David's Bach Cantatas journey ...

[Contratrombone64]

Now comes the joyful Cantata 5 that has the most wonderfully spikey writing for strings and oboes. It is actually scored for two oboes, strings and "tromba di tirarsi (what ever the hell that is)" accompanying the cantus firmus in the soprano line. The ATB writing for the rest of the choir is virtuosic in the extreme. It's not quite a fugue but you know Bach, he couldn't resist fugato style at all.

Recit follows and now comes my FAVOURITE movement in all the Cantatas I've heard so far because it uses (very unusually) a solo viola and the writing is technically very challenging, pure joy. I sort of wonder if the first violinist didn't grab the poor viola players instrument for this because the writing is just so difficult.

The recit that follows is typical except that Bach, bored maybe, throws in a single Oboe above chanting a chorale like melody, odd.

The Bass Aria that follows is devine and a tour de force for the "tromba di tirarsi". The poor bugger I can imagine had been siting through viola solo sweating and trying to blow warm air into his instrument as the writing here is as difficult as Bach wrote for the tromba. Kind of reminds me of "And the trumpet shall sound", though musiclaly it's totally different of course. God this is such joyous music, makes me weep.

 

[Contratrombone64]

Cantata 6 has the most disturbingly tragic musical painting, which what can only be described (by me at least) as sighs of desperation from the strings in unison on the same note in a sort of panting. The text here is "Bide with us, for it will soon be evening, and the day is now declining", well it's the damned gloomiest sunset I've ever come across. The middle section is somewhat more joyous, though not much. And the respect return to the begining happens, of course.

The aria which follows is for Alto:


High-exalted Son of God,
Let it thee not be unwelcome
That we now before thy throne
A petition lay before thee:
Bide, oh, bide for us our light,
For the darkness doth steal in.

This is scored for solo Oboe di caccia (Bach just loved this instrument), and the writing is devine and poignant. It's a contemplative and lilting slow waltz. Bach here uses pizzacato cello and chamber organ as the continuo, lovely.

Next is an aria for Soprano with, wait for it ... Violoncello Piccolo, Bach actually used this instrument quite a few times in the cantatas. His writing is lovely and must be very demanding for the solo Cellist (in my score it's written in the alto clef). The text is:

Oh, bide with us, Lord Jesus Christ,
For now the evening is at hand,
Thy godly word, that radiant light,
Let in our midst, yea, never fade.
Within this recent time of woe
Grant us, O Lord, steadfastness sure,
That we thy word and sacrament
Keep ever pure until our end.

After a typical recit is a wonderful Aria for Tenor to the words:

Jesus, keep our sights upon thee, That we not
Walk upon the sinful pathway. Let the light
Of thy word o'er us shine brighter,
And forever grant thy favour.

It is scored for strings alone with the first violin line almost sighing and moaning, glorious.

This cantata is a sad one, wrists and razor blades at the ready.

 

[Contratrombone64]

Now I come to Cantata 7. Scored for two Oboes d'amore, solo violin, and strings. The opening chorus is in e minor and is rather pointed, with quite vertical writing (unusual for Bach) mostly, with loads of spaces where there is brief silence. The solo violin writing is marvellous, with scampering across three strings, arpeggiated.

This Cantata is very serious, of course, as it deals with the story of Christ at the time of John the Baptist's wanderings.

The aria which follows has uses a series of descending demisemiquavers (32nd notes) in the cello, which must be a bloody nightmare to coordinate with the portative organ! The bass singing over this is not walk in the park either.

No point in discussing the text here really as it concerns baptism and water (not to diminish its import, at all).

The Tenor Aria that follows has "jumping lambs in the green grass" writing for the two solo violins, just devine. Like a manic jig! Note to self: get your viola out and start playing it again David!!

This is a lovley Cantata.

 

[Contratrombone64]

Now comes the fabulous Cantata 8. Scored for two oboes d'amore, Transverse Flute (which seems to chirup along on single notes like a bird yelling its head off in a tree), strings and a horn that yells along with the sopranos.

This cantata has a horrfically difficult solo for the transverse flute in the fourth movement, a Bass aria.

The closing chorale is NOT typical - hardly a hymn tune setting but nevertheless determined and wide in scope.

 

[Contratrombone64]

here I add an article (or at least a minor part thereof) about the recording that I own for this set (The Netherlands Bach Collegium and the Holland Boys' Choir), the choir being an amateur one, nevertheless pretty good

In 1999 and 2000 all Bach's sacred cantatas were recorded within 15 months, a tremendous achievement, considering the fact that it was accomplished with the same amateur (read literarily: music-loving) choir, soloists and orchestra throughout the project, in itself deserving an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. The project aroused storms of criticism in The Netherlands on alleged grounds of inferior haste-work (Recording at this speed must be superficial and lacking depth) and commercialism (imagine! Culture with a capital C on the shelves of a drugstore: how low can you go!), even before anyone had heard a single note! Since the release of the first boxes, reviews have become more and more favorable, especially from foreign critics from all over the world. The cantatas project was concluded by a rewarding tour of cantatas concerts in The Netherlands, including the Trauer-Ode, BWV 198 Lass Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl, BWV 30 Freue dich, erlöste Schar and BWV 102 Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben. In the fall of 2000, Pieter Jan Leusink and Holland Boys' Choir made a new recording of J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and their first St John Passion (BWV 245). Both of them will be released in the course of this year