Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 178

Where the Lord God does not hold us ( BWV 178) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 8th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on July 30, 1724 for the first time. The eighth cantata his second cantata cycle based on the song Where God the Lord will not hold with us ( 1524) by Justus Jonas, a paraphrase of Psalm 124

History and words

Bach composed the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the 8th Sunday after Trinity as the eighth cantata in his second annual cycle, which he had after Trinity with O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 20, started on the first Sunday.

The prescribed readings for the Sunday were as Epistle Romans 8.12 to 17 LUT, " What drives the Spirit of God, are sons of God ", and as the Gospel Mt 7:15-23 LUT, a section of the Sermon on the Mount, the warning against false prophet. The work is based on the eponymous song in eight verses by Justus Jonas.

The staff Luther wrote Psalm 124 about the song was published in 1524 in Erfurt Enchiridion. The theme of the psalm, the distress in the face of raging enemies, fits to the Gospel. Compared with other chorale cantatas of the cycle were unusually left with six of the eight verses many of the original text. However, an unknown poet added the 2nd and the 5th verse by recitatives. The 3rd and the 6th verse he wrote to arias by. He went into the final aria about the phrase " reason can not grasp the " Reformer of the addition and formulated an objection against rationalism by to mention commanded the " wobbling reason."

Bach led the cantata for the first time on July 30, 1724. Johann Nikolaus Forkel borrowed the manuscript of Bach's chorale cantatas by his son Friedemann and copied from two of the cantatas, besides this cantata It is our salvation come from, BWV 9

Scoring and structure

The cantata is staffed with three vocal soloists ( alto, tenor and bass), horn, two oboes, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola and basso continuo.

Music

As in most of Bach's chorale cantatas of the opening chorus is a chorale fantasy. The melody was published anonymously in Wittenberg in 1529. The soprano sings the melody line by line as a cantus firmus, amplified by the horn, the independent Concerto of the orchestra. The strings play the whole set through excited dotted rhythms, the oboes semiquaver runs. The vocal lower voices sing sometimes homophonic, sometimes in the motives of the instruments. This contrast emphasizes Bach in the first tunnel of the bar form the difference between the stability of holding, the negation does not matter, and the raging of the enemy. He repeats this sequence in the second tunnel, although it does not fit there for the meaning of the text.

In the following chorale verse recitative Bach chorale distinguishes the lines from the secco recitative by letting them accompany artfully by a repeated figure in the continuo, which is derived from the beginning of that line, but appears four times as fast.

The first aria shows the image of the sea waves in wave-like melody in the vocal part, the obbligato part of the united violins and continuo. The bass has demanding coloratura singing the words " waves " and especially " zerscheitern ".

In the center of the cantata is an unchanged chorale verse, which is undecorated sung by old and accompanied by the oboes d' amore and continuo as equal partners.

In Theorem 5 Bach distinguishes between different chorale and recitative as in Theorem 2 The Choral parts are set in four parts, the Rezitativteile be presented by various individual singers in the sequence bass, tenor, alto, bass. In Continuo the whole sentence sounded through triad motifs in regular exercise.

In the final aria Bach invented a resourceful string section to express the tumbling of reason in syncopated rhythm that is " hush! " Interrupted by repeated chordal calls on the text. The drama of the aria is only in the middle part to rest when the words " so they are restoreth with consolation " is the term adagio be interpreted by a fermata and. The cantata is decided by two verses of the hymn in a simple four -part harmony.

Recordings

• The RIAS Bach Cantatas Project ( 1949-1952 ). Karl Ristenpart, RIAS Chamber Choir, RIAS Chamber Orchestra, Ingrid Lorenzen, Helmut Krebs, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Audite 1950.
• The Bach Cantata Vol 44 Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Gabriele terror Bach, Kurt Equiluz, Wolfgang Schöne. Hänssler 1972.
• Bach Cantatas Vol 4 - Sundays after Trinity I. Karl Richter, Munich Bach Choir, Munich Bach Orchestra. Julia Hamari, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Archiv Produktion 1977
• J. S. Bach: The cantatas, Episode 41 - BWV 175-179. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Tölz Boys Choir, Concentus Musicus Wien, Panito Iconomou as a boy soloist, Kurt Equiluz, Robert Holl. Teldec 1988.
• Bach Edition Vol 11 - Cantatas Vol 5 Pieter Jan Leusink, Holland Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Collegium, Sytse Buwalda, Knut Schoch, Bas Ramselaar. Brilliant Classics in 1999.
• JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol 14 Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Annette Markert, Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens. Antoine Marchand 2000.
• Bach Cantatas Vol 5: Rendsburg / Braunschweig / For the 8th Sunday after Trinity / For the 10th Sunday after Trinity. John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Robin Tyson and Christoph Genz, Brindley Sherratt. Soli Deo Gloria 2000.
• JS Bach: Cantatas Vol 23 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1724 - BWV 10, 93, 107, 178 Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Matthew White, Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooij. UNTIL 2002.
• JS Bach: Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year, Vol 3: "I have enough " - Cantatas BWV 82, 102, 178 Sigiswald Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Elizabeth Herman, Petra Noskaiová, Christoph Genz, Jan van der crabbing. Accent 2008.
• J. S. Bach: Where the Lord God does not hold us. Georg Christoph Biller, Thomas Choir, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Susanne Krumbiegel, Martin Petzold, Matthias Weichert. Rondeau Production 2008.