Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit (Were God not with us at this time), BWV 14, in Leipzig in 1735 for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it on 30 January 1735, a few weeks after his Christmas Oratorio. The cantata, in Bach's chorale cantata format, is based on Martin Luther's hymn "Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit". Its text paraphrases Psalm 124, focussing on the thought that the believers' life depends on God's help and is lost without it.

Bach composed the cantata as a late addition to his chorale cantata cycle of 1724/25. In 1725, Easter had been early and therefore no fourth Sunday after Epiphany happened. The text was possibly prepared already at that time. Ten years later, Bach wrote an advanced unusual chorale fantasia as the first section of it, combining elements of a motet with complex counterpoint. The hymn tune is played by instruments, freeing the soprano to interact with the lower voices. In the inner movements, sung by three soloists, Bach depicts in word painting terms such as flood, waves and fury. The closing chorale resembles in complexity the chorales of his Christmas Oratorio.

History and words

Bach held the position of Thomaskantor (director of church music) in Leipzig from 1723. During his first year, beginning with the first Sunday after Trinity, he had written a first cycle of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year. In his second year he composed a second annual cycle of cantatas, which was planned to consist exclusively of chorale cantatas, each based on one Lutheran chorale.^[1] As Easter was early in 1725, there was no Fourth Sunday after Epiphany that year. In 1735, shortly after the first performance of his Christmas Oratorio,^[2] Bach seems to have desired to fill this void and complete his cycle of chorale cantatas. Bach scholar Christoph Wolff found it evident that Bach reprised the second cycle in 1735, performing the new cantata between Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit, BWV 111, for the third Sunday after Epiphany and Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn, BWV 92, for Septuagesima.^[3]

The prescribed readings for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany were taken from the

In Bach's typical format of the chorale cantata cycle, the text of the outer stanzas is retained unchanged, while an unknown librettist paraphrased the inner stanzas, in this case to three movements, two arias framing a recitative.^[7] According to Wolff, the librettist may have been Andreas Stübel, writing previously in 1724/25.^[8] The theme of the chorale is connected to the gospel in a general way: the believer's life depends on God's help and is lost without it. A connection is also provided by the image of flooding water that the psalm conveys, which begins "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side" (Psalms 124), and continues "then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, then the proud waters had gone over our soul" (Psalms 124:4–5). The poet paraphrased it in the central recitative to "Es hätt uns ihre Wut wie eine wilde Flut und als beschäumte Wasser überschwemmet" ("Their fury would have, like a raging tide and like a foaming wave, flooded over us").^[9]

Bach first performed the cantata on 30 January 1735. It is one of his latest extant church cantatas.^[10] The only other extant Bach cantata for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany is his first cycle cantata BWV 81.

Music

Scoring and structure

Bach structured the cantata in five movements. In the format typical for his chorale cantatas, the first and last movements are set for choir as a

In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time (4/4).^[12] The instruments are shown separately for winds and strings, while the continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Movements of Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14

No.	Title	Text	Type	Vocal	Winds	Strings	Key	Time
1	Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit	Luther	Chorale fantasia	SATB	Co 2Ob	2Vl Va	G minor	3/8
2	Unsre Stärke heißt zu schwach	anon.	Aria	S	Co	2Vl Va	B-flat major	3/4
3	Ja, hätt es Gott nur zugegeben	anon.	Recitative	T
4	Gott, bei deinem starken Schützen	anon.	Aria	B	2Ob		G minor
5	Gott Lob und Dank, der nicht zugab	Luther	Chorale	SATB	Co 2Ob	2Vl Va	G minor

Movements

1

The opening chorus, "Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit" (Were God not with us at this time),

The first aria, "Uns're Stärke heißt zu schwach" (Our strength itself is too weak),[9] is sung by the soprano, accompanied by the strings and the horn, which illustrates the text's "stark" (strong) and "schwach" (weak) in combination with the voice.^[3] Gardiner notes that the horn supports the voice "in its highest register (referred to in the autograph part as Corne. par force and tromba)".^[6]

3

The central recitative, "Ja, hätt es Gott nur zugegeben" (Yes, if God had only allowed it),^[9] is sung by the tenor as a secco recitative accompanied only by the continuo. The dangers of flooding waters are illustrated in fast passages of the continuo on words such as "Wut" ("fury"), "Flut" ("flood") and "überschwemmet" ("inundate"), making the movement almost an arioso.^[12]

4

The bass aria, "Gott, bei deinem starken Schützen sind wir vor den Feinden frei." (God, under Your strong protection we are safe from our enemies.),^[9] is accompanied by the two oboes. The middle section shows similar word painting, picturing "Wellen" (waves) in octave leaps and fast downward scales.^[10]

5

The closing chorale, "Gott Lob und Dank, der nicht zugab, daß ihr Schlund uns möcht fangen" (Praise and thanks to God, who did not permit that their maw might seize us),^[9] is a four-part setting with "contrapuntally animated bass and middle voices", similar to the chorales of the Christmas Oratorio, first performed a few weeks before. Wolff comments on the maturity of Bach's late church cantatas caused by "the experience accumulated by the composer between 1723 and 1729, which lends the later cantatas an especial ripe character".^[3]

Recordings

Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are highlighted green under the header "Instr.".^{[citation needed]}

References