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• 1 2023-09-26T09:35:19+00:00 Es erhub sich ein Streit BWV 19 / BC A 180 19 St Michael's Day. First performed 09/29/1726 in Leipzig (Cycle III). Text by CF Henrici (Picander). plain 2024-04-24T14:47:10+00:00 CF Birkmann 1726-09-29 BWV 19 Leipzig 51.340199, 12.360103 06StMichael St Michael's Day BC A 180 Johann Sebastian Bach CF Henrici (Picander) Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19 / BC A 180" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 544 Leipzig III

  St. Michael’s Day, September 29, 1726

  
  Bach’s cantata Es erhub sich ein Streit BWV 19 (A battle arose) was composed in 1726 for St. Michael’s Day on September 29. Our cantata has well-known predecessors by Heinrich Schütz and by Bach’s uncle Johann Christoph Bach, an organist active in Eisenach and a “great and expressive composer,” as a family chronicle describes him.¹  All begin with the same passage from the Revelation of St. John. It is uncertain whether Johann Sebastian was aware of the Schutz composition, although he could have encountered it during his school days at Lüneburg, presuming he had access to the music collection of the St. Michael’s School. We are better informed as to his knowledge of the Michaelmas work by the Great Eisenacher, Johann Christoph Bach. Sebastian Bach’s second-oldest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, wrote about this to the Göttingen music historian Johann Nikolaus Forkel in the late summer of 1775 while sending several musical items from the Ancient Bach Archive (Alt-Bachisches Archiv): “The twenty-two-part work is a masterpiece. My blessed father performed it on one occasion in church, and everyone was astonished by its effect. I do not have enough singers here; otherwise, I would gladly perform it one day.”²
  
  That such expressive and elaborately set works for St. Michael’s Day existed has to do with the particular nature of the feast day. In the words of Friedrich Smend, one of the most important Bach researchers of the twentieth century, the church announced:

  According to Holy Scripture, hell and the devil were disempowered by Christ’s death and resurrection; that in the end times the ultimate destruction of the Antichrist shall first occur; that therefore today on earth the battle rages between Godly and ungodly forces.... The church in Bach’s time, and in particular Johann Sebastian himself, were aware of this battle and celebrated the day of the archangel Michael as a feast of triumph, at which at the same time God was called upon for assistance through angelic forces in the struggles of this life. However, the idea of the angels directed one’s attention to one’s own death; indeed, Jesus himself had said in the parable that the pauper Lazarus was carried to the bosom of Abraham by the angels. Beside this peaceful image of dying there appears the awesome depiction of the prophet Elijah, who travels toward heaven in his chariot pulled by fiery steeds. To be borne by angels to the same place, where the Ecclesia triumphans (church triumphant) celebrated, was therefore the prayer of every Christian during this period.

  
  It is unusual that the relevant biblical text is found not in the Gospel reading for the day but in the Epistle. The twelfth chapter of the Revelation of St. John reads:

  Und es erhub sich ein Streit im Himmel: Michael und seine Engel stritten mit dem Drachen; und der Drache stritt und seine Engel, und siegten nicht, auch ward ihre Stätte nicht mehr gefunden im Himmel. Und es ward ausgeworfen der große Drache, die alte Schlange, die da heißt der Teufel und Satanas, der die ganze Welt verführt, und ward geworfen auf die Erde, und seine Engeln wurden auch dahin geworfen. Und ich hörte eine große Stimme, die sprach im Himmel: Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft und das Reich unsers Gottes geworden und die Macht seines Christus, weil der Verkläger unserer Brüder verworfen ist, der sie verklagte Tag und Nacht vor Gott. Und sie haben überwunden durch des Lammes Blut und durch das Wort ihres Zeugnisses und haben ihr Leben nicht geliebt bis an den Tod. Darum freuet euch, ihr Himmel und die darin wohnen! (7–12)
  
  And a battle arose in Heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and did not prevail, also their home was no longer found in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown out, the old snake, who there is called the Devil and Satan, who seduced the entire world, and was thrown upon the earth, and his angels were also thrown there. And I heard a great voice, that spoke in heaven: Now is the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ, for the accuser of our brother is cast out, which accuses them before our God day and night. And they have overcome because of the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and those who live in them!

  
  The cantata text composed by Bach follows the beginning of this epistle, but in rhymed paraphrase, except for the first line:

  Es erhub sich ein Streit.
  Der rasende Schlange, der höllische Drache, 
  Stürmt wider den Himmel mit wütender Rache. 
  Aber Michael bezwingt,
  Und die Schar, die ihn umringt, 
  Stürzt des Satans Grausamkeit.
  
  A battle arose.
  The raging snake, the hellish dragon,
  Storms against the heavens with furious vengeance. 
  But Michael conquers,
  And the army that surrounds him 
  Topples the savagery of Satan.

  
  The author of this rhymed paraphrase cannot be identified with certainty. The text for Bach’s cantata has a somewhat peculiar and convoluted history. Many of its formulations are found in a seven-strophe poem with the title Erbauliche Gedancken auf das Fest Michaelis (Edifying thoughts on St. Michael’s Day), which the Leipzig occasional poet Christian Friedrich Henrici published in his Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedancken über und auf die gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Fest-Tage (Collection of edifying thoughts about and on the usual Sundays and feast days). However, Henrici’s poem was not intended for use as a cantata libretto; instead, it was to be sung to the melody Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (Honor only to God on high). It is one of countless efforts to enrich and update the contents of contemporary hymn collections.
  
  This source text was reshaped to become a cantata libretto with recitatives and arias, following in principle the procedure so often seen in Bach’s chorale cantatas.³ However, in this case the revision avoids the characteristic retention of the opening and closing strophes of the chorale text. Instead, the cantata text begins with the rhymed paraphrase of the Epistle’s beginning just described. It closes with the ninth strophe from the 1620 chorale Freu dich sehr o meine Seele, whose text begins:

  Laß dein Engel mit mir fahren 
  Auf Elias Wagen rot
  Und mein Seele wohl bewahren, 
  Wie Laz’rum nach seinem Tod.
  
  Let your angel journey with me On 
  Elijah’s red chariot
  And preserve my soul well
  Like Lazarus after his death.

  
  The second movement of the cantata text is also a paraphrase of part of the Epistle:

  Gottlob, der Drachen liegt. 
  Der unerschaffne Michael 
  Und seiner Engel Heer 
  Hat ihn besiegt.
  Dort liegt er in der Finsternis 
  Mit Ketten angebunden,
  Und seine Stätte wird nicht mehr 
  Im Himmelreich gefunden.
  
  Praise God, the dragon lies. 
  The uncreated Michael 
  And his host of angels 
  Have conquered him.
  There he lies in the darkness 
  Bound with chains,
  And his home will no longer
  Be found in the kingdom of heaven.

  With the third movement, we are on solid ground with respect to authorship. It matches Christian Friedrich Henrici’s St. Michael’s Day text of 1725 word for word:

  Gott schickt uns Mahanaim zu; 
  Wir stehen oder gehen,
  So können wir in sichrer Ruh 
  Vor unsern Feinden stehen. 
  Es lagert sich, so nah als fern,
  Um uns der Engel unsers Herrn 
  Mit Feuer, Roß und Wagen.
  
  God sends Mahanaim to us; 
  Whether we stand or go
  We can in secure repose 
  Stand before our enemies.
  Encamped around us, near and far, 
  Is the angel of our Lord
  With fire, steed, and chariot.7

  
  In part, the image of the barricade of wagons refers to Psalm 34:7, which reads, “Der Engel des Herrn lagert sich um die her, so ihn fürchten, und hilft ihnen aus” (The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and    helps them out), and partly to 2 Kings 2:11, depicting the separation of the prophets Elijah and Elisha: “And as they went with one another and talked, see, there came a fiery chariot with fiery horses, they separated the two from each other, and Elijah went up in a whirlwind to heaven” The first line of the aria refers to Jacob’s encounter with the angels, as described in Moses 32:1–2, with the mention of Mahanaim: “Jacob, however, went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And as he saw them, he said: This is the army of God, and called the place Mahanaim.” This name can mean not only “army camp” but also “two armies.” In 1711 Erdmann Neumeister, later the senior pastor in Hamburg, created the following cantata text:

  So laß auf beiden Seiten
  Die Mahanaim mich begleiten. 
  Wird mir von Feinden nachgestellt; 
  So laß die Feuer-Roß’ und Wagen 
  Ihr Lager um mich schlagen.
  
  So let on both sides
  The Mahanaim accompany me. 
  Should I be chased by enemies;
  Then may the fire steeds and chariots 
  Close their camp around me.

  
  He had used similar expressions in a cantata libretto in 1702. There is every reason to suppose that Henrici, nearly thirty years younger, borrowed extensively from the older poet.
  
  The same applies to the fourth movement of the cantata, a recitative whose text begins, “Was ist der schnöde Mensch, das Erdenkind” (What is this vile person, the child of Earth), in which the angels are described as a protecting, vigilant, and defending army. On the other hand, no model for the fifth movement, an aria in which the angels are sought to aid in praising God, can be found in either Neumeister or Henrici:

  Bleibt, ihr Engel, bleibt bei mir. 
  Führet mich auf beiden Seiten, 
  Daß mein Fuß nicht möge gleiten. 
  Aber lernt mich auch allhier
  Euer großes Heilig singen
  Und dem Höchsten Dank zu singen.
  
  Abide, you angels, abide with me.
  Lead me on both sides,
  That my step might never slip.
  But train me even here
  To sing your great “Holy”
  And sing thanksgiving to the Most High.

  
  The problematic language and awkward rhyme structure in the last three lines point to a self-taught nonprofessional. We cannot say whether the cantor of St. Thomas took pen in hand himself in this instance or if he asked someone nearby for the still missing aria text. In contrast, the sixth movement, the last recitative before the closing chorale, whose text begins, “Laßt uns das Angesicht / Der frommen Engel lieben” (Let us adore the countenance / Of the devout angel), proves to be a conflation of two text strophes from Henrici’s poem of 1725.
  
  Bach’s composition begins suddenly, in the apocalyptic tumult of battle, with thick, fugue-like attacks of hammering repeated tones and ravaging passages intertwined with one another and above the whole the gleaming high trumpets, voices of war. Their limited tonal ambitus imposes boundaries on the harmonic unfolding; even more in that regard occurs in the middle section, with vivid language unfurling a series of images of the dangerously chaotic scene. With the return of the opening section and its text, “Es erhub sich ein Streit,” the architecture of the overall movement is completed, on the one hand, but it becomes clear that there can be no talk of a plotlike “course of action,” on the other hand.
  
  A brief bass recitative is followed by the first aria, “Gott schickt uns Mahanaim zu,” for soprano and two oboi d’amore. The soft coloration of the woodwinds suggests warmth and intimacy; the dense, attentive texture with abundant imitation and parallel thirds and sixths suggests security and assurance. The string-accompanied tenor recitative, with its air of self-accusation, brings this idyll to an end. But the aria “Bleibt, ihr Engel, bleibt bei mir” leads into a new wo6rld of enchantment. From beginning to end it is dominated by the hovering, 6
  8 Siciliano rhythm familiar from the Christmas Oratorio, associated with the angels, begun by the string instruments and the basso continuo and taken over by the tenor soloist. In addition, a high trumpet sounds the melody “Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr” (Sincerely I love you, O Lord). The aria’s free text is strongly associated with the third chorale strophe:

  Ach Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein 
  Am letzten Tag die Seele mein 
  In Abrahams Schoß tragen
  
  Ah Lord, may your dear little angel
  On my last day carry this soul of mine    
  To the bosom of Abraham.    

  
  The relatively large number of chorale lines, the slow tempo of the aria, and the virtually instrumental demands upon the voice make this movement a true challenge for the singer. This seems to have been a problem in Bach’s time as well, since there are certain indications that at the first performance both of the arias for tenor were omitted. Toward the end things become less challenging, with an uncomplicated soprano recitative and the joyful closing chorale, to which the brass once again lends a radiant brilliance.
   

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  Footnotes

  1. BD I:265 (no. 184)BWV 2.—Trans.↵
  2. “Das 22stimmmige Stück ist ein Meisterstück. Mein seeliger Vater hat es einmahlin Leipzig in der Kirche aufgeführt, alles ist über den Efeckt erstaunt. Hier habe ichnicht Sänger genug, außerdem würde ich es gerne einmahl aufführen” (BD III:292[no. 807]). The Alt-Bachisches Archiv was a collection amassed by J. S. Bach of musical works by older family members to document the clan’s musical legacy. The collection was preserved by Carl Philipp Emanuel.—Trans.↵
  3. Christina Blanken (2015b, 55) has demonstrated that Christoph Birkmann is responsible for the arrangement of Henrici’s text.—Trans.↵