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Was willst du dich betrüben BWV 107 / BC A 109
Seventh Sunday after Trinity, July 23, 1724
This cantata, for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, was performed for the first time on July 23, 1724, six weeks after the beginning of Bach’s second annual cycle of cantatas at Leipzig, as part of the chorale cantata annual cycle. Our cantata proves to be something of an outlier in the chorale cantata cycle because here for the first time in the cycle—and for some time afterward—a chorale serves as the source text with original wording of all of its strophes. We do not know why, in this particular case, Bach avoided the usual reshaping of the inner strophes of his source hymn to form verses suitable for recitatives and arias. It is possible that external circumstances may have played a role: one week earlier, Bach had to rely on a substitute for performance of the Sunday’s church music because he and his wife, Anna Magdalena, were giving a guest performance at his former post, the court of Anhalt-Köthen. It may be that as a result there were difficulties with the poet who was to have prepared the libretto for the upcoming week.The seven-strophe chorale Was willst du dich betrüben BWV 107 (Why would you grieve) is certainly not among the main hymns for the seventh Sunday after Trinity. The hymnaries of the period only place it generally under the heading “Kreuz- und Trostlieder” (Hymns of cross-bearing and consolation). At the same time, its exhortation to maintain trust in God in the face of challenge fits the Sunday Gospel reading very well, the account in Mark 8 of the feeding of the four thousand. For many years, the disciples’ distressed question at the center of the account, “Woher nehmen wir Brot in der Wüste?” (Where can we find bread in the desert?), had a tragic actuality for the poet Johann Heermann. Nearly half of his life from 1585 to 1647 was marked by the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War, which allowed Heermann’s homeland, Silesia, scarcely a moment of peace.
Chronically ill and under multiple external threats, Heermann reacted with impressive poetic productivity: his contributions to the Protestant hymnary number over four hundred chorales. With Martin Opitz, Andreas Gryphius, and Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern, Heermann therefore ranks among the most influential figures of a Silesian circle of poets. One of the most important collections, published in Breslau and printed in Leipzig in 1630, is Haus- und Hertz-Musica. Das ist: Allerley Geistliche Lieder aus den Heiligen Kirchenlehrern, written by Heermann while he was pastor at Köben an der Oder. Included here is the chorale Was willst du dich betrüben, based on “Gott verlässet keinen” (God forsakes no one), the motto of Herr Georgius von Kottwitz. Kottwitz, earlier the manorial lord of Köben, had recommended Heermann for the leadership post of the Lutheran congregation there.
Heermann places the exhortation to trust in God at the head of his hymn text:
Was willst du dich betrüben,
O meine liebe Seel?
Ergib dich, den zu lieben,
Der heißt Immanuel.
Vertraue ihm allein;
Er wird gut alles machen,
Und fördern deine Sachen,
Wie dirs wird selig sein.
Why do you grieve,
O my dear soul?
Devote yourself to loving him
Who is called Immanuel.
Trust in him alone;
He will make all things good
And so support your affairs
As will be a blessing to you.
Strophe 2 offers the basis for the exhortation with the assurance of God’s faithfulness:
Denn Gott verlässet keinen,
Der sich auf ihn verläßt,
Er bleibt getreu den seinen,
Die ihm vertrauen fest.
Läßt sichs an wunderlich,
So laß dir doch nicht grauen;
Mit Freuden wirst du schauen,
Wie Gott wird retten dich.
For God forsakes no one
Who trusts in him.
He remains true to those of his
Who trust him firmly.
If things seem strange,
Then do not allow yourself to be afraid.
With joy you will see
How God will rescue you.
Strophe 3 calls for boldness while referring to the immutability of God’s will; strophe 4 points to the powerlessness of Satan himself; in strophe 5 Bach paraphrases the chorale melody on the last line, “Was Gott will, das geschicht” (What God wishes, is done); and from all this strophe 6 sums up:
Drum ich mich ihm ergebe,
Ihm sei es heimgestellt,
Nach nichts ich sonst mehr strebe,
Denn nur was ihm gefällt.
Drauf wart ich und bin still,
Sein Will der ist der beste,
Das glaub ich steif und feste,
Gott mach es, wie er will!
Therefore, I surrender myself to him,
On him reliance may be placed.
I strive after nothing more
Than only what pleases him.
For this I wait and am calm,
His will it is the best,
This I believe strongly and truly,
May God act as he wills!
An expression of thanksgiving for the Trinity follows in the concluding strophe.
Bach places the expected concerted arrangement of the chorale at the top of his composition. The cantus firmus is the melody Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (I shall not abandon God), originally from the sixteenth century and secular in origin. It is presented in large note values in the soprano with occasional ornamentation. The larger part of the opening movement—more than two-thirds of its entire scope—is carried by the orchestra: strings, two oboi d’amore, and two transverse flutes, which Bach decided to include only after the compositional work was finished; it was only the first time in Leipzig that he entrusted them with such a challenging task.
The second movement, the only recitative in the cantata, clearly reveals the problematic nature of the source text, as well as Bach’s overcoming of it. As a result of the all-too-regular versification, a certain monotony threatens the declamation. Bach countered this by structuring it as Accompagnato and juxtaposing the bass voice with a persistently maintained rhythmic figure in the oboi d’amore. Near the end, a passage on the keyword “Freuden” (joys) calls for greater variety, and the last verse, “Wie Gott wird retten dich” (How God will deliver you), draws the voice into the security of a four-part texture. Here, at the latest, it becomes clear that from the beginning the oboi d’amore with their warm coloration have functioned literally “as accompaniment”— as drawn from the first line, “Denn Gott verlässet keinen” (For God forsakes no one).
The first aria, “Auf ihn magst du es wagen” (You may stake everything on him), in A major, is the most distant from the cantata’s opening key. The bass voice is joined by a figure in the basso continuo that returns frequently, energetically circling and inviting, as well as the string ensemble with its linking of striking chords and quick passages that dare to penetrate higher registers and thereby underscore the key ideas in the text. The second aria, with its dark minor mode, its restriction of accompaniment to the basso continuo, and its stubbornly persistent return of a figure in the bass rising from the dark depths, seems to be given its character by the line of text “Wenn auch gleich aus der Höllen” (When even right out of hell). When at the end the voice takes up the bass theme in its unchanged form, it becomes clear that the movement is focused on overcoming the tempter and that the verse “Denn dein Werk fördert Gott” (For God supports your work) is to be seen as the key textual component.
The third aria, for soprano and two obbligato oboi d’amore, leads back to the initial key of B minor; it is lent a pastoral coloration by the filigree of the high voices, the moderate leading of the bass, and the self-contained repose of the
8 meter. At the end, the voice leaves this tranquility as, energetically and tolerating no dissent, it recalls the chorale melody on the phrase “Was Gott will, das geschicht.” With that, the cue is given for the last of the four arias. Here, the tenor, assisted by an obbligato part comprising muted violins and both transverse flutes, performs its “Drum ich mich ihm ergebe” (Therefore, I surrender myself to him) with decisiveness. The aria is in a major key and therefore relatively distant from the original chorale melody, which returns in the concluding chorale as expected. However, instead of the familiar simple four-part setting, it is embedded in a buoyant pastorale. In contrast to the opening movement, the voices take on more significance, although without endangering the balanced interaction between instruments and voices.