VENTURE TO BE UNFORSAKEN - Bach: Cantata 107, at Trinity VII
Commentary No. 44 of The Bach Cantatas
Cantata 107 is for the second annual Leipzig cantata cycle of 1724. The majority, some forty, of the cantatas of the second cycle, termed the chorale cantatas, is noted for structure dependent upon a Lutheran hymn, the theme of the hymn often presented and developed with intricacy and sophistication in the first movement of the work. The cycle begins with cantata 20.
Musically, cantata 107 is more interesting than its predecessor for Trinity VII, not the least because of its structural analogies to the Easter cantata, BWV 4, Christ lag in Todes Banden — Christ lay in the bonds of death —, of 1707, in which each movement specifically deals, in succession, with each of the verses of the text, of which, in both cantatas, there are seven. The chorale in cantata 107 is Ludwig Helmbold’s 1563 tune, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (I shall not abandon God), which first appeared as a secular melody in Lyon in 1557, and whose text, decidedly not sacred, is worth presenting:
Une jeune fillette / De noble coeur / Plaisante et joliette / De grand’ valeur, / Outre son greon / l’a vendu’ nonette, / Cela point ne luy haicte / Dont vit en grand’ douleur.
A young girl / with a noble heart / pleasant and good-looking / and of great worth, / against her will / was sold to a nunnery, /which she despised / for therein she lived in great sorrow.
The text of the cantata is Lutheran minister and Silesian poet Johann Heermann’s 1630 hymn, Was willst du dich betrüben (Why dost thou wish to distress thyself), published during the Thirty Years’ War. Heermann’s poetic work is dominated by the Gospels and the devotional literature of the day. His most prominent collection, Devoti musica cordis (music for the devout heart), includes the hymn Bach selected for this cantata. (Bach also uses Heerman’s Lenten pentitential hymn Wo soll ich fliehen hin in cantata 5 at Trinity XIX. I discuss this in Book 3 of this series.)
Bach frames the middle verses with two choral movements, the first of the middle verses being a melismatic recitative, and all the following four movements are arias. The arias are not, however in da capo form, but in the olden Bar form, much used by the German Meistersingers, with its AAB structure comprised of two Stollen (stanazas, with melody repeated in the second) and an Abgesang (aftersong). Bach also embeds this Bar form in the opening and closing choral movements. The structure of this cantata, then, parallels Heermann’s hymn, which is also written in Bar form, The cantata is scored for three voices (soprano, tenor, bass), choir, tromba da tirarsi, flutes, oboes d’amore, strings, and continuo.
The opening chorus is of immense breadth and impact, asking those who are beset with sadness to stand beside the Throne of the Saviour. The presentation by the voices of the chorale, as cantus firmus, between the orchestral statements is breath-taking, the orchestral sections even more so in their intensified calm.
The highly charged bass recitative that then follows states that those who repent are never by God forsaken. It is complex and dramatic, with its tolling oboes, against which the declamation in the voice line changes to arioso, and, in turn, becomes a remarkable duet of alternating figurations between the voice and the continuo.
The presence of striking, rolling figurations in the continuo continues in the first of the four arias. It becomes arpeggiated, with a turn on the second half of the second beat of the 3/4 time of the second aria; and coheres with the oboes in the third and, with the flutes in the fourth. Bach differentiates the arias by voice type (bass, tenor, soprano, tenor), key, meter (4/4, 4/4, 3/4, 12/8), orchestration (violins, solo continuo, oboes d’amore with continuo staccato, flutes with continuo pizzicato).
The first aria deals with the omnipotence of God; the second, the defeat of Satan; the third, the inexorability of divine purpose; and, the fourth, the integration of humanity with the divine. As the arias succeed one after the other, there is a palpable relaxation of tension in the music; the master stroke of which is the introduction, as the Abgesang of the third aria, of the chorale in the soprano voice. It is an exquisite moment.
The concluding chorale, with all the musical forces, changes to 6/8 meter, and against the motion of the instruments the choir intones the chorale four times; and then an epilogue brings the work to its end, the congregation, as the text relates, kneeling before the Trinity.
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.