This tag was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Elizabeth Budd.
Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan BWV 100 / BC A 191
Purpose Not Transmitted, 1734–1735
The cantata Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan BWV 100 (What God does is well done) is the last of three cantatas by Bach that bear that particular title. To some extent, it is caught in between the front lines in Bach’s vocal work. On the one hand, it is among the relatively small group of cantatas that rely in all movements on the unaltered text of a chorale. On the other, it shares with several sibling works a certain homelessness in the church calendar. By all appearances, the composer avoided clarifying the situation, for whatever reason, intending from the very start that the work be usable at any time and for any occasion. Still, it is conceivable that the composition was originally a commissioned work or one bound to a specific occasion. Consequently, as the cantatas were divided among the heirs after Bach’s death, the cantata landed in a stack with the label “all sorts of pieces” (von Allerhand Stücken).For the text, Bach used all six strophes of the 1674 hymn by Samuel Rodigast,which appeared in hymnals of the period beneath the rubric “Kreuz- und Trost-Lieder” (Songs of affliction and consolation). Overall, the musical design hews to the pattern characteristic of the chorale cantata annual cycle but with certain modifications. Those deviations from the norm are entirely due to the fact that our cantata originated at least a decade after that annual cycle, by all appearances in 1734.
Nevertheless, the opening movement is literally bound to the annual cycle of chorale cantatas since it adopts the entire first movement from the work of the same name from 1724. Here, the instrumental ensemble of strings and two woodwinds is expanded by two horns and drums, making the work more festive. Despite this change, which necessarily affects the timbral balance, Bach maintains the original material, particularly, the almost constant emergence of the two woodwind instruments, the flute and oboe.
In contrast to many works in Bach’s chorale cantata cycle, this late composition avoids using the chorale melody in its internal movements, with a single exception. Similarly, recitatives are omitted. On the other hand, various movement types are presented, for the most part with an almost didactic intensity and intentionality.
The second chorale strophe is set as a duet. In constant eighth-note motion, the basso continuo approaches ostinato technique as it goes on its way with frequent repetitions and only slight modifications. No other instruments participate; alto and tenor are left to their own devices, clinging to one another with constant imitations and thus keeping to the chorale verse “Er führet mich auf rechter Bahn, / So laß ich mich begnügen” (He leads me on the true path, / So I allow myself to be content).
The third chorale strophe is set as an aria for soprano in the elegiac key of B minor with siciliano rhythm, familiar from the “Erbarme dich” from the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244/39. The soprano is joined by a solo flute, entwining the voice’s expressive passages with unbroken garlands of figuration. The fourth movement, an aria for bass with strings in a fashionably syncopated
4 meter, qualifies this genuflection to the spirit of the age with clearly perceptible echoes of the chorale melody. The energetic momentum of the duple meter proves to be a challenge after the middle of the movement, when it must be adapted to the chorale lines “Ich will mich ihm ergeben / In Freud und Leid” (I will submit myself to him / In joy and suffering).
The last aria, a trio for alto, oboe d’amore, and basso continuo, is characterized by a softly flowing pastorale melody. The comforting voices of the woodwinds accentuate the images in the chorale “süßen Trost” (sweet comfort) and the “Weichen aller Schmerzen” (retreat of all sorrow) and act as an equalizer when “Kelch” (cup) and “Schrecken” (terror) are spoken of.
Like the opening movement, the closing chorale goes back to an older cantata by Bach: the chorale that concludes parts 1 and 2 of Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75 (The afflicted shall eat), performed as Bach’s debut in Leipzig on May 30, 1723. The scoring of the earlier work—two oboes with strings—is elevated to the level of the first movement: the strings are joined by flute and oboe d’amore, as well as the festive brilliance of two horns. In this way, the rather mechanical figuration of the two obbligato parts is concealed as far as possible.
Our cantata was reperformed during the composer’s lifetime as well as afterward. Even Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach prepared a performance, probably in Hamburg after 1780. On the title envelope he noted, “Notabene kan nicht wohl parodirt werden” (Nota bene can not easily be parodied), by which he meant that it would not be possible to manage a new text. He designated the first and sixth movements as “Tutti”; the second verse as “Duetto Alto und Tenore, mit einem Bass Thema” (duet for alto and tenor, with a bass theme); and the fourth movement as “Basso, mit zwei Violinen und Viola” (bass, with two violins and viola). He notated rescorings for the third and fifth movements. While he only stipulated for the fifth movement that the oboe d’amore—by now obsolete—was to be replaced by an ordinary oboe, for the third movement the note regarding the obbligato part reads: “Flauto solo (wird, wie die ganze Stimme mit der concertirenden Violin gespielt, alle 32theile werden gezogen)” (solo flute [to be played together with the concertante violin for the whole part, the thirty-second-note passages to be omitted]). Whether these notes, with their remarkable performing instructions for the third movement with its abundant thirty-second-note motion, were intended for a performance led by the Bach son or whether he intended to loan the performing parts out lies beyond our knowledge at present.