Program Notes: Back to Bach
J.S. Bach needs no introduction and every accolade possible has been used to describe him and his music, all of them well deserved. This concert program will feature three different representative genres of his writing, and these notes will dwell on them briefly.
Lobet Den Herrn. Bach's motets present in miniature form the very essence of his greatness as a composer. His technical mastery, artistry, and facility with complex musical structures and intricate counterpoint provide a musical excitement and freshness that is challenging to both listener and performer. Although Bach's major works lay unperformed for many years until their revival by Mendelssohn, his motets have consistently been in the concert repertoire. Mozart heard them and is said to have exclaimed “Here is something one can learn from.“ Lobet Den Herrn is the shortest of Bach's motets, and it is unique in several ways: it has only one movement, it is the only motet of his that is written solely for four voices, and it does not include a chorale tune. It begins with a rising arpeggio figure in each voice that immediately demands attention and continues through the second subject, “un preisit“. After a short reflective middle section “Denn seine Gnade“ this short gem culminates in a joyful Alleluia which, interestingly, is not part of the Psalm 117 text upon which the motet is based.
Missa Brevis in G minor. That J.S. Bach, a composer closely associated with Lutheranism, would write music for Latin mass texts strikes many as enigmatic. Research has indicated, however, that the approved Lutheran liturgies included texts that were regularly performed in Latin. Luther himself is quoted as saying the Latin texts were appropriate “for those who love and understand them.“ The simplicity of the Kryie text as well as the familiarity of the Gloria text, which constitute the Lutheran mass settings, certainly would lend themselves to fulfilling Luther's criteria. There is also much evidence that the discipline of studying earlier contrapuntal composers and their Latin settings and incorporating that style into one's own work was very much in mode both during and after the time of J. S. Bach.
Music critics have also highly criticized Bach's Latin settings, including his great B minor Mass, as being merely parodies of his earlier compositions using German text. The fact is that much of Bach's later music is a parody, adaptation, or revision of his earlier music. The B minor Mass draws extensively on a very early Lutheran mass and previously completed Sanctus. Many of his cantatas are reworkings of earlier works, often secular ones. Rather than considering this a detriment, however, such review, revision and parody in the hands of a master craftsman like Bach only heighten the musical value as well as our awe in such technical mastery.
The Lutheran Masses, four of which are published and available to us today, were composed and then regularly performed from about 1736 onwards. They were not “festive“ settings for special occasions but rather “ordinary“ service music.
Ein Feste Burg. Next to his organ music, the cantata is perhaps the most often performed musical genre of J. S. Bach. After opera, the cantata was the most popular vocal musical form of the Baroque era. However, its history and evolution from the Italian secular solo cantata to the German church cantata is too complex for discussion here.
Bach's contribution of five complete yearly cycles of cantatas, one composed for each Sunday and significant liturgical event of the year, certainly stands as an opus of its own. The cantata was an integral part of the traditional Lutheran service. The text was determined by the liturgical calendar and was intended to provide an interpretation of the Gospel for that particular day. It was sung between the Gospel reading and the sermon.
Cantata BWV 80 Ein Feste Burg is musically based on an earlier Lenten cantata of 1715-1716. It was expanded about 10 years later for a Reformation festival. It was not until a third revision in the mid 1730's , however, that the mighty opening chorus was added along with the choral aria of movement #5 and, of course, the new final chorale. All three additions were based upon Luther's grand battle hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.“ This “Reformation“ cantata has always been one of Bach's most performed works. It was the first cantata to be published in score form, even before the Passions or the B minor Mass. In addition, Luther's hymn tune became a musical symbol of Lutheranism. It became such a popular battle cry that in the 1870's trumpets and timpani were added for an opening fanfare, which was used to arouse nationalistic sentiment after the German-French war of 1870-1871 and again as a signal of the military news broadcast on German radio during World War II.
The Mastersingers will perform the work in its original version without trumpet and timpani. This will allow the seven part texture of the original opening chorus to be more clearly heard. The seven parts are a four part imitative vocal setting, a canon between oboe and bass strings, and the continuo part. The musical language is an expression of the might of God, a central theme of the Reformation. The fifth and middle movement is an orchestral piece featuring two oboe d'amore and the unadorned chorale tune sung by unison choir.
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