Sunday Bach - Trinity 26

Blow the fanfare, trumpets! Rise up to the heavens, choir! Christmas is coming!

Heh, heh! Not exactly what those Carolina Wrens were singing, but it's the theme for the 26th Sunday after Trinity. Technically, the theme for this Sunday is the second coming of Christ, but in terms of the liturgical calendar it's the last Sunday before Advent and the Christmas season, and so serves as an announcement that the celebration of the first coming is about to begin. Bach only wrote one cantata for this Sunday, but it's a real crowd-rouser - BWV 70, Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!, Leipzig 1723). The first version of this chorale cantata was written in Weimar in 1719 for the second Sunday in Advent, but since cantatas weren't performed in Advent in Leipzig, Bach updated and expanded it for this Sunday in his first year in that city. I can't help but think that the Leipzig city fathers were well pleased with this; it is absolutely glorious! Here's musicologist Nicholas Anderson on this magnificent cantata (from the liner notes of an Erato recording):

"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.

Today's performance is from the 1978 Archiv recording by the Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir under the direction of Karl Richter. Enjoy!

Photo © 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger