1714-17 cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the ducal court in
Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The composition of cantatas for the Schlosskirche (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to Konzertmeister in March 1714.
[1]
Church cantatas
From 1714 to 1717 Bach was commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the
liturgical year .
[2]
The first version of
Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich , BWV 1136 (formerly
BWV Anh. 209 ), a lost cantata the libretto of which was written by
Georg Christian Lehms and published in 1711 for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, may have been composed in Weimar.
[3]
Before 1714
Apart from some Weimar cycle cantatas which may have been composed before they were adopted into that cycle (
BWV 18 ,
21 ,
54 and
199 ):
Lost council election cantatas for
Mühlhausen :
1709: second council election cantata for Mühlhausen,
BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192)
[4]
1710: third council election cantata for Mühlhausen,
BWV 1138.2 (formerly BWV
deest )
[5]
Doubtful work:
Weimar cycle
The expression "Weimar cycle" has been used for the cantatas composed in Weimar from 1714 (which form the bulk of extant cantatas composed before Bach's Leipzig time).
[7]
[8]
Cantatas
54 and
199 were performed within the cycle but possibly composed earlier.
BWV 18 and
21
[9] may also have been composed before 1714.
Annunciation (Mariae Verkündigung):
Himmelskönig, sei willkommen , BWV 182 (performed on Palm Sunday 25 March 1714 )
Jubilate (third Sunday after Easter):
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen , BWV 12 (22 April 1714 )
Pentecost:
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 (Weimar version in C major: 20 May 1714 )
Third Sunday after Trinity:
Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis , BWV 21 (C minor, Weimar: 17 June 1714 ; D minor, Köthen/Hamburg: 1720)
[10]
Oculi (Third Sunday of Lent):
Widerstehe doch der Sünde , BWV 54 (4 March 1714?)
11th Sunday after Trinity:
Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut , BWV 199 (12 August 1714 : Weimar version in C minor; restaged in Köthen in a version in D minor)
First Sunday of Advent:
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland , BWV 61 (2 December 1714 )
Christmas
Christen, ätzet diesen Tag , BWV 63 (25 December 1714 )
[11]
Sunday after Christmas:
Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn , BWV 152 (30 December 1714 )
Sexagesima (Second Sunday before Lent):
Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt , BWV 18 (early version in G minor,
Chorton : 24 February 1715 )
[12]
Oculi (Third Sunday of Lent):
Alles, was von Gott geboren , BWV 80a (24 March 1715 or 15 March 1716 ; music lost)
[13]
Easter:
Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret , BWV 31 (Weimar version: 21 April 1715 )
Cantate (fourth Sunday after Easter):
Leb ich, oder leb ich nicht , BWV Anh. 191 (19 May 1715 – music lost, extant libretto by
Salomon Franck published Weimar 1715)
[14]
[15]
Trinity :
O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad , BWV 165 (16 June 1715 )
Fourth Sunday after Trinity:
Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe , BWV 185 (14 July 1715 )
20th Sunday after Trinity:
Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe , BWV 162 (25 October 1716 or possibly 3 November 1715 )
23rd Sunday after Trinity:
Nur jedem das Seine , BWV 163 (24 November 1715 )
Fourth Sunday of Advent:
Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn , BWV 132 (22 December 1715 )
Second Sunday after Epiphany:
Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155 (19 January 1716 )
16th Sunday after Trinity:
Komm, du süße Todesstunde , BWV 161 (6 October 1715 or 27 September 1716 )
Second Sunday of Advent:
Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV 70a (6 December 1716 ; in 1723 expanded to
BWV 70 for Trinity XXVI)
Third Sunday of Advent:
Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht , BWV 186a (13 December 1716 ; in 1723 expanded to BWV 186 for
Trinity VII )
Fourth Sunday of Advent:
Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben , BWV 147a (20 December 1716 ; in 1723 expanded to BWV 147 for
Visitation )
Other sacred music and cantatas of Bach's Weimar period
In the
Bach-Jahrbuch of 2015,
Peter Wollny wrote that Bach likely encountered several of the old-school
contrapuntal sacred compositions, which were going to play a seminal role in the composer's output of the 1740s, for the first time in Weimar.
[16] Among these compositions are,
Passions
Passions performed in the Weimar period, however not considered to be
passion cantatas , thus not generally listed in the Weimar (cantata) cycle:
Strophic aria, BWV 1127
In 1713 Bach composed a sacred aria, "
Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn ", for a secular occasion, the birthday of
William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar .
[24]
[25]
Secular cantatas
Bach composed the first version of his
secular cantata
Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd , BWV 208 (Hunting Cantata ) for performance on 23 February 1713 .
[26]
References
^ Koster, Jan.
"Weimar 1708–1717" . let.rug.nl. Retrieved 16 December 2011 .
^
Dürr, Alfred (2006).
The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text . Translated by
Richard D. P. Jones . Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-929776-4 .
pp. 13–20
^
"Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich BWV 1136; BWV Anh. I 209" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2020-07-21.
^
"Zweite Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.1; BWV Anh. 192" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2018-08-07.
^
"Dritte Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.2" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2018-07-31.
^
"Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 143" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2019-05-14.
^
Joshua Rifkin (2001). Liner notes to Three Weimar Cantatas , Dorian 93231
^
Richard D. P. Jones (2006).
The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach , Volume I: 1695-1717: Music to Delight the Spirit .
Oxford University Press .
ISBN
9780191513244 ,
p. 212
^ Work
00024 at
Bach Digital
^ Works
00024 and
00025 at
Bach Digital
^ Work
00079 at
Bach Digital
^ Work
00021 at
Bach Digital
^ Work
00100 at
Bach Digital
^ BWV2a ,
p. 454
^ Work
01502 ) at
Bach Digital
^
Wollny, Peter (2015).
"Vom "apparat der auserleßensten kirchen Stücke" zum "Vorrath an Musicalien, von J. S. Bach und andern berühmten Musicis": Quellenkundliche Ermittlungen zur frühen Thüringer Bach-Überlieferung und zu einigen Weimarer Schülern und Kollegen Bachs" .
Bach-Jahrbuch 2015 .
Bach-Jahrbuch (in German). Vol. 101.
Neue Bachgesellschaft . Leipzig:
Evangelische Verlagsanstalt . pp. 99–154.
doi :
10.13141/bjb.v2015 .
ISBN
978-3-374-04320-0 .
ISSN
0084-7682 – via
Qucosa [
de ] .
^
"Missa sine nomine BWV deest (NBA Serie II:1)" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2021-03-05.
^
"Missa "Ecce sacerdos magnus" " .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2021-03-05.
^
"Magnificat in C BWV Anh. 30" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2021-03-04.
^
"Missa (Kyrie and Gloria), G BWV Anh. 167" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 2021-03-04.
^
"Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn (aria) BWV 1127" .
Bach Digital . Leipzig:
Bach Archive ; et al. 30 March 2020.
^
Maul, Michael (2005).
" 'Alles mit Gott und nicht ohn' ihn' – Eine neu aufgefundene Aria von Johann Sebastian Bach" . In
Wollny, Peter (ed.).
Bach-Jahrbuch 2005 [Bach Yearbook 2005 ].
Bach-Jahrbuch (in German). Vol. 91.
Neue Bachgesellschaft . Leipzig:
Evangelische Verlagsanstalt (published 2006). pp. 7–34.
doi :
10.13141/bjb.v2005 .
ISBN
3-374-02301-0 .
ISSN
0084-7682 .
^ BDW
00261 at
Bach Digital