Sunday Bach - 11th Sunday After Trinity

Retired from duty

Bach wrote three cantatas for the 11th Sunday after Trinity, each unique in its own way, but I've chosen his earliest solo cantata, an experiment that turned out so well that he included such in his compositional repertoire from then on. BWV 199, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (My heart swims in blood) is a solo cantata for soprano and was composed in 1714 in Weimar; Bach loved this one so much that he revised it after his promotion to Leipzig, but it's the earlier version that is so beloved of Baroque music enthusiasts. The All of Bach website gives a great description of this cantata:

Although in his younger years Bach was seen mainly as an organ virtuoso, his ambitions really lay elsewhere. His goal was to set up no less than ‘eine regulirte Kirchen-Music zu Gottes Ehren’, as he wrote in 1708 in his letter of resignation to his employers in Mühlhausen. He appeared to get the chance to do so at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. But to his dissatisfaction, the emphasis lay once again on his qualities as an organist and chamber musician in his first six years there. As in Mühlhausen, he hardly got round to composing cantatas, and the words of the works he did write in this period were taken mainly from the Bible, as was customary at the time. 

This changed drastically in 1714, the year in which he was at last promoted by Duke Wilhelm Ernst to Konzertmeister. Bach immediately started using a much more modern style, breaking with the tacit obligation of using only biblical texts and hymns, and with the custom of setting them to music in a fairly formal way. His innovative approach was inspired by the new collections of spiritual poems that were starting to appear here and there, such as those published by chief librarian Georg Christian Lehms from Darmstadt, in 1711. For the musical setting of his heartrending Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut, Bach chose a succession of expressive recitatives and da capo arias in Italian style.

This cantata is about the transformation from supreme sinfulness via penance to redemption. The explicit words that describe the suffering and despair of humanity are made almost physically tangible by the music. In the first tormented recitative, followed by the heartrending da capo lament ‘Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen’, an important role has been set aside for the mournful oboe. It is only after this that Bach allows the faithful to humbly turn to God in a short recitative and once again a da capo aria. The forgiveness bestowed by God is expressed in the hopeful chorale, in which he interweaves the chorale melody for the soprano with an unusual elevated melody for viola solo (a practically unique occurrence in Bach’s music). Only after this does the believer place his soul in the hands of the Lord, accompanied by a jubilant oboe.

This week's performance is a particularly beautiful one by soprano Magdalena Kožená with the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner, who I consider one of the best of the Early Music interpreters. He recorded all three of the cantatas for this Sunday in a single concert, which you can find on YouTube. Enjoy!

Photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger