Sunday Bach - Lent 4

Morning Fog, 1/13/2013

We're back to Sundays in Lent for which Bach wrote no cantatas, so we're looking at cantatas with no specific date in the liturgical calendar. Since Lent is a period of penitence, I decided on this particular penitential cantata - BWV 131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir  (From the depth I cry, Lord, to thee; Mühlhausen 1707). This is Bach's earliest known cantata, written when he was the 22 year old organist for the church at Mühlhausen, as a penitential cantata in the wake of a fire that destroyed a large part of the town. As an early work it shows Bach's musical influences, particularly that of Buxtehüde. Here's Simon Crouch on the subject:

Cantata 131 is the earliest surviving of Bach's cantatas and may indeed (according to Alfred Durr) be the earliest cantata that he composed. It is certainly the earliest autograph of a complete major work by Bach to have survived until today. It was apparently written for a penitential service in Mühlhausen shortly after a major fire had destroyed a large part of the town in 1707.

Judging from the very opening of the sinfonia of Aus der Tiefe Bach had very early on mastered the use of the plaintive oboe figure! The sinfonia leads straight into the very beautiful first choral movement which itself goes straight into the bass aria in which the chorus sings a chorale backdrop. In fact, there's a very obvious structure in this cantata of three choral pillars separated by two chorale based solos. So after another choral section the excellent tenor aria has the same form as the earlier bass aria with the chorus providing accompaniment and the chorus has the final word.

Copyright © 1996 & 1998, Simon Crouch

Today's performance is from a recording by the Collegium Vocale under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Enjoy!

Photo © 2013 by A. Roy Hilbinger