Was willst du dich betrüben, BWV 107
What wilt thou grieve ( BWV 107 ) is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 7th Sunday after Trinity as the seventh cantata in his second cantata cycle and led them on 23 July 1724 on. The cantata is based on the chorale by Johann Heermann What will you grieve thee (1630 ), whose seven verses set to music Bach exceptionally unchanged.
History and words
Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the 7th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from 6.19 to 23 LUT Romans, " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life ", and Mk 8:1-9 LUT, the feeding of the 4000. The theme of faith in God in need is also the theme of the chorale by Johann Heermann What wilt thou grieve (1630 ), whose seven stanzas trust in God in the face of the enemy, to the devil, treated. Bach set to music the choral per omnes versus, all the verses unchanged. However he composed the middle stanzas as a recitative and four consecutive arias., the setting of unchanged chorale text was already old-fashioned in Bach's time, he had earlier (1707? ) in Christ Jesus lay in death bands, BWV 4, used later, for example in 1726 Blessed be the Lord, my God, BWV 129, but only that suspects a time in his second cantata cycle. John Eliot Gardiner, that Bach so that a restriction imposed, as he had done in the first four cantatas of the cycle in which the cantus firmus, the four vocal registers by running, so that in the fourth cantata O Lord, me, a poor sinner, the bass takes over.
The chant comes from a collection that Heermann 1630 published under the title Devoti musica cordis and also heart Dearest Jesus, what have you done wrong contained. The songs were the first who used the recommendations of Martin Opitz for poetry in German language on religious themes.
Scoring and structure
The cantata is richly decorated with brass, three soloists, soprano, tenor and bass and four-part choir occur corno da caccia, two flauto traverso, two oboe d' amore, two violins, viola and basso continuo.
Music
The opening chorus is a chorale fantasy in which the vocal writing is embedded in an independent concerto the orchestra. The cantus firmus melody by God I will not be located in the soprano, and is richly decorated, the lower voices are set predominantly homophonic. The lines of the hymn does not appear separately, only row 5, the beginning of Abgesang the bar form, stands for itself. Lines 1 and 2 are connected, as well as 3 and 4 and 6 to 8
The only recitative is accompanied by the oboi d' amore. The word joy is highlighted by an extensive melisma, as the word save the last line, which is designed as arioso. There follow four arias that are not da capo arias, but the seal are created according to two parts. Bach designed differently by different tones of voice, keys, alternating between major and minor, tempos and emotions, and partially obscures the bar form.
The first aria for bass and strings depicts a hunting scene. Bach plays with the double meaning of the word hunt, he takes literally, to a hunting signal with trills in the vocal part. The second aria for tenor and continuo begins with strong words about Satan as an enemy: "If even right out of the dens / Satan wanted to / dir even oppose / and rave against thee ." Rhythm changes between 6/8 and 3/4 of one clock to another, irregular and unpredictable. The exceptionally bizarre bass line called ' organo e continuo ', was compared by Albert Schweitzer with the contours of a giant dragon.
The third Aria for Soprano and the two oboes begins with a full- fied version of the chorale melody. Your last line quotes the melody unchanged to the words " what God wants, the -historical ". The fourth aria is busy uncommon to accompany the tenor flute in unison and muted violins.
The final chorale is in four parts, but embedded in a rich orchestral writing with Siciliano character. The chorale lines are grouped as in the first stanza, the highlighted line 5 is here, " O Father, Son and Spirit."
Recordings
- The Bach Cantata Vol 43 Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Arleen Augér, Aldo Baldin, John Bröcheler. Hänssler, 1979.
- JS Bach: The cantatas - Sacred Cantatas Vol 6 Gustav Leonhardt, Hannover Boys Choir, Collegium Vocale Gent, Leonhardt Consort, soloist of the Hannover Boys Choir, Kurt Equiluz, Max van Egmond. Teldec, 1980.
- JS Bach: Cantatas. Philippe Herreweghe, Collegium Vocale Gent, Agnès Mellon Howard Crook, Peter Kooij. Virgin Classics, 1991.
- Bach Edition Vol 11 - Cantatas Vol 5 Pieter Jan Leusink, Holland Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Collegium, Ruth Holton, Nico van der Meel, Bas Ramselaar. Brilliant Classics, 1999.
- JS Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol 12 Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Lisa Larsson, Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens. Antoine Marchand, 2000.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Cantatas Trinity 4 Ansbach / Haddinton For the 6th Sunday after Trinity For the 7th Sunday after Trinity. John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Katharine Fuge, Kobie van Rensburg, Stephan Loges. Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- JS Bach: Cantatas Vol 23 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1724 Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Yukari Nonoshita, Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooij. . BIS, 2002.
- Bach Cantatas No.. 8 BWV 7, BWV 18, BWV 107 Rudolf Lutz, choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation, Nuria Rial, Julia Doyle ( soprano), Alex Potter ( Altus ), Makato Sakurada, Julius Pfeifer (tenor ), Dominik Wörner, Wolf Matthias Friedrich ( bass). Gallus Media, 2013.
- " What do you want to grieve you ." Cantata BWV 107 Rudolf Lutz, choir and orchestra of the JS Bach Foundation, Julia Doyle, Makoto Sakurada, Wolf Matthias Friedrich. Velvet introductory workshop and reflection of Ernst Poppel. Gallus Media, 2013.