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| The Bittersweet berries in the wetland are starting to pop out of their green husks |
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| The Goldenrod is in full bloom and attracting lots of visitors, like this Paper Wasp |
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| An Autumn leaf floating on the north duck pond |
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| Cabbage White butterflies were all over the Daisy Fleabane up on the meadow |
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| A view across the meadow to the mountains to the north |
After the first two cantata cycles in Leipzig, Bach became discouraged with the level of players and singers at his disposal. More and more frequently he wrote prominent parts in his cantatas for organ, knowing that his son Carl Philip Emmanuel would play them well and emphasized solo voices over the chorus. Today’s cantata is a prime example. It begins with an arrangement of the first movement of the E major harpsichord concerto transposed to D. The solo part is given to the organ and the original string orchestra is enriched by two oboes and English Horn. The sung portion of the cantata begins with an extended arioso for alto with the continuo instruments. The opening line of text “Gott soll allein” functions as a litany through out both this movement and the following delightful aria with organ obbligato. After a brief recitative the strings of the orchestra reappear in a marvelous adaptation of the second movement of the E major harpsichord concerto. Once again the organ takes the solo part with the voice part laid on top of it. What is fascinating is Bach's enrichment of the harmony in order to color the text particularly the word "stirb”(to die). After another brief recitative the work ends with an harmonization of one of the most beautiful chorale tunes, “Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist.”© Craig Smith
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| A fallen Black Walnut leaf along the Dykeman Walking Trail in the wetland |
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| The wetland is starting to show a tinge of seasonal color |
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| White Wood Asters in the wetland woods |
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| Calico Asters by the north duck pond. Yes, that's a *#$@*! mosquito in the lower right corner |
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| An unidentified small moth up in the meadow |
If you know the prelude and fugue in c minor BWV 546 for organ, you may very well recognise the opening movement of this cantata. A lot of the material from the organ work has gone into fashioning this mighty choral movement. The text is from the very final part of the Gospel: Whoever himself exalteth shall be abased and he who gains humility shall be exalted over. Stand back and admire this mighty fugal work!I have to disagree with Mr. Crouch on one item in his critique; he complains that the soprano aria is too long, but for me, it depends on the soprano. For today's performance I've chosen a recording by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir under the direction of Ton Koopman, and the soprano featured is Sandrine Piau, whose voice is not tiring at all. Listen and see if you agree.
After the opening chorus Bach immediately cuts down the scale of things with a very simple, sparely accompanied soprano aria. The aria, at nearly ten minutes, is very long and you may well feel, as I do, that it outstays its welcome. The recitative is followed by a bass aria that is far more interesting. There's a very genial accompaniment from the oboe and violins that lightens the mood, as is appropriate to the more positive message of the libretto. The cantata ends with a straightforward chorale setting.
Copyright © 1996 & 1998, Simon Crouch
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| A Dwarf Bumblebee gathering goodies in a Squash blossom |
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| White Snakeroot growing along the Dykeman Walking Trail |
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| Arrowwood Viburnum with berries along the Dykeman Walking Trail. When the berries ripen they'll be a dark blue/black. |
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| A juvenile Great Blue Heron by the north duck pond |
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| The resident pair of Muscovy ducks by the north duck pond |
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| A faded Painted Lady butterfly on Snakeroot up on the meadow |
After the extraordinary concentration and consistency of effort in Bach’s first two years in Leipzig, his output becomes spottier. There are, after the first two years in Leipzig, no more complete yearly cycles. The pieces that are from the third and fourth years, however, are in no way inferior to the dazzling works from the first years. Our cantata is from the fourth year of Bach’s Leipzig tenure. It is in some ways quite experimental. Stylistically the chorus is a curious combination of Bach’s first tentative forays into the gallant style. At the same time, for all of the sighing grid of the strings and the ornamental, very detailed oboe parts, the affect is similar to the most serious of the earlier pieces. The chorale tune is sung block style by the chorus with trope commentaries by the various soloists. While this technique will be familiar to cantata listeners from interior movements in earlier cantatas, this method first appears here in an opening chorus.After a tenor recitative, the alto sings a compelling aria with accompaniment of English horn and organ. By this time in Bach’s Leipzig tenure, the composer had become discouraged with the level of instrumental playing available to him. More and more he writes obbligati and prominent parts for organ, the instrument that he was most confident would be well played because his son Carl Philip Emmanuel was by this time old enough to participate in the cantatas. The sparkling organ texture surrounding the melancholy English horn and the expressive alto voice makes for a marvelous and unique texture. The soprano recitative that follows is operatic in character with the strings illustrating the birds’ wings. The bass aria with strings is very much in the mode of the most serious arias of the contemporaneous St. Matthew Passion. Two characters, a lyrical sighing line tinged with regret, and an agitated militaristic string figure, illustrate the conflict between heaven and the tumultuous world. The chorale, a five-voice setting, is the only chorale harmonization in all of the cantatas not by Bach. Here he takes over a 1682 harmonization by Johannes Rosenmüller. The slightly archaic harmony and the touching movement to triple meter when talking of Heaven is a perfect close to this really remarkable masterpiece.
Today's performance is from a recording by the Collegium Vocale Gent under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Enjoy!© Craig Smith
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| Branch Creek is running full! |
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| Gum Run is full, too |
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| Entering the park on the Dykeman Walking Trail |
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| Looking out into the wetland |
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| The north duck pond |
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| Looking east across the upland meadow |
The beautiful passage about the servant of two masters and the lilies of the field is the Gospel for the 15th Sunday after Trinity. Its feeling of warmth and abundance permeates the gorgeous opening chorus of Cantata BWV 99. This chorus overlays the wonderful chorale tune ”Was Gott tut das ist Wohlgetan” upon a concerto movement for flute, oboe d'amore and strings. The lilting tune sets the tone for the whole chorus. The whole movement has a marvelous sense of generosity and openness. Just the first violin line of the first cadence illustrates this. The actual chorale is a big arching tune, quite different than the stepwise motion that we are used to in most of the chorales. There are too many felicities of detail to enumerate here, but one should notice the structure of the opening. Strings play an opening tutti for 16 bars. The oboe d'amore enters in the seventeenth bar with the theme, the flute playing a bubbling obbligato. One would expect the chorale to enter either with the concerto soloists or on, perhaps the second phrase. Instead the first entrance is put on the cadence of the first solo concerto phrase, where one least expects it. The actual treatment of the chorale is significant. The soprano in long notes always begins alone with the bottom three voices imitating at a respectful distance. Certainly Bach hears the soprano here as the voice of God, leading the way for the poor mortal altos, tenors and basses. The final tutti, instead of being a repetition of the opening is even more extravagant in its sheer beauty. Bars 106-109 will suffice [#1 106-109 score]Most of the cantatas that we have been dealing with have begun with a conflict and ended up, some of them rather near the end, with a resolution. Our cantata here begins with great faith and confidence. Both of the subsequent concerted pieces, an aria and a duet have darker sides, although they are composed with the lightest of touches. The tenor aria with flute (#3) has passing chromatic passages and some quite daring harmony. It retains however a mood of quiet confidence. Notice how all of the vocal lines are literally turned upside down in the B section, as if one were seeing the situation from God's point of view.
As marvelous as this aria is it is the soprano-alto duet with flute and oboe d'amore obbligatti that brings the cantata to its climax Again the first thing that one notices is the lightness of touch. The opening continuo line moves with the quietest of steps [#5 bar continuo bars 1-2]. The flute and oboe d'amore play a haunting little theme in canon with the most delicate of chromatics. Although the text sung by the singers is about the “Kreuzes Bitterkeiten” It is clear that this is but a dim memory. The whole tone is of an elevated state of grace. How different are the long melismas of the two singers than the rather dogged ones three weeks earlier in the soprano-alto duet of Cantata BWV 113. Here, they have a kind of shimmering quality that illuminates the text like a lantern in the night. One is surprised that the duet is not a da capo until it becomes clear that the final chorale is the resolution and that its first line of text is almost identical with the last line of text in the a section of the duet. Surely this is one of the most perfect cantatas in the whole literature.© Craig Smith
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| Yellow Ironweed, aka Wingstem, along the Dykeman Walking Trail by Gum Run |
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| The Jewelweed is prolific in the Dykeman Spring wetland this year |
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| There's lots of Goldenrod this year, too. Get out the antihistamine! |
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| Yet another pond reflections shot |
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| Scarlet Pimpernel up on the meadow |
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| The view north from the top of the meadow |
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| This Groundhog sentinel at the east end of the meadow saw me out of the park |
The pairing of the rather preachy passage from Galatians and the parable of the ten lepers from Luke at first seems an odd one. Jesus’ point – that none of us appreciate enough the gifts of God, since only the Samaritan thanks him for being cured – is really in line with the idea that living by the spirit is the only way to avoid sin in our lives. What is for most people the “straight and narrow” clearly means to Jesus the fullness of all experience.
That sense of abundance is evident throughout Cantata BWV 17. The opening chorus, based upon the last verse of Psalm 50, is one of the richest and most brilliant of Bach’s choral fugues. There is nary a hint that this verse comes at the end of one of the severest and most unremittingly stern Psalms. The long opening ritornello is so lacking in profile, really only a little figure that is played in sequence over and over, that the entrance of the big high-flying tenor theme in bar 28 comes as a relief. Verticality is established on the words, “thanks” and “offering.” Horizontal writing prevails in the word “praise.” These two styles of melisma are identifiable throughout the cantata. The minimalist introduction is, of course, carefully calculated by Bach to bring this bravura choral theme into high relief, We have seen how the third Jahrgang is notable for its marvelously integrated choral fugues. Here there is no real necessity for that kind of integration; the choral music is so much more in the foreground than the orchestration. This is a fugue that neither has nor needs elaborate stretti or other contrapuntal wizardry. The working out is simple and straightforward, the episodes clear, even boxy. It makes its effect by brilliance and a wonderful rhythmic drive that propels it in a compellingly clear manner through the final cadence.The lofty secco alto recitative has a grandeur that is in opposition to the humility of the following aria. It is interesting that all of the recitatives in this cantata have a tone noticeably absent in the concerted music. The rising scale passages that we heard throughout the first part of the chorus are again evident in the soprano aria. The two solo violins with the child soprano voice gives the aria a miniature quality in contrast to the opening chorus, but much of the material is basically the same. There is lightness, almost humor, here in the childish efforts at praise.The tenor recitative is unique in all of the cantatas in that it sets part of the Gospel as a pure secco recitative, no arioso, no string accompaniment. The tenor aria again emphasizes abundance. The main theme is cut from the same cloth as the chorus and the soprano aria, but is enriched by a detailed and interesting bass line. The shape of the melody is unusually specific to the character of the words. “Übermass” is set refulgently, the “offering” is horizontal. For all of the very detailed dissection of the text throughout the aria, this distinction of the two types of writing remains. There is a wonderful plasticity of phrasing; often the voice goes its own way against the more rigorous orchestra.
Bach finds remarkable richness of harmony in the long and very diatonic choral “Nun lob mein Seel, den Herren.” The chromatic bass line in the last two phrases in particular is surprising and satisfying.© Craig Smith
