IN DEATH THERE IS NO REMEMBRANCE - Bach: Cantatas 97 and 100, without Occasion
Commentary No. 42 of The Bach Cantatas
Cantata 97
Composed in 1734, this cantata, like cantata 117, takes as its text a hymn of nine stanzas, this time Paul Fleming’s In allen meinen Taten (In all of my deeds), written in 1633 before Fleming’s departure for Riga, and published in 1642. Each stanza contains six lines, rhymed aabccb. The poem, originally in 15 stanzas, is based upon Psalm 6.
This psalm is one of the seven penitential psalms. Its superscription reads “To the Chief Musician on Neginoth.” Neginoth denotes a group of stringed instruments, such as the harp, psaltery, dulcimer, or viol, forming an accompaniment in the temple choir. The text expresses a desperate plea for delivery from the suffering and distress instilled by divine discipline.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?
4 Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
8 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
9 The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
Twenty-one of Fleming’s thirty years of mortal life from 1609 to 1640 were lived during the Holy Roman Empire’s Thirty Years’ War (1610-48), which caused the deaths of between 4.5 and 8 million people. After its first seventeen years essentially as a German civil war, the conflict widened to the Palatinate, the Dutch Republic, Spain, France, Denmark, and Sweden. Hapsburgs against Bourbons; Lutherans against Catholics; the usual and meaningless confrontations solely for the purpose of power clothed in religious ascendancy.
Fleming was a Saxon. He studied at Leipzig’s Thomasschule and the universities of Leipzig and Hamburg. At Leipzig he graduated as a Ph.D. in literature, and at Hamburg as a physician. Afterwards, for six years (1633-39), Fleming was engaged in political missions that took him to Russia, Estonia, and Persia; whereafter he resumed medical studies at the University of Leiden, was awarded his second medical doctorate, and promptly died a year later, in 1640, in Hamburg.
Fleming is regarded as a lyricist of consequence, the brilliance of his stature analogous to England’s Robert Herrick (1591-1674), the comparison being more ways than one, as Herrick lost and regained a vicarage for political reasons after the English Civil War. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.
In addition to cantata 97, Bach also used poetry by Fleming in cantatas 13 (at Epiphany II, and discussed in book five of this series) and 44 (at Exaudi, book six). The 1495 melody is by the Flemish Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac (1450-1617), a significant contemporary of the great composer Josquin des Prez (1440-1521), and even more peripatetic than Fleming.
Bach allocates one musical movement to each of Fleming’s nine stanzas. The cantata is scored for choir SATB, strings, continuo, and two oboes. The opening chorus, a regal French overture for all the performers, announces that all of God’s counsel is for the furtherance of prosperity. The aria for bass and continuo reminds that all earthly affairs are disposed in the manner that God decides. The third movement, a recitative for tenor, relates of divine foreordination and foreknowledge. The fourth movement, an aria for tenor, continuo, and a demanding part for solo violin, deals with the protection given by divine grace. The recitative for alto and strings is about redemption. The sixth movement, an aria for alto and strings, speaks of the duress that is comforted by the Word. The ensuing duet for soprano, bass, and continuo avers that the promise of salvation enables the overcoming of all earthly misfortune. Movement eight, an aria for soprano, the two oboes, and continuo, declares once more than everything is in God’s hands. The final movement, a chorale, declares that the Creator has wisdom in all matters, therefore Es gehe, wie es gehe—Let it go, as it goes.
Cantata 100
Composed between 1732 and 1735, this cantata’s libretto is Samuel Rodigast’s 1674 hymn Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, often employed as a traditional wedding hymn whose each verse begins with the incipit what God does, is done well.. Bach also uses the text as the basis for cantatas 98 (Trinity XXI) and 99 (Trinity XV), and the hymn tune appears in cantatas 12 (Easter III), 69 (inauguration of the town council), 75 (Trinity I), and 144 (Septuagesima).
In cantata 100 Bach uses all six verses unaltered in a format of four arias framed by an opening fantasia and a closing chorale. The opening chorus is a sumptuous and elaborate modification of the opening chorus of cantata 99, and the final chorus a splendid modification of the closing movement of cantata 75.
The first aria, a duet for alto and tenor with continuo, is an intimate counterpoint to the splendour of the cantata’s opening music, which is filled with virtuosic work for the horns, flute, and oboe d’amore, and concerns itself with the divine mercy that displaces earthly misfortune as we walk insistently through life. The second aria, for soprano with an intricate part of the solo flute, has God as the faithful doctor of ills. The third aria, for bass and strings, is preoccupied with, and soars willingly in, divine light. The fourth aria, for alto and oboe d’amore, presents the heartfelt comfort of the cessation of pain.
And so to the opulent grandeur, with the virtuoso instruments, of the closing chorale.
This publication is adapted from a chapter in On the Cantatas of J.S. Bach – Trinity I -VII, available at Amazon in both ebook and print editions, and at most other international distributors in its ebook edition.
All my publications on the cantatas of J.S. Bach are available on Amazon as well as at Apple, Kobo, Nook, and other international distributors.