Sunday Bach - Trinity 24

Laurel Lake, Gardners, PA

Bach wrote two magnificent cantatas for the 24th Sunday after Trinity. We played BWV 60 last year, so this year we move to the other - BWV 26, Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Ah how fleeting, ah how insignificant, Leipzig 1724). This chorale cantata is glorious! Billowing clouds, bubbling brooks, all kinds of musical metaphors in this short but potent cantata. And the irony is that despite the joyous uprush of the music, the cantata and the chorale hymn it's based on is all about how insignificant humans are; the hymn by Michael Franck says: "Ah, how fleeting, ah how insignificant/ is the life of mankind!/ As a mist suddenly appears/ and then quickly disappears again,/ behold! so is our life." And yet it's sung so joyously. Yup, those old Lutherans back then were definitely an odd bunch! But then, look at the music that came out of that oddness. Here's the late Craig Smith of Emmanuel Music on this magnificent music:

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

Today's performance is from a recording by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir under the direction of Ton Koopman. Enjoy!

Photo © 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger