O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60

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This article is about Bach's 1723 cantata. For the 1724 chorale cantata with the same title, see O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20.

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort
BWV 60
by Johann Sebastian Bach
Beginning of the closing chorale, "Es ist genug"
Occasion24th Sunday after Trinity
Bible text
Chorale
Performed7 November 1723 (1723-11-07): Leipzig
Movements6
Vocal
Instrumental
  • horn
  • 2 oboes d'amore
  • 2 violins
  • viola
  • continuo

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of thunder),[1] BWV 60, is a church cantata for the 24th Sunday after Trinity composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed in Leipzig on 7 November 1723, and is part of Bach's first cantata cycle. It is one of Bach's dialogue cantatas: its topic, fear of death and hope of salvation, plays out mainly through a conversation between two allegorical figures, Fear (sung by an alto voice) and Hope (sung by a tenor).

There are five movements. The orchestral accompaniment is assigned to a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn, two oboes d'amore, strings and continuo. The first four movements are duets. The opening movement is a chorale fantasia containing a stanza from Johann Rist's "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" and a biblical quotation from the Book of Genesis. The second and third movements are respectively a recitative and an aria.

The fourth movement is a dialogue between Fear and

bass), who quotes "Selig sind die Toten" from the Book of Revelation. The cantata closes with a four-part setting of Franz Joachim Burmeister's chorale "Es ist genug". Its melody begins with an unusual whole-tone sequence which inspired Alban Berg in the 20th century to incorporate Bach's setting in his Violin Concerto
.

History and words

Bach wrote the cantata for the 24th Sunday after Trinity in his first year as Thomaskantor and music director of Leipzig's main churches.[2] During Bach's tenure, the same two readings were prescribed for the Sunday every year: the epistle reading, Colossians 1:9–14, was a prayer from the Epistle to the Colossians for the congregation there, and the Gospel reading was the raising of Jairus' daughter as told in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:18–26). The unknown librettist[3] of the cantata saw the Gospel story as foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus. Throughout the cantata, two allegorical figures, Furcht (Fear) and Hoffnung (Hope), engage in a dialogue.[4]

The cantata opens and closes with hymn stanzas, beginning with the first stanza of Johann Rist's 1642 hymn "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort",[3][5][6] expressing fear, and ending with the last stanza of Franz Joachim Burmeister's 1662 hymn "Es ist genug".[3][7] Two biblical quotations are juxtaposed in the first and fourth movements. The first movement, "Herr, ich warte auf dein Heil" (Genesis 49:18),[3] spoken by Jacob on his deathbed, expresses hope against the fear conveyed in the chorale.[8] In the fourth movement, Selig sind die Toten (Blessed are the dead, Revelation 14:13)[3] is the answer to the preceding recitative of Fear.[2]

Bach led the first performance of the cantata with the

first Sunday after Trinity as part of his chorale cantata cycle, while BWV 60 is part of his first cantata cycle.[4] A repeat performance of the earlier cantata took place sometime after 1735, by a continuo part from that time.[3]

Structure and scoring

In O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, solo voices perform all movements but the closing chorale. Bach had composed a similarly structured cantata three weeks before, entitled Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben, BWV 109, which also featured a dialogue between Fear and Hope, given to one singer. In O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, he assigned Fear to the alto and Hope to the tenor, and has them sing three movements in dialogue. In movement 4, Fear is answered instead by the bass, the vox Christi (voice of Christ), with "Selig sind die Toten".[8][9]

Bach structured the cantata in five movements: four duets of alternating arias and recitatives, concluding with a four-part chorale. He scored the work for three vocal soloists (alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a four-part choir only in the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble: horn (Co) to support the chorale tunes, two oboes d'amore (Oa), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), and basso continuo (Bc).[2][3] The title page of the original parts bears a title which Bach wrote himself: "Dominica 24 / post Trinit. / Dialogus Zwischen Furcht u. Hoffnung. / Furcht. O Ewigkeit, du DonnerWort. / Hoffnung. Herr, ich warte auf dein Heÿl. / á / 4 Voci. / 2 Hautb: d’Amour. / 2 Violini / Viola / e / Continuo / di / Joh.Sebast:Bach" (Sunday 24 / after Trinity. / Dialogue Between Fear and Hope / Fear. O Eternity, you Word of Thunder. / Hope. Lord, I wait for Your Salvation. / for / 4 voices / 2 oboes d'amore. / 2 violins / viola / and / continuo / by / Joh.Sebast:Bach).[4] A horn, to support the chorale melodies, was requested only later under the word Viola, possibly in the 19th century.[4] The duration of the work has been stated as 20 minutes.[2]

Movements

In the following table of the movements, scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from the book by Bach scholar Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4
4).[2] The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements of O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60
No. Title Text Type Vocal Winds Strings Key Time
1
  • O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort
  • Herr, ich warte auf dein Heil
  • Rist
  • Genesis
 Chorale fantasia A T Co 2Oa 2Vl Va D major common time
2
  • O schwerer Gang zum letzten Kampf und Streite!
  • Mein Beistand ist schon da
 anon. Recitative A T common time
3
  • Mein letztes Lager will mich schrecken
  • Mich wird des Heilands Hand bedecken
 anon. Aria (Duetto) A T Oa Vl solo B minor 3
4
4
  • Der Tod bleibt doch der menschlichen Natur verhaßt
  • Selig sind die Toten
  • anon.
  • Revelation
 Recitative & chorale A B common time
5 Es ist genug Burmeister Chorale SATB Co 2Oa 2Vl Va A major common time

1

Johann Rist, the author of the hymn

The first duet is a

Stollen of the chorale, the tenor as Hope responds with Jacob's words, "Herr, ich warte auf dein Heil" (Lord, I await your salvation).[2] In his book The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Richard D. P. Jones describes the movement as "one of Bach's most imaginative conceptions, vivid in its portrayal of conflicting states of the soul".[11]

2

The second duet is a

secco recitative. Fear begins "O schwerer Gang zum letzten Kampf und Streite!" (O difficult way to the final battle and struggle!),[1] while Hope confirms "Mein Beistand ist schon da" (My Protector is already there).[1] The music is intensified to an arioso twice: Fear sings the word martert (tortures) as a chromatic melisma to short chords in the continuo, and Hope stresses in a long melisma the last word ertragen (borne).[2]

3

The third, central duet is dramatic and therefore not in da capo form but closer to a motet, unified by the instrumental ritornellos.[2] Three different sections are developed in a similar way: Fear begins, "Mein letztes Lager will mich schrecken" (My final bier terrifies me),[1] Hope answers, "Mich wird des Heilands Hand bedecken" (My Savior's hand will cover me),[1] both argue, and Hope has the last word. The instrument parts are included in the dialogue: the solo violin (with Hope) plays scales while the oboes d'amore and the continuo (with Fear) play dotted rhythms.[2]

4

The last duet is no longer between Fear and Hope. Fear begins "Der Tod bleibt doch der menschlichen Natur verhaßt" (But death remains hateful to human nature)[1] in secco recitative, but three times the bass as the vox Christi quotes the consoling words from Revelation "Selig sind die Toten" (Blessed are the dead)[1] as an arioso, each time expanded, following the scheme a ab abc.[2] The American musicologist Eric Chafe analyses that the quotes of the vox Christi are intensified each time by lengthening the quoted text: first "Selig sind die Toten", the second time "Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben" (... who die in the Lord), finally "Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben von nun an." (... from now on).[12] Dürr notes: "The fascination of these ariosos lies in their memorable and eloquent melodic line which presents the text in heightened speech."[2]

5

{ #(set-global-staff-size 14) \new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \set Staff.midiInstrument = "reed organ" \new Voice \relative c' { \stemUp \clef treble \key f \major \time 4/4 f2 g4 a b2 r4 b c4 g g bes! a2. } \addlyrics { Es ist ge -- nug: Herr, wenn es dir ge -- fällt, } \new Voice \relative c' { \stemDown c2 c4 bes8 a e'2 s4 e e4. f8 e d e c f2. } >> \new Staff << \set Staff.midiInstrument = "reed organ" \new Voice \relative c' { \stemUp \clef bass \key f \major \time 4/4 a2 g4 d' d2 r4 gis, a8 b c4 c c c2. } \new Voice \relative c { \stemDown f2 e4 fis gis2 s4 e a8 g!16 f e8 d c bes! a g! f2. } >> >> }
"Es ist genug", closing chorale

The closing chorale is "Es ist genug" (It is enough).[1] Dürr notes that the melody is by Johann Rudolph Ahle, a predecessor of Bach as organist in Mühlhausen.[13] The melody begins with an unusual sequence of four notes progressing by steps of major seconds (whole tones), together spanning the interval of a tritone, also called "diabolus in musica".[13][14] During Ahle's time, it was an extreme musical figure, suitable to depict "the soul's crossing over from life into death".[13] Dürr notes further that a similar scale of four notes occurs in Rist's hymn on the word Donnerwort in the first movement, but with the normal half-tone step to the last note.[13] He writes:

... Bach's setting itself, whose harmonization and loosening-up into polyphony allows the text to become, as it were, transparent—something that not even Bach always achieved.[13]

Chafe concludes a thorough analysis of the cantata and the chorale with the summary that "in developing and intensifying traditional, even archaic, ways of understanding music ... Bach carried them far into the future, opening up questions for the analysis, interpretation, and composition of music that are very much with us and are probably timeless".[8][15]

Alban Berg used Bach's chorale setting in his Violin Concerto.[13][16][17]

Publication

The original parts of the cantata have survived. After 1800, they belonged to Count Voss-Buch. They were acquired by the Königliche Bibliothek zu Berlin (Royal Library in Berlin), probably in 1851. The cantata was first published in 1863 as part of the first complete edition of Bach's works, the

Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe. The editor was Wilhelm Rust.[4]

The parts are now held by the

critical edition in 1998, edited by Ulrich Leisinger.[4]

Recordings

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 60 – O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Dürr & Jones 2005, pp. 628–634.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 60; BC A 161 / Sacred cantata (24th Sunday after Trinity)". Bach Digital. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Leisinger, Ulrich (1998). "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort / Eternity, O awesome word / BWV 60" (PDF). Carus. p. 4. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  5. ^ "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort / Text and Translation of Chorale". Bach Cantatas Website. 2003. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  6. ^ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort". Bach Cantatas Website. 2005. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  7. ^ "Es ist genug / Text and Translation of Chorale". Bach Cantatas Website. 2005. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  8. ^ a b c d e Gardiner, John Eliot (2010). Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) / Cantatas Nos 52, 55, 60, 89, 115, 139, 140 & 163 (Media notes). Soli Deo Gloria (at Hyperion Records website). Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  9. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  10. ^ Jones 2013, p. 173.
  11. ^ Jones 2013, p. 127.
  12. ^ Chafe 2000, pp. 123–124.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Dürr & Jones 2005, p. 634.
  14. ^ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Es ist genung, so nimm, Herr, meinen Geist". Bach Cantatas Website. 2005. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  15. ^ Chafe 2000, p. 235.
  16. ^ Pople 1991.
  17. ^ Whittaker 1959.
  18. ^ Archiv Produktion – 198 331 discogs
  19. ^ Bach – Kantatenwerk · Complete Cantatas / BWV 57-60 / 15 discogs
  20. ^ Johann Sebastian Bach, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart*, Helmuth Rilling – Die Bach Kantate BWV 58-66 discogs
  21. ^ Bach – Ton Koopman, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra And Choir – Complete Cantatas – Volume 8 discogs
  22. ^ Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki – Cantatas 15 discogs
  23. ^ Bach – Gardiner – Cantatas Vol. 12: Tooting / Winchester discogs

References

External links

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