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== Music == == Music ==
== Structure and scoring == === Structure and scoring ===
The cantata in six movements is scored for four soloists (], ], ] and ]), a ], three ]s, ], three ]s, two ]s, ], ] and ].{{sfn|Bach Digital|2024}}{{sfn|Dürr|Jones|2006|p=148–149}} The cantata in six movements is scored for four soloists (], ], ] and ]), a ], three ]s, ], three ]s, two ]s, ], ] and ].{{sfn|Bach Digital|2024}}{{sfn|Dürr|Jones|2006|p=148–149}}
{{Classical movement header | show_text_source = no | work = ''Jesu, nun sei gepreiset'', BWV 41 | instruments1 = Brass | instruments2 = Winds | instruments3 = Strings }} {{Classical movement header | show_text_source = no | work = ''Jesu, nun sei gepreiset'', BWV 41 | instruments1 = Brass | instruments2 = Winds | instruments3 = Strings }}

Revision as of 16:28, 17 December 2024

Jesu, nun sei gepreiset
BWV 41
Chorale cantata by J. S. Bach
Thomaskirche, Leipzig
OccasionNew Year's Day
Chorale"Jesu, nun sei gepreiset"
by Johannes Hermann
Performed1 January 1725 (1725-01-01): Leipzig
Movements6
VocalSATB choir and solo
Instrumental
  • 3 trumpets
  • timpani
  • 3 oboes
  • 2 violins
  • viola
  • violoncello piccolo da spalla
  • continuo

Jesu, nun sei gepreiset (Jesus, now be praised), BWV 41, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for New Year's Day and first performed it on 1 January 1725. It is based on the hymn of the same name by Johannes Hermann of 1591.

The cantata is part of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. In the style of the cycle, an unknown poet retained the outer stanzas as choral movements 1 and 6, and paraphrased the middle stanza into alternating arias and recitatives. Bach scored the work for four soloists, a four-part choir, three trumpets and timpani, oboes, strings including a violoncello piccolo da spalla, and basso continuo.

History and words

Bach wrote the cantata in 1724, his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, for New Year's Day. The feast also celebrated the naming and circumcision of Jesus. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to the Galatians, by faith we inherit (Galatians 3:23–29), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Circumcision and naming of Jesus (Luke 2:21).

That year, Bach composed his Chorale cantata cycle, begun on the first Sunday after Trinity of 1724, with each cantata based on a Lutheran hymn. The cantata is based on a 1591 hymn for New Year's Day in three stanzas by Johannes Hermann who had also been a Thomaskantor. Its melody is by Melchior Vulpius, who first published it in his Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch, printed in Jena in 1609. The hymn calls Jesus by name first, fitting to the celebration of the naming. Otherwise it is more concerned with the beginning of the New Year. It was popular in Leipzig and was used in two more of Bach's cantatas for the occasion, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 190, the previous year and Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm, BWV 171 in 1729.

In the style of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, an unknown poet retained the outer stanzas as choral movements 1 and 6, and paraphrased the middle stanza into a sequence of alternating arias and recitatives, expanding the 14 lines by additional ideas, but not specifically referring to the gospel.

Bach first performed the cantata on 1 January 1725, and reprised it at least once, between 1732 and 1735.

Music

Structure and scoring

The cantata in six movements is scored for four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, three trumpets, timpani, three oboes, two violins, viola, violoncello piccolo da spalla and basso continuo.

Movements of Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41
No. Title Type Vocal Brass Winds Strings Key Time
1 Jesu, nun sei gepreiset Chorus SATB 3Trp, Tmp 3Ob 2Vl Va C major common time
2 Laß uns, o höchster Gott Aria Soprano 3Ob G major 6/8
3 Ach! deine Hand, dein Segen muss allein Recitative Alto common time
4 Woferne du den edlen Frieden Aria Tenor VcPdS A minor common time
5 Doch weil der Feind bei Tag und Nacht Recitative SAT, Bass solo common time
6 Dein ist allein die Ehre, dein ist allein der Ruhm Chorale SATB 3Trp, Tmp 3Ob 2Vl Va C major common time

Movements

In the opening chorus, a chorale fantasia, Bach faced the problem of structuring the unusually long stanza of 14 lines and an additional repeat of the last two lines, as seems to have been customary in Leipzig. The concerto of the orchestra is dominated by a syncope fanfare motif from the trumpets. In the first four lines, repeated in the next four and the final two, the soprano sings the cantus firmus, with the lower voices in free polyphony. Lines 9 and 10, speaking of "in guter Stille" (in good silence) are marked adagio; the choir sings in homophony in triple meter, accompanied by the orchestra without the trumpets. Lines 11 and 12, repeated in 13 and 14, are a presto fugato, with the instruments playing colla parte, expressing "Wir wollen uns dir ergeben" (We want to devote ourselves to you), an "enthusiastic rededication to spiritual values". The fugal subject is derived from the first phrase of the chorale melody. Lines 15 and 16 repeat lines 1 and 2, saying "behüt Leib, Seel und Leben" (Protect our body, soul and life).

In contrast, both arias have been described as chamber music. The first aria is sung by the soprano, accompanied by three oboes in pastoral
8 time. A short secco recitative leads to a tenor aria, which is dominated by an obbligato violoncello piccolo in expansive movement. The last recitative for bass contains one line from Martin Luther's Deutsche Litanei (German litany), which Bach set for four-part choir, marked allegro, as if the congregation joined the prayer of the individual. The closing chorale is a four-part setting with independent instruments, corresponding to the first movement. The lines are separated several times by its trumpet motif; the trumpets are silent in lines 9 to 14; lines 11 to 14 are in
4 time; the final fanfare recalls the beginning.

John Eliot Gardiner notes that Bach achieves a suggestion of the year's cycle by ending both the first movement and the end of the cantata as the work began, as a "closing of the circle".

Recordings

A list of recordings is provided on the Bach Cantatas Website.

Notes

  1. "BWV" is Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, a thematic catalogue of Bach's works.

References

  1. ^ Dellal 2024.
  2. ^ Bach Digital 2024.
  3. Dürr & Jones 2006.
  4. Wolff 2000.
  5. ^ Chorale text 2024.
  6. ^ Hofmann 2006.
  7. ^ Gardiner 2008.
  8. ^ Mincham 2010.
  9. Dürr & Jones 2006, p. 148–149.
  10. Dürr & Jones 2006, p. 149.
  11. ^ Dürr & Jones 2006, p. 150.
  12. Dahn 2024.
  13. Oron 2024.

Cited sources

External links

Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
Before
Leipzig
First cycle
(1723–24)
Second cycle
(and chorale
cantatas)
Third cycle
Later
and other
Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach by BWV number
Categories: