Sunday Bach - Pentecost

In Bach's time, and indeed through much of the history of the Church, Pentecost was the major festival of the church year, even more so than Christmas and Easter. Why? Because Pentecost marks the birthday of the Church itself, when the disciples, energized and emboldened by the descent of the Holy Spirit, emerged from hiding in the upper room and went out into the world to spread the Good News. These days, and especially here in the United States, it's less so, mostly due to the influence of evangelicalism, which has that uniquely American distrust of any and all institutions and sees Christianity not as the Church Universal but more as a way to advance the "salvation" of the individual; for them Pentecost is a nod to the emergence of the Holy Spirit as another of those personal benefits of being a Christian.

But in Bach's time Pentecost was a three-day celebration of the birth of the Church, and some of Bach's best writing was done for this celebration. For this year's offering, I give you BWV 34, O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe (O eternal fire, o source of love, Leipzig 1727), a truly magnificent and beautiful cantata, the height of Bach's mastery, and absolutely fitting for the celebration of the major festival of the church year. Here's the late Craig Smith of Emmanuel Music on this wonderful cantata:

Bach Cantata BWV 34, "O Ewiges Feuer," is a relatively late work. It began life in the 1730's as a wedding cantata. [Blogger's note: Since Mr. Smith's essay was written it's been found that the cantata for Pentecost is actually the earlier original, and the wedding cantata is the later adaptation.] Certainly the ardent text of the opening chorus is both appropriate to a wedding as well as Pentecost. The beginning chorus is one of Bach's great choruses with trumpets. Bach never wrote a work in which the trumpets were more perfectly integrated into the choral and orchestral texture. The fugue on the text "Entzünde die Herze" is one of the most wonderful and passionate of all the Bach choral fugues. After a tenor recitative, the alto aria with flutes and muted strings is an amazing contrast. The gently rocking melody with its rich contrapuntal underpinning is magical in its floating harmony and its evocation of the "floating spirits." A bass recitative leads forcefully into the great choral exhortation for peace in Israel. The joyous quick music that follows brings the very great cantata to a rousing close. 

© Craig Smith

Today's performance is from a 1975 Archiv recording by the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra under the direction of Karl Richter. Enjoy!

Photo © 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger