J. S. Bach — Brilliance & Majesty

Today's celebratory program includes a choice of choruses from a number of cantatas by J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the second of his famous Brandenburg Concerti. Wherever Bach was employed, except the court of Cöthen, he was required to provide new music for every important day of the ecclesiastical year (59 days including Sundays and holidays), and this required writing cantatas for the most part. These range in style from the most intimate work for a single voice and virtually no accompaniment, to the most grand and triumphant. Most of today's choruses are of the latter sort.

The cantata was an integral part of the Lutheran service, with a text determined by the liturgical calendar. The cantata thus performed the liturgical task of interpreting the Gospel for the day in terms of music. In Leipzig, the principal Sunday service, which included the cantata, could last as long as four hours if there were many communicants.

Bach's cantatas come in several types. Most are based on a chorale, a Lutheran tune with strophic text, often by Luther himself. The incorporation of the chorale for the specific liturgical feast invited the audience into the performance, for everybody would have recognized (and sung) the chorale, even if quoted only in an instrumental part. When quoted only by the instruments, the chorale adds an implicit layer of meaning-its tacit words-to the text being sung. The cantatas often start with a complex choral and instrumental movement (sometimes preceded by an instrumental prelude, sinfonia, or overture), followed by a sequence of recitatives and arias and at times another choral movement, and conclude with the chorale in a simple harmonization.

Most of Bach's sacred cantatas were composed during the first five years of his tenure in Leipzig (1722 to his death. We know of at least eight cantatas written before Weimar: 23 in the Weimar years (1708-16), and just a couple during his time at the Calvinist court of Cöthen (1717-21), where there was no music for religious services. To the latter period we owe many of Bach's most famous instrumental works, like the Brandenburg concerti. Unfortunately, about half of Bach's cantatas are lost. All the pieces performed by the Bach Choir today come from the Leipzig period.

Cantata BWV 39 "Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot" ("Break your bread with anyone hungry") is for the first Sunday of Trinity and was first performed on June 23, 1726. The initial dialogue between the various orchestral parts is stunning in its mastery of tonal color. Listen for the succession of timbres-the clear recorders, the nasal oboes, and the silvery strings. The first chorus is one of the more introspective pieces on the program.

Cantata BWV 78 "Jesu, der du meine Seele" ("Jesus, who through your bitter death"), for the 14th Sunday after Trinity and first performed on September 10, 1724, is based on a chorale by Johann Rist. It is a chorale cantata, which incorporates the hymn tune and uses the first and last stanzas in the opening and final movements of the cantata. The tune can be heard in long notes in the soprano part. The somewhat somber first chorus is followed by a lovely and delicate duet for soprano and alto, in da capo form.

Cantata BWV 119 "Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn" ("Praise, O Jerusalem, the Lord") was composed for the inauguration of the Leipzig town council on 30 August 1723. For a celebratory occasion, it calls for a total of four trumpets (though only three in the first chorus), timpani, two recorders, 3 oboes, two oboes da caccia (not in the first chorus), and a full complement of strings and continuo. The first chorus is preceded by a heraldic overture. The voices often sing in a smooth and chordal style, to showcase their timbre more than the complexity of the music. Lovers of Bach will recognize that this piece has a different flavor, probably because Bach was composing for a civic rather than an ecclesiastical function.

Cantata BWV 137 "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren" ("Praise the Lord, the powerful King of honors") is another chorale cantata (chorale by J. Neander) for the 12th Sunday of Trinity, first performed on 19 August 1725. This is a showy piece, with three trumpets plus timpani, in addition to two oboes, strings and continuo. Each movement of the cantata incorporates one verse of the hymn; the second movement is a virtuoso piece for solo violin and continuo, accompanied by the alto singing the unadorned chorale. In the majestic opening chorus, the sopranos sing the chorale over the thick counterpoint of all the other parts.

Cantata BWV 34 "O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe" ("O everlasting fire, O fountain of love"), for Whitsuntide, was first performed in 1746-47. It is a parody work (a work patterned on another), from a cantata now known as 34a for a Wedding Mass of 1726. The only new material is found in the recitatives (movements 2 and 4). The "everlasting fire"of the first da capo chorus is eloquently presented in both the choral and orchestral parts by having long pedal points (long, everlasting notes) either in the instruments or the voices. The contrasting abundant orchestration includes three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings and continuo.

Cantata BWV 104 "Du Hirte Israel, höre" ("Hear, Shepherd of Israel") belongs to the first annual cantata cycle Bach composed in 1723-24. It is for the Second Sunday after Easter (Misericordias Domini) and was first performed on April 23, 1724. The Gospel for the day is John 10:12-16, where Christ identifies himself as a good shepherd. The first chorus is, appropriately, a setting of the second line of Psalm 80, "Hear, you who look after Joseph as after sheep,"used to build a moving pastoral scene. The use of only oboes with the strings underscores the pastoral mood. Note in the first chorus how the choir alternates between homophony and polyphony, always highlighting the two key words, "höre"and "erscheine"-"listen"and "appear"-even during the two fugal episodes.

Cantata BWV 214, "Tönet, ihr Pauken!" ("Resound, timpani!") was a secular cantata, composed in 1733, parts of which Bach adapted for his Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) in late 1734. Some of the musical message though was lost in the parody. For example, in the original version, which we perform today, the initial words--"Resound timpani! Ring out, trumpets! Resonant strings, fill the air!"-are represented in the music as first the timpani sound, then the trumpets come in, and finally the strings. In the parody, the text talks only about rejoicing: thus the mood is correct but the textual counterpart is lost. The cantata was composed as part of the festivities in honor of the Electoral-Royal family, and this one piece in particular was for the birthday of the Electoress (the "queen"of the text) on December 8, 1733.

Bach wrote most of his purely instrumental music while employed at the court of Cöthen. Among the greatest pieces is the set of six concerti known as the Brandenburg Concerti. Though composed earlier, these were dedicated in 1721 to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg. In them we can hear the influence of the great Italian composer of concerti Antonio Vivaldi. These concerti, however, go beyond the Italianate in their conceptual vastness and thematic and contrapuntal complexity. And they are multinational in character, combining German seriousness of counterpoint, Italian rhythmic drive and brilliance, and French ornamentation. Concerti Nos. 2, 4, and 5 are concerti grossi (i.e., alternating a small group of instruments and the entire ensemble) and the others are concerti ripieni (in which the solo role is taken in turn by members of the ensemble). The fame of No. 5 is well deserved: for the first time ever the harpsichord becomes a solo instrument, and for the first time Bach uses the flute rather than the recorder. No. 2 features a solo group comprising trumpet, recorder, oboe, and violin. In the first movement the solo instruments alternate in different combinations with the string ensemble. The second (slow) movement is a pastorale for recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo, while the last movement features the virtuoso trumpet.

With this concert we present a sampling of Bach's most elaborate and celebratory choral and instrumental writing, with a sprinkling of pastoral and more subdued music.

—Copyright © Alexandra Amati-Camperi, Ph.D., 2006.
Please do not distribute or use these notes without the express written permission of the San Francisco Bach Choir.

Lecturer Alexandra Amati-Camperi is Associate Professor and director of the Music Program at the University of San Francisco. A musicologist specializing in Italian secular music of the Renaissance and in Italian opera, she received her masters and doctoral degrees at Harvard University. Dr. Amati-Camperi was raised in Italy, completing a degree in Linguistics and Slavic Studies at the University of Pisa and studying piano and composition at the Conservatory of Music in Lucca. She has published a number of scholarly books and articles on the Italian madrigal, and is currently working on the critical edition of one of Rossini's earliest operas, La cambiale di matrimonio. She is a professional annotator and lectures for several organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony and the SF Opera.