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| Blow the fanfare, trumpets! Rise up to the heavens, choir! Christmas is coming! |
"Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet!" (BWV 70) is a parody of a Weimar cantata intended for the Second Sunday in Advent. For performance in Leipzig on the 26th Sunday after Trinity, 1723, Bach added four recitatives and an additional chorale (which concludes Part One of the Leipzig version). Since the Gospel reading for each of these Sundays concerns the Last Judgement and the coming of Christ, Bach was able to retain the original text by the Weimar poet, Salomo Franck, with complete propriety.
The opening "da capo" chorus is immediately arresting for its trumpet calls, heralding the Last Judgement, and for the declamatory character of the vocal writing. This is more subtle than may at first appear, for Bach skilfully, and to great effect, highlights the contrasting images implied by "Wachet" (Watch), on the one hand and "Betet" (Pray), on the other. The oboe, strings and trumpet of this resonant opening movement are retained for the accompanied bass recitative, in arioso style. It pronounces fearfully on the fate of hardened sinners but gives way to more restrained and contemplative emotions which prevail throughout the remainder of Part One of the work. This consists of an alto aria with cello obbligato and continuo, two short unaccompanied tenor recitatives, a soprano aria with strings, and a verse from the hymn, "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele" (1620) with instruments doubling the four-part vocal texture.
Part Two of the Cantata begins with a tenor aria accompanied by oboe and strings. This wonderfully lyrical piece, with its expansive, cantabile melody and expressive octave intervals, first heard in the second bar of the ritornello, must rank among Bach's finest achievements in aria form. But its meditative spirit is shattered by the uncompromising seventh-chord intrusion of the following accompanied bass recitative, impetuously recalling the horrors of the Day of Judgement. This vividly pictorial section is lent further colour by the trumpet which intones the melody of the hymn, "Es ist gewißlich an der Zeit". The last aria is for bass. The structure is unusual since it not only dispenses with a ritornello but is also cast in three parts without "da capo". In the opening and closing "adagio" sections, which provide the framework, the text anticipates Heavenly joy. Here the voice is accompanied by continuo alone. The contrast between these and the centrally placed "Presto" is both stark and startling as Bach, for the last time, depicts the apocalypse with trumpet calls, agitated string passages and declamatory vocal writing. The Cantata ends with a verse from Christian Keymann's hymn, "Meinem Jesum laß ich nicht" (1658), in which the voices are accompanied by the full instrumental complement, with trumpet and oboe augmenting the chorale melody.
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| Along the Dykeman Walking Trail |
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| In the Dykeman Spring wetland |
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| Where the Dykeman Spring creek passes under the railroad tracks |
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| The creek at the red bridge |
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| The north duck pond |
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| Leaving the park at the east end of the meadow |
Cantata BWV 116 Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ was composed in Leipzig in 1724. The section from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is one of the most radiant passages from all of the Epistles, a vision of paradise that comes to the blessed. Bach chooses the perfect chorale to illustrate these two points of view, for the text of “Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ” is remarkably of two minds about the Last Judgment. In the very first verse the joyful and positive picture of the Prince of Peace degenerates into a cry for help. Is there something disappointing about this chorus? It is a musically euphonious and wonderfully energetic piece. There is great profile and an interesting shape to it, with simple block statements of the chorale phrases alternating with fugal settings of the bottom three voices underpinning the long notes of the sopranos in the 3rd and 4th phrases. All of this would seem fine if the rest of the cantata didn’t live up to a much higher standard. In fact with the trio at the end we have one of the loftiest peaks of Bach’s inspiration, a major theological statement that separates him from virtually all other artists. Why does this opening chorus not measure up? One possible answer that the character of the opening chorus is not what it seems. If one sees those block chorale phrases and the general energy as militaristic – Christ as the soldier, not always the comforter – then the progression of isolation in the alto aria to supplication in the trio becomes more understandable.
The alto aria, with oboe d’amore obbligato, begins with a tortured, jagged melody all the more painful because it is circular and seemingly in a never-ending series of sequences. The continuo seems to ratchet up the thumbscrews. When the voice enters with “Ach” it is unable to finish its sentence. Gradually the horror is spoken and the first 2 lines of text are declaimed. It is interesting that Bach keeps the same kind of declamation for the next lines of text, as if the “Ach” was always in the back of his mind.
Bach reminds us that the chorale described the “Prince of Peace” by using the first phrase as a bass in the tenor recitative. It has the inadvertent effect of reminding us of the “traveling” music that Mozart often introduces into his Italian recitatives to denote a passage of time. This has the same effect here, for there is an enormous spiritual gulf between the stuttering, horrified alto aria and the unearthly calm of the trio.
All three of the trios written for the cantatas in the 2nd Jahrgang have a special quality. They are obviously ensembles, but they have no sense of dialogue or love duets that we find in the duets. At the same time they are more personal than the choruses. Our trio here begins calmly, six rhythmically identical phrases each without a downbeat, each like a soft breath of air, followed by a cadence. The three voices enter one by one. One notices that the tenor part is actually identical to the continuo introduction except that it provides downbeats. It actually makes phrases out of a neutral pattern of notes. The imitation of the three voices is very sophisticated. The text underlay is interesting. Bach seizes upon the word “Geduld” ‘patience’ and repeats it over and over. The third line of text intensifies the longing and the melancholy of the music and makes a modulation to the dominant. After a relentlessly contrapuntal texture, the very personal and heartbreaking confession that our sins broke your (Jesus) heart, and that the pain of Adam made you come into this world, is set in blocks. Very close and rich faux bourdon harmony personalizes this whole middle section. The work is in a very complex da capo form. The whole first 39 bars are repeated and a long section using the third line of text is newly composed to end the work in the tonic. The emotional distance traveled from the alto aria to this point is almost unequaled in all of Bach. The renewed ferocity of the string entrance in the alto recitative almost makes the trio seem like a circumscribed event. The effect is very like the renewing of the action after the soprano aria “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” in the St. Matthew Passion. The final chorale has the same strange emotional neutrality of the opening chorus.
© Craig Smith, adapted by Ryan Turner
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| The gazebo across the street from me |
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| Branch Creek at King St. |
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| Entering the park on the Dykeman Walking Trail |
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| Snow on the trail |
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| A scene in another part of the park |
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| The creek looking south on the red bridge |
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| The creek looking north on the new bridge |
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| Waiting for Spring |
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| The woods are starting to look a little ragged |
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| A stand of Maples up by the railroad tracks |
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| Along the Dykeman Walking Trail |
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| This pretty little girl seemed to want to have her picture taken |
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| A Maple sapling by the north duck pond |
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| Timber Hill seems to loom over the neighborhood on Mainsville Rd. Taken from up on the meadow. |
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| Laurel Lake, Gardners, PA |
BWV 26 is a short, yet compelling masterpiece with a strong sense of “last things.” The chorale tune, “Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig,” is unusual. In six phrases, the tune is boxy, limited to one melodic register and magnificent. There is something so eminently right about the character of the tune with its content. The first verse goes thus: “Ah how fleeting, Ah how nothing, is the life of mortals! Like a mist that quickly rises, and is quickly vanished. So is our life. Behold!” Bach is remarkably consistent in his treatment of this text. In the Orgelbüchlein setting, running chords punctuated by an angry and repetitive bass line underpin the short punchy phrases. Those same scales are found in the opening movement of the cantata, but are here made even more aggressive with the punched eighth notes of the winds and strings. Virtually no bar is without the scale passages. In addition another little figure is passed around, further punctuating the scales. The bass line is either limited to the scales or creates aggressive sequences that further underpin the anger. For all of its speed, this is an extremely weighty movement with three very active and honking oboes. The chorus part is equally impressive. The soprano punches out the little phrases in half notes the other three voices shout eighth notes underneath, sometimes in block chords, but as often or not in octaves. The whole chorus is about 2 minutes and 15 seconds long.The tenor aria, as befits the text, is more liquid, but if anything, even speedier than the opening chorus. It is one of the most virtuoso arias in all of Bach. If the melismas in the A section seem fleet, look at what happens in the B section as rapid repeated sixteenth notes of the ‘separating drops of water plunge in to the abyss.’ The orchestra sonority is ingenious, solo violin with flute, often playing in unison, often playing in canon. The resultant sound is glassy and harmonically slippery. The secco recitative for the alto begins with an elaborate melisma, as if Bach has some compunction to keep the speed going.
In the bass aria the first effect is of anger, not speed, although the voice part goes into hair-raisingly fast divisions. The ‘searing lusts’ and ‘earthly treasures’ of the text call to mind Jesus’ warning in today’s gospel reading from Mark. At the end of the B section there is a jackbooted, stomping quality to the three oboes tooting out their square theme. It is hard to think of any Bach piece that rails against its fate quite as much as this. The little soprano recitative tries to give a note of benediction, but the foursquare, loud harmonization of the final chorale effectively squelches that. Yet the final line of the chorale offers some thread of consolation.
© Craig Smith, adapted by Ryan Turner
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| The typical Central PA farm scene along Britton Rd |
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| More scenery along Britton Rd., with Fall foliage and the mountain |
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| An interesting "tree garden" along East Creek Rd. |
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| Approaching the bridge |
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| The bridge's bones revealed in the interior |
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| A very scenic decorative pond on a farm on Fox Hill Rd. |
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| A scene along Fox Hill Rd. |
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| The last stretch - heading home on the Rail Trail |
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| Looking across Laurel Lake from the beach on the north shore |
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| Looking across the lake from the south shore |
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| Another south shore view |
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| Looking east toward the dam |
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| Looking west from the dam |
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| Looking north across the Cumberland Valley from King's Gap |
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| Another view across the valley |
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| One more look across the valley |
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| Branch Creek is running fast and full with all this rain |
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| Fall foliage brightens a rainy day on King St. near CVS |
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| Burd Run is also pretty full |
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| Heading east out of town on Rt. 11 |
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