Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150
Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich | |
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BWV 150 | |
Church cantata by J. S. Bach | |
Bible text | Psalms 25:1–2, 5, 15 |
Performed | Possibly 1707[a] |
Movements | 7 |
Vocal | SATB choir and solo |
Instrumental |
|
Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (For Thee, O Lord, I long),
Many scholars think that it may be the earliest extant cantata by Bach, possibly composed in Arnstadt in 1707.
History and text
Bach's original score is lost. The music survives in a copy made by C F Penzel, one of Bach's last pupils, after the composer's death.[3] The date of composition is not known, and sources differ as to when and where Bach composed the work. However, the balance of opinion has moved towards a date at the beginning of Bach's career. It is not currently in dispute that it is one of Bach's earliest surviving cantatas. Suggestions for the place of composition have been:
- Weimar, where Bach worked from 1708. The conductor and academic Jonathan Green dates the work c. 1708–1710; the Bach scholar William G. Whittaker dates it c. 1712.[4][5]
- Zwang catalogue (which attempts to list the cantatas chronologically) dated it as the sixth of the surviving cantatas by Bach, and placed Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131, as the earliest. Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir is known to have been composed in Mühlhausen in 1707/1708.[6]
- Arnstadt, where Bach worked until his move to Mühlhausen in the summer of 1707. Late 20th-century scholarship suggests Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich could have been composed at Arnstadt.[3]
The Bach scholar Andreas Glöckner argued in 1988 that the cantata may have been composed in Arnstadt.[7] The scholar Hans-Joachim Schulze identified in 2010 a remarkable acrostic in the concluding four movements (which he described in the 2010 Bach-Jahrbuch, the journal of the Neue Bachgesellschaft). Adjusting for transposition errors by the copyist, the initial letters should spell DOKTOR CONRAD MECKBACH and plausibly therefore the work was composed to mark this Mühlhausen councillor's 70th birthday in April 1707. On this basis the cantata may date from Bach's time in Arnstadt. Possibly the cantata was heard a few weeks later after the end of Lent, and thus it may have formed a test-piece for the Mühlhausen appointment, composed in Arnstadt with Bach's supporter Meckbach in mind.[8][9]
The cantata is, as
The
The cantata was first published in 1884 in the
Structure and scoring
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements, an opening instrumental sinfonia and four choral movements interspersed by only two arias. He scored it for four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, and a small Baroque instrumental ensemble of two violins (Vl), bassoon (obbligato) (Fg) and basso continuo.[13] The duration of the cantata is about 17 minutes.[7]
In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the
No. | Title | Text | Type | Vocal | Bassoon | Strings | Key | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sinfonia | Fg | 2Vl | B minor | ||||
2 | Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich | Psalm 25:1–2 | Chorus | SATB | Fg | 2Vl | B minor | |
3 | Doch bin und bleibe ich vergnügt | anon. | Aria | S | 2Vl | B minor | ||
4 | Leite mich in deiner Wahrheit | Psalm 25:5 | Chorus | SATB | Fg | 2Vl | B minor | |
5 | Zedern müssen von den Winden | anon. | Aria | A T B | Fg | D major | 3/4 | |
6 | Meine Augen sehen stets zu dem Herrn | Psalm 25:15 | Chorus | SATB | Fg | 2Vl | D major | 6/8 |
7 | Meine Tage in dem Leide | anon. | Chorus | SATB | Fg | 2Vl | B minor | 3/2 |
Music
The work begins with a sinfonia and then alternates choral movements and arias. There are no recitatives, no da capo repeats, and there is no chorale tune, unusually for Bach's cantatas. Bach makes extensive use of choral fugues and imitative polyphony, often shifting the tempo and character of the music within movements very quickly to accommodate a new musical idea with each successive phrase of text.
The sinfonia and the opening choral movement are both based on the
The first chorus on the beginning of Psalm 25, "Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. Mein Gott, ich hoffe auf dich." (Lord, I long for you. My God, I hope in you.),[2] is "waywardly constructed despite its relative brevity". It is episodic, emphasizing a descending chromatic scale motif. The musicologist Tadashi Isoyama notes "the graphically chromatic phrases of the opening sinfonia and the following chorus; these are evocative of the suffering of the world".[3]
The following soprano aria, "Doch bin und bleibe ich vergnügt" (Yet I am and remain content),[2] is also brief but includes significant word painting.[15]
The fourth movement, "Leite mich in deiner Wahrheit und lehre mich" (Lead me in your Truth and teach me),[2] is another short and episodic chorus, divided into four sections.[15]
Movement five, "Zedern müssen von den Winden oft viel Ungemach empfinden" (Cedars must, before the winds,
often feel much hardship),
The penultimate movement, "Meine Augen sehen stets zu dem Herrn", features a "celestial haze" of instruments as part of a complex texture.[15] It is in binary form and modulates from D major through B minor to B major.[16]
The final movement, "Meine Tage In Dem Leide", is a
Selected recordings
- Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, dir. Fritz Werner. Les Grandes Cantates de J.S. Bach Vol. 28. Erato, 1973.
- Knabenchor Hannover, Collegium Vocale Gent, Leonhardt-Consort, dir. Gustav Leonhardt. J.S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk – Complete Cantatas Vol. 36. Teldec, 1985
- Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, dir. Ton Koopman. J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 1. Antoine Marchand, 1994.
- Bach Collegium Japan, dir. Masaaki Suzuki. Bach Cantatas Vol. 1. BIS, 1995.
- Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, dir. John Eliot Gardiner. Bach Cantatas. Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
- Voces8, dir. Barnaby Smith. After Silence III. Redemption. Voces8, 2020.
Notes
- ^ There is a consensus that this is one of the earliest Bach cantatas, possibly the earliest extant.
- ^ "BWV" is Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, a thematic catalogue of Bach's works.
References
- ^ Towe, Teri Noel. "The Portrait in Erfurt Alleged to Depict Bach, the Weimar Concertmeister". The Face Of Bach. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ^ a b c d e Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 150 – Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- ^ a b c d Isoyama, Tadashi (1995). "Cantata No. 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (BWV 150)" (PDF). Bach-Cantatas. p. 7. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- ^ Green 2000.
- ^ Whittaker 1959.
- ^ Zwang & Zwang 2005.
- ^ ISBN 9780199297764.
- ^ Grob, Jochen (2014). "BWV 150 / BC B 24" (in German). Lexikon Geschichte Baden+Württemberg. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- ^ van Hengel, Eduard. "Eduard van Hengel". eduardvanhengel.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ a b John Eliot Gardiner (2006). "Cantatas for the First Sunday after Easter (Quasimodogeniti) / Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Kirche, Arnstadt" (PDF). Bach-Cantatas. pp. 1–4. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Oron, Aryeh (2015). "Cantata BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich". Bach-Cantatas. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- ^ Smith, Craig (2012). "Bach Cantata Notes / BWV 150". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- ^ a b Bischof, Walter F. "BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich". University of Alberta. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
- ^ Jeffers 2000, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 63 BWV 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich". jsbachcantatas.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- ^ Kuerti, Julian. "Notes on BWV 150". juliankuerti.com. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
- ^ a b Bötticher, Jörg-Andreas. "Einführung in die Kantaten vom 14. März 2010". bachkantaten.ch. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
- JSTOR 764098.
Sources
- Green, Jonathan (2000). A Conductor's Guide to the Choral-Orchestral Works of J. S. Bach. Scarecrow Press.
- Jeffers, Ron (2000). Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire, Volume 2: German Texts. Earthsongs.
- Whittaker, William Gillies (1959). The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press.
- Young, W. Murray (1989). The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: An Analytical Guide. McFarland & Co.
- Zwang, Philippe; Zwang, Gérard (2005). Guide pratique des cantates de Bach (Second revised and augmented edition.) (in French). L'Harmattan. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9782296426078.
External links
- Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)
- Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich BWV 150; BC B 24 / Sacred cantata Leipzig University on Bach digital
- Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150 University of Vermont