compendium BC G 37, Zwang W 10.
13 Cantata 207a Details & Discography, BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV207a.htm; Score BGA http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BGA/BWV207a-BGA.pdf. References: BGA XX/2 (secular cantatas, Wilhelm Rust, 1873), BGA XXXIV (secular cantatas, Paul Graf Waldersee, 1887), NBA KB I/38 (Leipzig University Cantatas, Werner Neumann 1960), Bach Compendium BC G 22, Zwang 18.
14 "Johann Sebastian Bach / Lob und Preis dem Herrn / Festlicher Schlussgesang zum Gottesdienst / BWV 207," Carus, 2008 (https://www.carus-verlag.com/chor/geistliche-chormusik/johann-sebastian-bach-lob-und-preis-dem-herrn.html)
15 "Adventskonzert am Nikolaustag in Kalletal," Nordlippischer Anzeiger (https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://nordlipper.de/artikel/305/adventskonzert_am_nikolaustag_in_kalletal_.html&prev=search, recording http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Timm-D.htm#C2).
16 Cantata 207, https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001.03%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+207%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25; score P174, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001041, and parts St93, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002423). Cantata 207a, https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001.03%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+207a%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25; with additional parts Bach St 93, Faszikel 2 (original source, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002424), and Bach St 347 (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002547).
17 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: 107).
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To Come: Wedding and Homage Serenades for Notables, BWV 210, 216. |
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