Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen (BWV 43), the Ascension Day cantata for the year 1726, has an unusual background as regards its origins. During this period Bach performed a series of cantatas by his cousin in Meiningen, Johann Ludwig Bach; some of his own cantatas have the same textual construction as the latter. Apparently Bach also made use of his cousin’s author. Thus our cantata displays a singular textual structure from Bach’s point of view:
Biblical text (Old Testament) - Recitative -
Aria - Biblical text (New Testament) -
Strophic poem - Chorale.
An archaic effect results from inclusion of a strophic poem which was traditionally set to music as a simple, song-like strophic aria (that is to say, not according to the da capo aria which was modern at that time). However, Bach does not observe the convention, already obsolete in his day: he sets each verse - movements 5 to 10 of the cantata - in an individually designed modern aria or in a recitatlve. This puts him in the awkward position, however, of having to compose the arias within a relatively short span of time, i.e. without the usual da capo of the beginning section, if he did not want to exceed the roughly 30 minutes of the church service reserved for the cantata. (That Bach did not, as occasionally in the past, create a two-part cantata, the second part of which was played after the sermon, could be due to the specific course of the Ascension Day service, or to other reasons of which we have no knowledge.)
The shortness ol the arias stands alongside the magnificent arrangement of the opening chorale, the two-part text of which is performed in four subsections of the movement:
I. "Gott fähret auf...": Two fugue expositions
II. "Lobsinget...": Homophonic movement; third fugue
Among the arias, the virtuoso trumpet part of the seventh movement is especially impressive. In a subsequent performance Bach had the trumpet part played on a violin because ot the exacting demands upon the trumpeter. As Emil Platen has proved, Bach took over the final chorale, with only minor alterations, from the Leipzig hymn book of Gottfried Vopelius dated 1682; it goes back to a 1655 setting by Christoph Peter.
Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (BWV 44) is a cantata from the first yearly Leipzig cycle and was played for the first time on May 21, 1724. Because of the unmistakably instructive content of the text the author is assumed to have been a theologian, the same who, inter alia, wrote the text to Cantatas No. 6 and No. 37. Characteristic of his train of thought is that, contrary to widespread custom, he does not see the cantata conclusion (movements 5-7) as relating to the individual Christian, but as a kind of general lesson from what has preceded it - in this case as consolation after sorrows suffered: just as palms when draped with weights only grow all the straighten, so the Christian is not harmed by earthly grief.
Bach takes up the sulfering-consolation contrast provided in the txt. The musical setting of the introductory biblical text is divided in two and encompasses an impressive song of lament in which instrumental and vocal soloists unite within a homogeneous quintet movement, as well as a mainly homophonic chorale movement where the words "wer euch tötet” (he who kills you) are emphasized by means of expressive chromaticism. Homogeneous trio style also marks the first aria (movement 3); and in the chorale that follovvs, the accumulated chromaticism of the continuo movement paints in a graphic manner the "misery-fillled" path of Christians on earth. After a secco recitative has brought about an intellectual change, what then follows, however, is an aria of a different kind: independent instrumental motif elements, in which tho figure occupies a dominating position, engenders lively, joylul motion, which, even in the drastically realistic depiction of a menacing atmosphere, proves to be only a passing threat.
Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist (BWV 45) belongs to the mature cantatas of the third yearly Leipzig cycle of 1726 and furthermore is also composed to a text of the ”Meiningen” poet already referred to in connection with Cantata No. 43. But in this instance the work is the non-festive cantata form, which contains no strophic hymn and which we have had an opportunity to be come familiar with in Cantatas No. l7 and No. 39. The first movement is a typical representative of the introductory choruses of this year’s cycle: the old motet principle, according to which the text is subdivided into individual sections, seems here to have been, so to speak, "cancelled out” by insertion of the two sections of text (”Es ist dir gesagt..."; "nämlich..." - He showeth to you..., for...) into a concertante orchestral movement, brought out by an extended instrumental introduction: motet and concerto principles thus become interwoven. The movement in which the New Testament biblical passage is quoted (movement 4), which tcxtually forms the conclusion of the Sunday Gospel reading, the instrumental movement which carries the vocal part plays an essential role. However, here it is no longer chorus, but the solo bass - the conventional vox Christi - who is given thc text. If the two arias are included in this perusal, the shift from a general to a personal plane of thought becomes even clearer. The instrumental ensemble shifts from tutti (movement 1) via the string movements (movements 3, 4) to the solo flute, since the text of the last aria (movement 5) demands acceptance ”aus wahren Herzensgrund” (with hearty, real accord).
Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei (BWV 46), a cantata from the first Leipzig annual cycle, composed for August 1, 1723, is, like the previously examined work, conspicuous for the large-scale arrangement of its introductory movement. Nevertheless here too the rest of the movements, more so than in many other works, indicate the intention of illustrating the vocally rendered text to the congregation with all the means at the rnusician's disposal.
In its two-part structure the opening movement is comparable with the instrumental form of the”prelude and fugue,” although admittedly the ”prelude,” just as in Bach’s later organ works, takes on a strongly uniform character due to the retained thematic elements of the instrumental introduction. The introductory theme of the vocal movement is incomparable on the merits of its strong expressiveness. Anyone who has fully assimilated this plasticity of the text interpretation will consider it all the more astounding that transplantation of the movement into the B-minor Mass nowhere violates the new text "Qui tollis peccata mundi.”
The two arias are at extreme variance with each other. Movement 3 paints God with trumpet and string music as the elevated avenger of sins, movement 5 onthe other hand depicts Jesus with the familiar picture ofthe Good Shepherd (recorder!), as the protector of the faithful whose sins are forgiven; the continuo as the szmbol of innocence is omitted here (compare "Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” - For love my Saviour wishes to die - of the St Matthew Passion), its place being taken in this ease bz a so-called ”little bassett", formed by the two obocs da caccia.
The concertante treatment of the final chorale is also unconventional: the two recorder parts, with two to a part each receive an obbligato part here, the figurations of which recall the introductory chorus and intensify the impression of the woek's compactness.