Musica Antiqua Koeln Notes.Indd
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Cal Performances Presents Wednesday, November , , pm First Congregational Church Musica Antiqua Köln Reinhard Goebel, founding director Ilia Korol, guest leader Marijana Mijanovic, contralto (Little less than) A Century of German Music PROGRAM Heinrich Bach (–) Two Sonatas a cinque (c.) Johann Christoph Bach (–) »Ach, daß ich Wassers gnung hätte« (c.) Georg Phillip Telemann (–) Septet in E minor, TWV : () Gravement Alla breve Air Tendrement Gay Johann Sebastian Bach (–) »Widerstehe doch der Sünde«, Cantata, BWV (c.) INTERMISSION Johann David Heinichen (–) Ouverture in G major Ouverture Air Bourée I + II Air Rigaudon I + II Air. Viste Jan Dismas Zelenka (–) “Barbara dira eff era,” ZWV () Cal Performances’ – Season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 30 CAL PERFORMANCES Texts and Translations J. C. Bach: »Ach, daß ich Wassers gnung hätte« Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte in meinem Oh that my head were waters, Haupte and mine eyes a fountain of tears, und meine Augen Tränenquellen wären, that I might weep day and night for mine daß ich Tag und Nacht beweinen könnte meine iniquities! Sünde! Meine Sünden gehen über mein Haupt. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head; Wie eine schwere Last sind sie mir zu schwer as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. worden, darum weine ich so und meine Augen fl ießen For these thing I weep; mit Wasser. mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water. Meines Seufzens ist viel, und mein herz ist For my sights are many, betrübet, and my heart is faint. denn der Herr hat mich voll Jammers gemacht, Wherewith the Lord hath affl icted me am Tag seines grimmigen Zorns. in the day of his fi erce anger. J. S. Bach: »Widerstehe doch der Sünde« . Aria . Aria Widerstehe doch der Sünde, Stand steadfast against transgression, Sonst ergreifet dich ihr Gift. Or its poison thee will seize. Laß dich nicht den Satan blenden; Be thou not by Satan blinded, Denn die Gottes Ehre schänden, For God’s glory to dishonor Triff t ein Fluch, der tödlich ist. Brings a curse of fatal doom. Recitativo . Recitative Die Art verruchter Sünden Th e shape of vile transgression Ist zwar von außen wunderschön; In sooth is outward wondrous fair; Allein man muss But yet one must Hernach mit Kummer und Verdruss Receive with sorrow and dismay Viel Ungemach empfi nden. Much toil and woe thereafter. Von außen ist sie Gold; Th e outside is pure gold, Doch, will man weiter gehn, But, should one look within, So zeigt sich nur ein leerer Schatten Appears nought but an empty shadow Und übertünchtes Grab. And whited sepulcher. Sie ist den Sodomsäpfeln gleich, It is the Sodom’s apple like, Und die sich mit derselben gatten, And those who are with it united Gelangen nicht in Gottes Reich. Shall never reach God’s heav’nly realm. Sie ist als wie ein scharfes Schwert, It is just like a sharpened sword Das uns durch Leib und Seele fährt. Which doth our soul and body pierce. Aria . Aria Wer Sünde tut, der ist vom Teufel, Who sin commits is of the devil, Denn dieser hat sie aufgebracht. For he it was who brought it forth. please turn page quietly CAL PERFORMANCES 31 Texts and Translations Doch wenn man ihren schnöden Banden But if one gainst its haughty fetters Mit rechter Andacht widerstanden, With true devotion stand steadfastly, Hat sie sich gleich davongemacht. Shall it at once from here take fl ight. Zelenka: Barbara dira eff era Immanes gentis rabies! Th e ferocious, fi erce and terrible Quae lignum sacrum crucibus fury of the brutal people! Latronum confudisti. you mixed up the sacred wood with the crosses of the thieves. Hispida, saeva, horrida Coarse, savage, horrifying Carnifi cuum barbaries brutality of the executioners, Pignus dulce fossoribus you begrudged the panting excavators Anhelis invidisti. the sweet pledge [of God’s love]. Mens metus plena fl uctuat Th e mind, full of fear, is agitated: Quod lignum Redemptoris Which is the wood of the Redeemer? Cor inquietum dubitat Th e uneasy heart is in doubt: Quae crux est salvatoris. Which is the cross of salvation? 32 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes Tonight’s tour of baroque Germany begins with Johann Christoph Bach (–) the impassioned musical discourses of the mid- »Ach, daß ich Wassers gnung hätte« th century, after the country had been ravaged (c.) by the Th irty Years’ War. Th e deeply melancholy Cantata for alto solo, violin, three violas and tone of J. Ch. Bach’s great lament captures the basso continuo. anguished mood of the times. His great-nephew J. S. Bach, writing at the beginning of the new Perhaps the most signifi cant musician of the Bach century, is still looking backwards at the great family in the generation before Johann Sebastian musical arts of the previous generation, but was the son of Heinrich Bach, the “great and transforming them with his own genius. With expressive” Johann Christoph Bach, whom the Telemann, Heinichen and Zelenka, we hear the family regarded as a “profound” composer. J. S. music of a newly cosmopolitan Germany in the Bach’s obituary mentions his ancestor with high th century. In their various ways, the works praise: Johann Christoph Bach “was as good of these composers incorporate the brilliant at inventing beautiful thoughts as he was at musical developments of Italy and France into expressing words. He composed, to the extent their own musical languages to form a new and that current taste permitted, in a galant and very international style. cantabile style, uncommonly full-textured.... On the organ and the keyboard he never played with Heinrich Bach (–) fewer than fi ve independent parts.” Two Sonatas a cinque (c.) Interestingly, this Bach’s works found favor not only with J. S. Bach but in the next For two violins, two violas and basso continuo. generation as well: C.P.E. Bach, who may have We often forget that Johann Sebastian Bach shared something of his ancestor’s taste for was but one of a highly distinguished family of charged and impassioned musical declamation, musicians. Among his forebears was the almost- incorporated several of Johann Christoph unknown Heinrich Bach, who spent much Bach’s movements into his own church works. of his career in Arnstadt. In his funeral elegy, Th e richness of texture characteristic of J. Ch. Heinrich Bach was praised as being an “organist Bach’s music is particularly evident in one of who touched the heart” and “a musicus practicus his masterpieces, the passionate and aff ecting famous in his art” who composed “chorales, lament, »Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte«, for motets, concertos, fugues, and the like.” Only alto and strings. Here, the melancholy that is so six of his works survive today, among which are marked in much of th-century German music two sonatas for the characteristic th-century comes to the fore, as both the fi rst violin and the scoring of two violins, two violas and continuo. singer pour out their grief in highly evocative Th e fi rst of these, in C major, begins in streams of musical tears. slow triple-time, with a sonorous fi gure moving upwards through the instruments. After further Georg Philipp Telemann (–) imitative work, the sonata moves on to a Septet in E Minor, TWV : (c.) dramatic fanfare fi gure, complete with brilliant For two oboes, bassoon, two violins, two violas trills, which is discussed at length. Th e work and basso continuo. ends with this motif translated into triple-time, with echoes. Heinrich Bach’s Sonata in F begins Gravement—Alla breve—Air—Tendrement—Gay dramatically with another kind of fanfare, which again receives considerable discussion. With Georg Phillip Telemann, we turn to A striking stylus phantasticus alternation of brief the new international style of the early th adagios and brisk prestos makes up the musical century. Telemann himself was an exceptionally discourse of the rest of the movement. cosmopolitan fi gure, highly aware of the CAL PERFORMANCES 33 Program Notes latest musical developments across Europe, cantatas, one refl ecting earlier German practices), and bringing to everything he undertook a this solo cantata is particularly striking for the remarkably vigorous entrepreneurial energy. opening gesture of its fi rst aria: a crashingly Written in a characteristically international mix unprepared dominant seventh chord, repeated of styles, his so-called Septet in E minor is really over a tonic pedal. Th e extremely wide-ranging a sort of concerto grosso, in which the two oboes vocal part was doubtless intended for one of the and bassoon take on occasional solo duties as the Duke’s distinguished soloists in the Capelle. concertino ensemble. Th is cantata is one of only that Bach wrote Th e work’s movements are as cosmopolitan for solo voice, and since there is no chorus, it as the composer himself: the fi rst two movements lacks a closing chorale. Instead, Bach constructs are in the stile antico of the Italian sonata da a symmetrical form of aria-recitative-aria, with chiesa, while the last three movements are elegant the fi nal aria refl ecting its exhortation to stand confections in the French style. Th e opening fi rm against Satan by setting the text in a “fi rm” Gravement begins with a series of harmonically three-part chromatic fugue, with a sinuous th- charged rising sequences, setting a strikingly note countersubject (perhaps the devil himself?). serious tone. Th is is continued in the fugal Alla In a small-scale tour de force, Bach manages to Breve, where the opening theme, a descending turn this fugue into an ingeniously modifi ed da scale, is answered by a deft countersubject.