Marsh Chapel at Boston University

THE BACH EXPERIENCE

Listeners’ Companion 2018|2019

THE BACH EXPERIENCE

Listeners’ Companion 2018|2019

Notes by Brett Kostrzewski

Contents

Foreword v

September 30, 2018 Herr, gehe nicht ins Gerichtmit deinem Knecht BWV105 1

November 18, 2018 Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmetz sei BWV46 5

February 10, 2019 Herr Jesu Christ,wahr’ Mensch und Gott BWV 127 9

April 7, 2019 Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV8 13

Foreword

The 2018–2019 Bach Experience at Marsh Chapel marks my fourth year of involvement as annotator, and the second that we have produced this expanded Listeners’ Companion. I remain as grateful, as I was in 2015, for Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett’s invitation to contribute my writing to the Bach Experience, and I am honored to share with you the fruits of my continued study of Johann Sebastian Bach’s remarkable corpus of church cantatas.

This year’s Bach Experience divides neatly into two pairs. The first two cantatas were heard on successive Sundays in Leipzig—on 25 July and 1 August 1723, respectively—and you are fortunate to hear them in succession here. The pair, composed only two months after Bach took on his post as Thomaskantor, represent two of his finest accomplishments of the genre, all the more remarkable for appearing on ordinary Sundays in the middle of the summer. I point out some of the compositional elements that link the two cantatas; perhaps you will discover more.

The second pair of cantatas were composed during Bach’s second full year in Leipzig, when he took to composing a complete cycle of cantatas primarily based on Lutheran chorales, known as his “chorale cantatas.” I often find the chorale cantatas difficult to write about at length; while their technical aspects are fascinating, particularly Bach’s integration of the chorale melodies, I find their aural experience far more rewarding than anything I could contribute in these notes. Bach followed a more consistent compositional template for his chorale cantatas, making the sheer wealth of invention across that cycle all the more impressive.

As I wrote last year in this space, I hope that this expanded format of annotations serves to enhance your experience of these four beautiful compositions and to facilitate further exploration of their musical and cultural richness. I once again offer my thanks to Dr. Jarrett, Justin Blackwell, Music at Marsh Chapel, and, most of all, my readers for inviting my participation in their experience of Bach’s immeasurable musical gifts.

Brett Kostrzewski September 2018 Boston

Brett Kostrzewski is a Ph.D. candidate in historical musicology at Boston University, where he focuses primarily on the polyphony of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries, under the advisement of Joshua Rifkin and Victor Coelho. In addition to the Bach Experience at Marsh Chapel, Kostrzewski has supplied notes for the Bach Akademie Charlotte, the Back Bay Chorale, the Boston University choral and instrumental ensembles, the Harvard-Radcliffe Choruses, the Boston Choral Ensemble, and others. He has also studied choral conducting at Boston University, under Drs. Ann Howard Jones and Scott Allen Jarrett. In addition to his work as a musicologist, he co-founded the vocal ensemble Sourcework, and currently serves as the Director of Music at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in Boston. He welcomes correspondence at [email protected].

v

September 30, 2018

Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht BWV105

Cantata for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:6–13 Gospel: Luke 16:1–9 First performed: 25 July 1723 Forces: SATB chorus, SATB solos, corno (played by trumpet in today’s performance), two oboes, strings, and continuo

It is difficult to imagine a composition such as this one turning up on any given Sunday in Bach’s Leipzig. Barely two months on the job, Bach served up one of his most exceptional cantatas: rich in pathos, elegant in craftsmanship, and unflinching in its depiction of the Lutheran fear of judgment alleviated only by the blood of Christ. Written for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity on 25 July 1723, the great Bach scholar Alfred Dürr understandably numbered this cantata “among the most sublime descriptions of the soul in baroque and Christian art.”

The anonymous libretto of Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht BWV105 follows a template found in most of Bach’s early Leipzig cantatas, in which a bipartite poetic text is sandwiched between an opening chorus drawn directly from Scripture and a concluding four-part chorale verse. The two parts of this libretto are drawn from the Scripture lessons for that Sunday. In the excerpt from his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul instructs his readers to avoid those sins which doomed the Israelites in the wilderness: “Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.” (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:6) The libretto therefore opens with a Psalm verse and recitative-aria pair that reflect on the stain of sin and the inevitable wrath of God’s righteous judgment. But the Gospel excerpt, the parable of the untrustworthy manager recounted by Luke, offers hope for the believer who places his or her faith in Christ: “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” (cf. Luke 16:9) The second recitative-aria pair and concluding chorale verse therefore linger in the hopeful believer’s deliverance from hell afforded by Christ’s Passion. All of this is achieved through subtle references not just to these two excerpts, but to other Psalms, Epistles, and books of the Old Testament— further supporting speculations that Bach’s early Leipzig librettist had training as a preacher and/or theologian.

1 The elegance of this cantata, with its neatly balanced forms and creative instrumentation, reveals the naturalness with which Bach was able to compose such masterworks at breakneck speed. The autograph score suggests that the obbligato oboe and corno occurred to him only after composing the music for the arias; and that only later still did he appear to add them to the opening chorus. (The corno part is played in our performance by a trumpet. Furthermore, we dispense with the corno doubling in the opening chorus.) Notice, for example, the way in which he later sketched the obbligato corno line on top of the already-composed first violin line of the tenor aria, shown in the accompanying figure.

The opening chorus sets Psalm 143:2, accompanied by continuo and strings, the violins doubled by oboes and corno. Its opening texture, of pulsing eighth notes in the continuo and slow-moving suspended lines in the melodic instruments, foreshadows the opening chorus of the St. John Passion BWV244; similar, too, are the vocal exclamations of “Herr” (“Lord”) that punctuate the entrances of the singers in both choruses, leading one to wonder if Bach looked back on this chorus when he began writing the Passion the following spring. The first part of the chorus, in a common-time Adagio, lingers on the first sentence of the Psalm verse within a self-contained musical structure. Following the instrumental ritornello, the singers are accompanied by continuo alone as they introduce a pointillistic contrapuntal figure marked by seemingly haphazard exclamations of “Herr.” The vocal section moves to the dominant, where the ritornello is then repeated; when the vocalists resume after the ritornello, new counterpoint in the melodic instruments accompanies them. A short bridge of new material, audible by a descending sequence in the continuo and an exclamation of “Herr” on successive beats by each voice in turn, leads back to the closing ritornello, but this time with the singers joining the instruments. A long pedal on the dominant leads to an allegro alla breve section which sets the second sentence of the Psalm verse, here a sturdy fugue that creates drama not just in its various compositional iterations, but also in the rhetorical use of piano and even pianissimo before a sudden return to forte. Bach saves instrumental doubling for the climactic final statements of the chorus.

A short recitative introduces the poetic text on guilt and sin; the aria that follows stands as one of Bach’s most exquisite and heartwrenching. The text of this recitative-aria pair identifies the mark of a faithful Christian: not sinlessness, but acknowledgment of sin; not perfection in acts, but perfection in faith. The “trembling” and “wavering” (zittern und wanken) of the sinner’s conscience are depicted by the oboe’s opening motive (which itself recalls one of the contrapuntal figures from the opening chorus), but the aria’s most stunning effect is its omission of the continuo—creating a sense of rootlessness, a special effect reserved by Bach for 2 only a handful of particularly affective moments. The viola provides a semblance of structure, again with pulsing eighth notes, below shimmering sixteenth notes in the violins. The strophic aria demonstrates Bach’s skill at weaving breathtaking contours and melodic lines that germinate from a simple four-note motive. Bach depicts a sinner humbled by his or her conscience, standing before God in righteous pain and sorrow.

The recitative for bass that follows, in an arioso style with its elaborate string accompaniment, transitions from the sinner’s pain to the redemptive love of Christ: Wohl aber dem, der senen Bürgen weiß: “Fortunate though is he who knows his Guarantor.” The warmth of the recitative, in the traditional voice type assigned to Christ’s words in dramatic tellings of the Passion, comforts the believer in the face of the Father’s judgment. The final aria, for strings and corno, almost stridently claims friendship with Christ, with another reference to the Mammon of the Gospel reading.

The final chorale, in its setting for the voices, is unexceptional in its straightforward homophonic deployment. But Bach enhances the effect with its string accompaniment. After composing the four vocal voices, Bach added a string pattern that slowly dissipates energy across the statement of the verse: the chorale’s quarter-note syllables are first divided into sixteenth notes (four notes per beat), then triplets (three notes), then eighth notes (two notes), finally ending in quarter notes (one note) after the singers conclude. The rhythmic retardation effected by this technique, to my knowledge unique to this cantata, brings the believer’s experience of the chorale verse downward and inward, encouraging reflection on sin and hope in Christ’s saving blood.

I. Chorus

Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht. Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; Denn vor dir wird kein Lebendiger gerecht. For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.

II. Recitative (A)

Mein Gott, verwirf mich nicht, My God, cast me not, Indem ich mich in Demut vor dir beuge, When I humbly bow before Thee, Von deinem Angesicht. Away from Thy countenance. Ich weiß, wie groß dein Zorn I know how great Thine anger Und mein Verbrechen ist, And my transgressions are, Daß du zugleich ein schneller Zeuge And that Thou art a swift witness Und ein gerechter Richter bist. And a righteous judge. Ich lege dir ein frei Bekenntnis dar I freely acknowledge my guilt before Thee, Und stürze mich nicht in Gefahr, And do not run the risk Die Fehler meiner Seelen Of denying or concealing Zu leugnen, zu verhehlen! The errors of my soul!

3 III. Aria (S)

Wie zittern und wanken How the thoughts of sinners Der Sünder Gedanken, Tremble and reel, Indem sie sich untereinander verklagen As they accuse Und wiederum sich zu entschuldigen wagen. And then dare to excuse one another. So wird ein geängstigt Gewissen Thus is the anguished conscience Durch eigene Folter zerrissen. Torn asunder by its own torture.

IV. Recitative (B)

Wohl aber dem, der seinen Bürgen weiß, Fortunate though is he who knows his Guarantor, Der alle Schuld ersetzet, Who redeems all his debts, So wird die Handschrift ausgetan, Thus will the handwriting of ordinances be blotted out, Wenn Jesus sie mit Blute netzet. If Jesus sprinkles it with His blood. Er heftet sie ans Kreuze selber an, He Himself then nails it to the cross, Er wird von deinen Gütern, Leib und Leben, He will, at your death knell, Wenn eine Sterbestunde schlägt, Himself hand to His father Dem Vater selbst die Rechnung übergeben. The record of your goods, body, and life. So mag man deinen Leib, And though your body Den man zum Grabe trägt, Be carried to the grave Mit Sand und Staub beschütten, And be covered with sand and dust, Dein Heiland öffnet dir die ewgen Hütten. Your Savior will open for you the everlasting mansions.

V. Aria (T)

Kann ich nur Jesum mir zum Freunde machen, I only have to make Jesus my friend, So gilt der Mammon nichts bei mir. And Mammon will mean nothing to me. Ich finde kein Vergnügen hier I shall find no pleasure here Bei dieser eitlen Welt und irdschen Sachen. Amid this empty world and these earthly objects.

VI. Chorale

Nun, ich weiß, du wirst mir stillen Now, I know, Thou shalt quiet Mein Gewissen, das mich plagt. My conscience that torments me. Es wird deine Treu erfüllen, Thy good faith will fulfill Was du selber hast gesagt: What Thou Thyself has said: Daß auf dieser weiten Erden That throughout this wide world Keiner soll verloren werden, No single person shall be lost, Sondern ewig leben soll, But shall instead enjoy eternal life, Wenn er nur ist Glaubens voll. Provided he be full of faith.

4

November 18, 2018

Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmetz sei BWV46

Cantata for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:1–11 Gospel: Luke 19:41–48 First performed: 1 August 1723 Forces: SATB chorus, ATB solos, trumpet, two recorders, two oboes da caccia, strings, and continuo

Bach composed Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei BWV46 in the week that followed the previous cantata of this year’s Bach Experience at Marsh Chapel, Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht BWV105. The two cantatas together comprise a musical pair not just in their proximity to each other in Bach’s compositional process, but also in many of their musical details. The Bach Experience therefore affords a rare opportunity to experience a proximity that would have probably been evident to Bach’s own listeners.

The Epistle for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, figures little into the libretto of this cantata. It instead focuses on the Gospel, an excerpt from Luke 19 that recounts Christ’s arrival at Jerusalem and his cleansing of the Temple. According to Luke’s Gospel, upon arriving at Jerusalem, Jesus “wept over it” (Luke 19:41), mourning its inability to recognize him as its “visitation from God” (19:44). Bach’s anonymous librettist characteristically chose a related Old Testament passage, from the Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:12: “Behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.” The libretto goes on to exegete on the Scripture, describing the fall of Jerusalem; followed by exhortation of the believer, identifying him or her with the Jerusalem of the Gospel (and, by implication, of the Lamentations).

The opening chorus, like that of the cantata that preceded this one, is in two parts, the second of which is a brisk fugue. More so than the previous cantata, however, is the present cantata richly scored throughout: two recorders, two oboes da caccia, and trumpet join a full string complement and continuo. (We omit the trumpet doubling in the first movement.) The opening chorus integrates an instrumental sinfonia into the opening, which is followed by a vocal passage that would later be integrated into the Mass in B Minor BWV232 as the Gloria’s Qui tollis. The running recorder figures, the slower moving dissonances of the violins, the

5 sighing figures of the viola, the sparse continuo, and the descending triads of the voices and oboes all contribute to the chorus’s sense of sorrow and tears of lament. The first half of the chorus, after luxuriating in various combinations of the same motivic figures, ends in the dominant before instantly proceeding with a faster, triple-meter double fugue that depicts the Lord’s anger. The fugue begins only between the voices and continuo, eventually growing to include the recorders (which participate in the fugue independently) followed by increasing doubling of the voices by the other instruments. The energy of the movement culminates in piercing high-voiced thirds between soprano and recorders and increasing rhythmic drive into the final cadence.

The first recitative also recalls a recitative from the prior week’s cantata, with a near identical figure in the recorders as had appeared in the strings. Written for tenor, it deploys a string “halo” often associated with Jesus’ recitatives in the much later St. Matthew Passion BWV243; the poetic text laments the fall of Jerusalem and its reluctance to accept the true nature of Christ: Du achtest Jesu Tränen nicht,/So achte nun des Eifers Wasserwogen (“You did not heed the tears of Jesus, but heed now the tidal wave of zealotry”). The aria that follows takes on a martial character with its obbligato trumpet, dotted rhythms, and setting for bass voice. Bach chose to depict musically the storm being described by the libretto rather than the individual experience of Christ or the sinner, which he saved for the recitative and aria that follow.

At this point occurs the characteristic pivot from exegesis to exhortation; the alto reminds Bach’s listeners, “And yet, O sinners, you must not suppose that Jerusalem alone is more than others filled with sin!” It is not enough to sit in remembrance of the Jerusalem that crucified Christ; the Christian, as he or she is reminded not just on Good Friday but throughout the year, shares that guilt with his or her own sin that transcends space and time, connecting all Christians to Calvary in a vivid present tense: “But daily you increase your sins, you may all likewise horribly have to perish.” These words follow the second half of the day’s Gospel, in which Jesus famously displayed his wrath to those who defiled the Temple of Jerusalem.

The aria that follows replicates yet another technique found in the previous cantata, omitting the basso continuo. But unlike the prior execution of this technique, where a sort of shadow continuo exists in the pulsing eighth notes of the viola, this aria accompanies the alto with just two recorders and unison oboes da caccia—the effect being not so much the lack of a foundation, but the stoppage of time. The aria provides the answer to the harsh words of the recitative that precede it: Hilft er, daß Fromme sicher wohnen, “[Jesus] helps the righteous to dwell in safety.”

The final chorale, again recalling the prior week’s cantata, presents a standard four-part arrangement but with instrumental enhancements. Unusually, Bach assigns the strings pulsing eighth notes, even while they simply double the four vocal lines—adding a sense of urgency and pleading to the straight harmonization. But the most noticeable and stunning feature of this chorale is the use of recorders, which duet in cascading figures during and between each line of the chorale verse. These touches, while of arguable value in their portrayal of the text, more likely serve as aesthetic, compositional tools to unify the cantata and maximize the beautiful textures afforded by Bach’s chosen instrumentation.

6 I. Chorus

Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz Behold, and see if there be any sorrow sei wie mein Schmerz, der mich troffen hat. Like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, Denn der Herr hat mich voll Jammers gemacht Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me am Tage seines grimmigen Zorns. In the day of His fierce anger.

II. Recitative (T)

So klage du, zerstörte Gottesstadt, Lament, then, devastated town of God, Du armer Stein- und Aschenhaufen! O wretched heap of stone and ashes! Laß ganze Bäche Tränen laufen, Let brimming streams of tears flow, Weil dich betroffen hat For you have been struck Ein unersetzlicher Verlust By an irreplaceable loss Der allerhöchsten Huld, Of the most precious grace, So du entbehren mußt Which you must forfeit Durch deine Schuld. Through your own fault. Du wurdest wie Gomorra zugerichtet, You have been dealt with like Gomorrah, Wiewohl nicht gar vernichtet. Although not quite destroyed. O besser! wärest du in Grund verstört, Oh, better had you been razed to the ground Als daß man Christi Feind Than that Christ’s foes Jetzt in dir lästern hört. Be heard blaspheming in you. Du achtest Jesu Tränen nicht, You did not heed the tears of Jesus, So achte nun des Eifers Wasserwogen, But heed now the tidal wave of zealotry Die du selbst über dich gezogen, Which you have heaped upon yourself, Da Gott, nach viel Geduld, Since God, after great forbearance, Den Stab zum Urteil bricht. Now breaks the rod of judgment.

III. Aria (B)

Dein Wetter zog sich auf von weiten, Thy tempest gathered from afar, Doch dessen Strahl bricht endlich ein But lightning finally broke loose Und muß dir unerträglich sein, And must be more than you can bear, Da überhäufte Sünden Since a brimming store of sins Der Rache Blitz entzünden Ignite the lightning’s wrath, Und dir den Untergang bereiten. Which now brings about your ruin.

7 IV. Recitative (A)

Doch bildet euch, o Sünder, ja nicht ein, And yet, O sinners, you must not suppose Es sei Jerusalem allein That Jerusalem alone Vor andern Sünden voll gewesen! Is more than others filled with sin! Man kann bereits von euch dies Urteil lesen: This judgment may even now be read to you: Weil ihr euch nicht bessert Since you do not mend your ways Und täglich die Sünden vergrößert, And grow more sinful with each day, So müsset ihr alle so schrecklich umkommen. You must all perish in such a dreadful manner.

V. Aria (A)

Doch Jesus will auch bei der Strafe Yet Jesus shall, even while dispensing punishment, Der Frommen Schild und Beistand sein, Protect and help the righteous, Er sammelt sie als seine Schafe, He gathers them together most lovingly Als seine Küchlein liebreich ein; As his own sheep and chickens; Wenn Wetter der Rache die Sünder belohnen, When storms of vengeance reward the sinners, Hilft er, daß Fromme sicher wohnen. He helps the righteous to dwell in safety.

VI. Chorale

O großer Gott von Treu, O great God of faithfulness, Weil vor dir niemand gilt Since for Thee no man is worthy Als dein Sohn Jesus Christ, But Thy Son Jesus Christ, Der deinen Zorn gestillt, Who hath stilled Thy anger, So sieh doch an die Wunden sein, Look upon those wounds of His, Sein Marter, Angst und schwere Pein; His torment, fear, and grievous pain; Um seinetwillen schone, And spare us for His sake, Uns nicht nach Sünden lohne. And do not reward us for our sins.

8

February 10, 2019

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott BWV 127

Cantata for Quinquagesima (The Sunday before Lent) Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1–13 Gospel: Luke 18:31–43 First performed: 11 February 1725 Forces: SATB chorus, STB solos, trumpet, two recorders, two oboes, strings, and continuo

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott BWV127 forms part of Bach’s second annual cycle of cantatas for the Leipzig churches, most of which are so-called chorale cantatas in which much of the textual and musical material throughout the cantata—most noticeably in the opening chorus, but in the arias as well—are based on a particular chorale. Bach sets exactly the first and last verses of Paul Eber’s chorale, from 1562, in the opening chorus and closing chorale; the arias and recitatives gloss the chorale with new poetic texts by an anonymous librettist.

Herr Jesu Christ was composed for the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, also known as Estomihi (from the day’s introit text) and Quinquagesima (being the fiftieth day before Easter). In addition to its obvious significance in the liturgical calendar, Quinquagesima had special musical significance: it was the last day that concerted music would be heard in the Leipzig liturgy until Palm Sunday six weeks later. In the day’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus foretells his Passion to the Apostles as they approach Jerusalem; Bach was therefore afforded an opportunity to musically comment on the Passion before silence was imposed by the calendar. (After this cantata, the next music Bach would have presented to his Leipzig congregations was a revised version of his Palm Sunday cantata Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen BWV182, followed by the second version of the St. John Passion BWV244 on Good Friday.)

The opening chorus treats the chorale in a typical fashion for Bach’s chorale cantatas: the music of the chorale is the basis for imitative counterpoint in the instrumental ritornello and lower three voices; the sopranos present the unadorned chorale tune in long note values. The dotted rhythms in the instruments—introduced successively by the recorders, oboes, and strings—hint at a French overture, perhaps pointing toward Jesus’

9 impending entrance into Jerusalem. The deployment of the chorale tune as a ritornello theme, particularly its motion into the relative minor, and his characteristically clever composition for the instrumental pairs of recorders and oboes, keep the movement fresh as it moves through the familiar chorale. Bach highlights the Passion by adjusting the sequence of entries upon the line Ich bitt durchs bitter Leiden dein (“By Thy bitter suffering I beg Thee”), delaying the soprano entrance until all three lower voices have stated their own supplication.

After a secco recitative for tenor that links the believer’s suffering and death to Christ’s Passion, a ravishing aria for soprano, oboe, recorders, and continuo declaims a personal confidence in faith. The aria is structurally compact; its effect is delivered by the rich instrumentation and the exchange of virtuosic lines in the oboe and soprano. The aria’s most remarkable moment occurs in the B section: when the soprano sings Ich bin zum Sterben unerschrocken (“I am unafraid of dying”), the strings enter with pizzicato arpeggios, providing a quiet warmth amidst the soprano’s almost hurried yet placid repetition of these words in a distant key area and on new motivic material. These arpeggios may resemble Leichenglocken, or funeral bells, in their depiction of a “reverberation” after each pizzicato continuo note. After this line, the oboe plays an unaccompanied rising scale to the final line of the B section, weil mich mein Jesus wieder weckt (“for my Jesus shall wake me again”). The return to the A section, after three long quarter notes of silence, resolves the da capo.

A drastic change of character occurs upon the entrance of the bass; this movement is a sort of chimera made up of recitative, chorale, and aria. The first section, up to Und meiner Seele tröstlich sagen, proceeds like a standard accompanied recitative, if not dramatically so with its festive trumpet. The bass quickly changes mood, launching into the chorale tune and text on Fürwahr, fürwahr, euch sage ich, which initiates an embedded da capo aria based on the chorale. Bach very clearly delineates the chorale verses, sung unaccompanied (but for continuo), and the poetic gloss, sung with vigorous strings and trumpet. The da capo form concludes the movement with the powerful message, So soll doch ein Gläubiger ewig bestehen: “Believers shall survive forever.” A straightforward four-part chorale setting, with marching bass line, concludes the cantata looking forward to the death that will bring the believer to God.

I. Chorale

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, Lord Jesus Christ, true man and God, Der du litt’st Marter, Angst und Spott, Thou, who didst bear torture, fear, and scorn, Für mich am Kreuz auch endlich starbst Finally to die for me on the cross Und mir deins Vaters Huld erwarbst, And win for me Thy father’s grace, Ich bitt durchs bitt’re Leiden dein: By Thy bitter suffering I beg Thee: Du wollst mir Sünder gnädig sein. Have mercy on me for all my sins.

10 II. Recitative (T)

Wenn alles sich zur letzten Zeit entsetzet, When terror strikes us all at the final hour, Und wenn ein kalter Todesschweiß And when death’s chill sweat Die schon erstarrten Glieder netzet, Moistens my already rigid limbs, Wenn meine Zunge nichts, When my tongue Als nur durch Seufzer spricht Utters nothing but sighs Und dieses Herze bricht: And this heart breaks: Genung, daß da der Glaube weiß, It is enough that faith knows Daß Jesus bei mir steht, That Jesus stands by me, Der mit Geduld zu seinem Leiden geht Who patiently draws near His passion Und diesen schweren Weg auch mich geleitet And leads me too along the arduous path Und mir die Ruhe zubereitet. And prepares for me my resting place.

III. Aria (S)

Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen, My soul is at rest in the hands of Jesus, Wenn Erde diesen Leib bedeckt. When earth shall cover this body. Ach ruft mich bald, ihr Sterbeglocken, Ah, call me soon, O funeral bells, Ich bin zum Sterben unerschrocken, I am unafraid of dying, Weil mich mein Jesus wieder weckt. For my Jesus shall wake me again.

IV. Recitative and Aria (B)

Wenn einstens die Posaunen schallen, When one day the trumpets shall sound, Und wenn der Bau der Welt And when the world Nebst denen Himmelsfesten Along with heaven’s foundation Zerschmettert wird zerfallen, Shall be shattered and sunk in ruin, So denke mein, mein Gott, im besten; Then think on me, my God, in the best way possible; Wenn sich dein Knecht einst vors Gerichte stellt, When one day Thy servant stands before the court, Da die Gedanken sich verklagen, Where even thoughts accuse me, So wollest du allein, Then may it be Thy wish, O Jesu, mein Fürsprecher sein O Jesus, to intercede for me Und meiner Seele tröstlich sagen: And speak with comfort to my soul: Fürwahr, fürwahr, euch sage ich: Verily, verily, I say to you: Wenn Himmel und Erde im Feuer vergehen, When heaven and earth perish in fire, So soll doch ein Gläubiger ewig bestehen. Believers shall survive forever. Er wird nicht kommen ins Gericht They shall not be judged Und den Tod ewig schmecken nicht. And shall not taste eternal death. Nur halte dich, Just cling, Mein Kind, an mich: To me, my child: Ich breche mit starker und helfender Hand I break with my strong and helping hands Des Todes gewaltig geschlossenes Band. The powerful bonds of encompassing death. 11 V. Chorale

Ach, Herr, vergib all unsre Schuld, Ah, Lord, forgive us all our guilt, Hilf, daß wir warten mit Geduld, Help us with patience to wait Bis unser Stündlein kömmt herbei, Until our hour of death shall come, Auch unser Glaub stets wacker sei, And may our faith be ever firm, Dein’m Wort zu trauen festiglich, To trust steadfastly in Thy Word, Bis wir einschlafen seliglich. Till we fall asleep in bliss.

12

April 7, 2019

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV8

Cantata for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Epistle: Ephesians 3:13–21 Gospel: Luke 7:11–17 First performed: 24 September 1724 Forces: SATB chorus, SATB solos, corno (dispensed with in today’s performance), flute, two oboes d’amore, strings, and continuo

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity was fertile for Bach’s cantata composition; four for the day survive, no doubt due as much to the rich content of the Gospel as to the circumstances of Bach’s various employments. Luke recounts Jesus’ raising of the youth from death at Nain (Luke 7:11–17), an occasion for poetic and musical reflection on death and hope in Christ. Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV8 was composed for Bach’s second Leipzig cycle, therefore a chorale cantata, first performed on 24 September 1724 and revised for another performance in the 1740s.

The chorale for this particular cantata is unusual among the chorale repertoire, and would likely have had an additional level of familiarity and emotional weight for Leipzig audiences. While the chorale text was written by Caspar Neumann in the late seventeenth century, the tune was composed around 1710 by Daniel Vetter, organist of Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche, for the burial of Leipzig Cantor Jakob Wilisius. One detects the more “composed,” affective nature of the melody, as opposed to the sturdier melodies of the more traditional chorales. Similar, too, is the more “composed” nature of the poetry in this cantata. The chorale text is only set exactly in the opening chorus and concluding chorale; two of its inner verses are glossed in the tenor aria and alto recitative; and a gloss on the penultimate verse is divided between the bass aria and soprano recitative.

In his other cantatas for this Sunday, Bach’s libretti take the opportunity to long for an earlier death, an earlier union with Christ. But Neumann’s text introduces anxiety over the believer’s wait for his or her hour of death. Weaving oboes d’amore and muted strings contribute to a sense of serenity in the opening chorus; that serenity is punctuated by a musical depiction of Leichenglocken, funeral bells, which we encountered more subtly in the first aria of the prior cantata, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott BWV127. The pizzicato note in the continuo

13 depicts the striking of the bell, the high-pitched repeated notes of the flutes its reverberation. The soprano, characteristic of chorale cantatas, contributes the melody over a simple harmonization punctuated by instrumental ritornelli.

Atypically, the recitative-aria pairs appear inverted, as aria-recitative pairs. The first aria for tenor is somewhat strange in its form; the text implies a da capo aria, but Bach composes it as a strophic aria, leaving the rhyme scheme unresolved. The aria, with oboe d’amore, features brilliant alternation of motivic material between singer and player, and delightful text painting on schlägt (“strike,” set to staccato eighth notes divided by eighth rests) and Ruh (“rest,” set to a low, long note). The text of this aria, along with the text of the recitative for alto that follows, communicates the pain of earthly death, considering even the pain of loss: Und wohin warden meine Lieben/In ihrer Traurigkeit/Zertrennt, vertrieben? (“And whither will my loved ones, in their sadness, be scattered and banished?”) One might recall that it was the widow’s pain of loss in Luke’s Gospel that moved Jesus, in a beautiful demonstration of his humanness, to raise her son from the dead (cf. Luke 7:13).

A pivot occurs to the joys of joining God; the bass figuratively slaps the tenor and alto out of it: Doch weichet, ihr tollen, vergeblichen Sorgen! (“But vanish, you foolish, vain worries!”) The aria is downright joyful, in its leaping traverso flute accompaniment, major key, and dancelike 12/8 meter: death is release, our joyful union with Christ. The final secco recitative for soprano looks back upon the world as the departed believer moves toward God: Behalte nur, o Welt, das Meine! (“You may keep, O world, what is mine!”) The final chorale, while a straightforward four-part setting with unison instruments, brings to bear a very rich harmonization underneath an elaborated melody. The final verse combines the cantata’s dichotomy of the earthly and the heavenly, praying for an ehrlich Grab (“honest grave”) that reflects the believer’s “well-composed spirit” at death.

There is a trope about death in the Bach literature, one to which I myself have fallen prey in this very space: the idea that in Bach’s era of war, pestilence, and poverty, death was always right around the corner, and that theology and art were ways in which the believer could come to terms with a reality much darker than our own. Most of us have doubtlessly heard this trope as it has been applied to virtually every era before the Enlightenment.

But after some recent reflection, I have found myself wondering, how different is our time, really? Advances in medicine and longevity alongside a statistical reduction of poverty, particularly in the West, have coincided with an overall decrease in our cultural obsession with death. Death, however, remains; injustice, poverty, and pestilence, too, pervade even our wealthiest and most technologically advanced cities. Indeed, one might imagine Bach himself looking at the devastation of modern warfare in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in nuclear warfare, as a present danger of death that far exceeds anything he or his contemporaries experienced in their daily life. Perhaps, then, the situation is reversed; it is not the imminence of death that has changed, but rather a Western illusion that death has been, or is about to be, conquered; that preparation for a good death—let alone a longing for death—amounts to a superstition anachronistic to our enlightened age.

14 Whatever one’s religious leanings or personal understanding of death, I therefore encourage the listener of Bach’s “death music” to avoid taking on the role of a dispassionate observer from what we are often led to believe is our post-death age. We face death just like Bach, his librettist, and the believers that heard these words and music in 1724. Death unites all of humanity across space and time, and reflection on our own death only enhances the degree to which Bach’s music speaks to every human soul.

I. Chorus

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? Dearest God, when shall I die? Meine Zeit läuft immer hin, My days run ever on, Und des alten Adams Erben, And old Adam’s heirs, Unter denen ich auch bin, Of whom I am also one, Haben dies zum Vaterteil, Have this as their inheritance, Daß sie eine kleine Weil That they for a little while Arm und elend sein auf Erden Are poor and wretched on earth, Und denn selber Erde werden. And then become earth themselves.

II. Aria (T)

Was willst du dich, mein Geist, entsetzen, Why, my spirit, would you be fearful, Wenn meine letzte Stunde schlägt? When my final hour strikes? Mein Leib neigt täglich sich zur Erden, Daily my body bows nearer the earth, Und da muß seine Ruhstatt werden, And there its place of rest must be, Wohin man so viel tausend trägt. Whither so many thousands are borne.

III. Recitative (A)

Zwar fühlt mein schwaches Herz In truth, my faint heart feels Furcht, Sorge, Schmerz: Fear, sorrow, pain: Wo wird mein Leib die Ruhe finden? Where shall my body find rest? Wer wird die Seele doch Who shall free and release Vom aufgelegten Sündenjoch My soul from the yoke of sin Befreien und entbinden? That weighs upon it? Das Meine wird zerstreut, What is mine will be dispersed, Und wohin werden meine Lieben And whither will my loved ones In ihrer Traurigkeit In their sadness Zertrennt, vertrieben? Be scattered and banished?

15 IV. Aria (B)

Doch weichet, ihr tollen, vergeblichen Sorgen! But vanish, you foolish, vain worries! Mich rufet mein Jesus: wer sollte nicht gehn? My Jesus calls me: who would then not go? Nichts, was mir gefällt, Naught that I desire Besitzet die Welt. Is of this world. Erscheine mir, seliger, fröhlicher Morgen, Appear to me, blessed, happy morning, Verkläret und herrlich vor Jesu zu stehn. Transfigured and glorious before Jesus I’ll stand.

V. Recitative (S)

Behalte nur, o Welt, das Meine! You may keep, O world, what is mine! Du nimmst ja selbst mein Fleisch Since you take my flesh Und mein Gebeine, And bones, So nimm auch meine Armut hin; Take my poverty as well; Genug, daß mir aus Gottes Überfluß It is enough, that from God’s abundant store Das höchste Gut noch werden muß, The greatest blessing shall be mine, Genug, daß ich dort reich und selig bin. It is enough, that I shall be rich and blessed there. Was aber ist von mir zu erben, But what is to be inherited from me Als meines Gottes Vatertreu? Except my faith in God the Father? Die wird ja alle Morgen neu For it is renewed each morning Und kann nicht sterben. And cannot die.

VI. Chorale

Herrscher über Tod und Leben, Ruler over death and life, Mach einmal mein Ende gut, Let at the last my end be good, Lehre mich den Geist aufgeben Teach me to give up the ghost Mit recht wohlgefaßtem Mut. With courage firm and sure. Hilf, daß ich ein ehrlich Grab Help me earn an honest grave Neben frommen Christen hab Next to godly Christian folk, Und auch endlich in der Erde And finally covered by earth Nimmermehr zuschanden werde! Never more be confounded!

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BOSTON UNIVERSITY Marsh Chapel

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill Dean and Chaplain of the University

Br. Lawrence A. Whitney, LC† University Chaplain for Community Life

The Rev. Dr. Karen Coleman Associate Chaplain for Episcopal Ministry

Jessica Chicka University Chaplain for International Students

Ray Bouchard Director of Marsh Chapel

Scott Allen Jarrett, DMA Director of Music

Justin Thomas Blackwell Associate Director of Music

Heidi Freimanis-Cordts Director of Hospitality

Marsh Chapel 735 Commonwealth Avenue 617.353.3560 Boston, MA 02215 www.bu.edu/chapel

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