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Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76

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Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes
BWV 76
by J. S. Bach
Thomaskirche, Leipzig
KeyC major
Genrechurch cantata
OccasionSecond Sunday after Trinity
Cantata textanonymous
Bible textPsalms 19:1,3 (1)
ChoraleMartin Luther
Movements14

Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (Template:Lang-en), BWV 76, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the second Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 6 June 1723. It is the second of his first annual cycle of cantatas, similar to the first, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, in its unusual layout of 14 movements in two symmetrical parts.

The unknown poet begins his text with a quotation from an Old Testament psalm and refers to both prescribed readings from the New Testament, the parable of the great banquet as the Gospel, and the First Epistle of John. Bach scored Part I, to be performed before the sermon, with a trumpet as a symbol of God's Glory. In Part II, to be performed after the sermon and during communion, he wrote chamber music with oboe d'amore and viola da gamba, dealing with "brotherly devotion".

History and words

Bach composed the cantata for the Second Sunday after Trinity and first performed it in a service in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, on 6 June 1723, a week after he took up position as cantor in Leipzig with Die Elenden sollen essen. The cantata is similar in many respects to the earlier work. While the former was probably begun in Köthen, this cantata may have been composed in Leipzig, according to a manuscript with many corrections. The cantatas mark the beginning of Bach's first "annual cycle": he started to compose one cantata for each Sunday and holiday of the liturgical year, a project described by Christoph Wolff as "an artistic undertaking on the largest scale".

The Invitation to the Great Banquet, Jan Luyken, Bowyer Bible

The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle of John, "Whoever doesn't love, remains in Death" (1 John 3:13–18), and from the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:16–24). The unknown poet was likely the same as for the first cantata for Leipzig, also in 14 movements, also arranged in two symmetrical parts to be performed before and after the sermon. Again the cantata begins with words from a Psalm, Psalms 19:1,3 (verses 2 and 4 in the Luther Bible), "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. There is no speech or language, where their voice is not heard", connecting the Gospel to the Old Testament. The poet first expands in movements 2 and 3 the thought of the Universe praising God's creation. In the following two movements he deplores, following the Gospel, that nonetheless people did not follow the invitation of God, therefore he had to invite "von allen Straßen" (from all streets) and bless those, as movement 6 says. Part I closes with the first stanza of Martin Luther's chorale Es woll uns Gott genädig sein (1524), a paraphrase of Psalm 67. Part I was to be performed before the sermon, Part II after the sermon and during communion. Part II talks about the duties of those who follow God's invitation, to pass the love of Christ in order to achieve heaven on earth, a thought also expressed in the Epistle reading. The third stanza of Luther's chorale closes the work.

John Eliot Gardiner, 2007

John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage with the Monteverdi Choir in 2000, evaluated the work, connected to Bach's first cantata for Leipzig: "this cantata is clearly more than just a sequel to the previous Sunday’s Die Elenden sollen essen...: together they form a diptych revealing a thematic continuity extended over two weeks, with plentiful cross-referencing between the two set Gospels and Epistles beyond the obvious parallels between the injunction to give charitably to the hungry (BWV 75) and of brotherly love manifested in action (BWV 76)". He described the works as featuring "a characteristically Lutheran interpretation" of the First Epistle of John. He also noted the depth of metaphorical uses of "eating and drinking", highlighting " the rich man's table, from which Lazarus tried to gather fallen crumbs (BWV 75), standing in opposition to the "great supper" and God's invitation through Christ to the banquet of eternal life (BWV 76)". Summarising both pieces, Gardiner wrote "evidently a lot of thought and pre-planning had gone on while Bach was still in Köthen, as well as discussions with his unknown librettist and possibly with representatives of the Leipzig clergy, before he could set the style, tone and narrative shaping of these two impressive works".

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for four soloists—soprano, alto, tenor and bass—a four-part choir, trumpet, two oboes, oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, viola da gamba and basso continuo.

Part I
1. Coro: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes
2. Recitativo (tenor): So lässt sich Gott nicht unbezeuget!
3. Aria (soprano): Hört, ihr Völker, Gottes Stimme
4. Recitativo (bass): Wer aber hört, da sich der größte Haufen
5. Aria (bass): Fahr hin, abgöttische Zunft!
6. Recitativo (alto): Du hast uns, Herr, von allen Straßen
7. Chorale: Es woll uns Gott genädig sein
Part II
8. Sinfonia
9. Recitativo (bass): Gott segne noch die treue Schar
10. Aria (tenor): Hasse nur, hasse mich recht
11. Recitativo (alto): Ich fühle schon im Geist
12. Aria (alto): Liebt, ihr Christen, in der Tat!
13. Recitativo (tenor): So soll die Christenheit
14. Chorale: Es danke, Gott, und lobe dich

The two parts are composed as the same arrangement of alternating recitatives and arias with a concluding chorale, only Part II is opened by a sinfonia instead of a chorus.

Music

Similar to the opening chorus of BWV 75, Bach sets the psalm in two sections, comparable to prelude and fugue on a large scale. An instrumental concerto unites the complete "prelude", the trumpet "calls" to tell the glory of God. The fugue in C major is a permutation fugue, which develops the subject twice, starting with the voices, up to a triumphal entrance of the trumpet, similar in development to the first chorus of Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29, composed much later and used twice in the Mass in B minor. Joseph Haydn later set the same words, also in C Major, in his oratorio The Creation.

In the first recitative the strings accompany the voice, most keenly in motifs in the arioso middle section, in Gardiner's words "to evoke the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters". Trumpet and bass voice are used to convey the call "to banish the tribe of idolaters", while the strings possibly illustrate "the hordes of infidels". The last recitative leads in an arioso to the chorale. In the chorale, Bach has the violin play an obbligato part to the four-part setting of the voices and separates the lines by interludes, with the trumpet anticipating the line to follow. The continuo plays ostinato a motif which is derived from the first line of the chorale.

Whereas Part I begins with a trumpet announcing ("erzählen") God's glory, Part II starts on an intimate chamber music scale with oboe d'amore and viola da gamba, concentrating on "brotherly devotion" (brüderliche Treue). A sinfonia in E minor for these two instruments is reminiscent both of Bach's compositions for the court in Köthen and of a French overture, marked "adagio", then "vivace". Bach used the music of this movement later in his organ trio, BWV 528. Gardiner calls the movement: "in effect a sonata da chiesa". The tenor aria illustrates the "masochistic" "Hate me, then, hate me with all your might, o hostile race!" by a first dissonant entry on an ostinato bass line full of chromatic, leaps and interrupting rests. Oboe d'amore and viola da gamba return to accompany the last aria, and "the sombre qualities of both voice and instruments create a feeling of peace and introspection". The music of the closing chorale is identical to that of Part I.

Selected recordings

Additional recordings are listed on the bach-cantatas entry of the cantata.

References

  1. ^ Wolff, Christoph (1991). Bach: Essays on his Life and Music. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  2. ^ Dürr, Alfred (1971). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach (in German). Vol. 1. Bärenreiter-Verlag. OCLC 523584.
  3. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol (2006). "Cantata 76, Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes". The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  4. ^ Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 3 BWV 76 Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes". jsbachcantatas.com. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  5. ^ Hofmann, Klaus (1998). "BWV 76: Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes / (The heavens declare the Glory of God)" (PDF). bach-cantatas.com. p. 4. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  6. "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein / Text and Translation of Chorale". bach-cantatas.com. 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  7. ^ Gardiner, John Eliot (2010). "Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Trinity / Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris" (PDF). bach-cantatas.com. p. 5. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
  8. "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Es woll (or wolle/wollt) uns Gott genädig sein". bach-cantatas.com. 2006. Retrieved 29 June 2011.

Sources

The first source is the score.

General sources are found for the Bach cantatas. Several databases provide additional information on each single cantata:

Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach by BWV number

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