Sunday Bach - Advent 2

Bach wrote very few cantatas for Advent, mainly because in Leipzig, where he lived and worked from 1723 to his death, concerted music was banned during Advent and Lent. Luckily,  he wrote several in Weimar before being hired in Leipzig. This week we have one of those - BWV 70a, Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!, Weimar 1716). After he went to Leipzig and found he couldn't use it for Advent, Bach expanded it and used it for the last Sunday in the Trinity period, and the original manuscript has since been lost. Nowadays when anyone uses it for Advent they merely skip the movements written to expand it. Here's the late Craig Smith of Emmanuel music on this cantata:

Today’s cantata, BWV 70a, was composed in Weimar in 1716.  For subsequent Leipzig performances in 1723 and 1731, Bach added four recitatives and a chorale, thus making it appropriate for the Sunday before Advent.  BWV 70a  concerns the Day of Last Judgement as depicted today’s gospel of Luke. The cantata opens with a rousing chorus warning of the last judgment with a prominent "last trumpet" obbilgato. After the rhythmic surge of this opening chorus that never really abates, the veiled quality of the alto aria with its mournful cello obbligato is an enormous contrast.  The overall texture, imposed upon a ritornello pattern in the cello, is ternary in which the alto asks a question, delivers stern warnings, and then combines them. The nearly Handelian soprano aria with strings has surprising vehemence and real spite.  Note the sweeping violin scales, sometimes rising sometimes falling. They may very well suggest the figure of Jesus amongst the clouds or, indeed the acts of defiance against those who deride us. The friendly tenor aria opens with a long ritornello that might mislead the listener to think is the beginning of a sinfonia. However, this joyous melody is taken over by the tenor echoing the positivity of the opening chorus, making it seem as if the tide has turned. The bass aria is an island of quiet, interrupted by last judgment music. The bass’s declamatory, crushing phrases are matched only by the sawing strings and trumpet urgings and the hair-raising melisma on Trümmern----the wreckage of the very universe.  The violence subsides on an unfinished dominant chord, leading us to a reprise of the original vocal material. The quiet close to the aria brings us to the heavenly seven-voice harmonization of the chorale, Meinem Jesum lass ich nicht.  Through the addition of independent string parts, Bach creates a halo of sound around the voices, oboe and trumpet, reinforcing the hymn tune.

© Craig Smith, adapted and edited by Ryan Turner

Today's performance is by the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. Enjoy!

Photo © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger