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Meine Seel erhebt den Herren BWV 10 / BC A 175
Visitation of Mary, July 2, 1724
This cantata, Meine Seel erhebt den Herren BWV 10 (My soul magnifies the Lord), was first performed on July 2, 1724. It thus belongs to Johann Sebastian Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas, even if, strictly speaking, it has neither a chorale text nor a chorale melody. Instead of a chorale melody, it has a liturgical cantus firmus, characterized as tonus peregrinus, or psalm tone 9. This melody is found in various contexts in Bach’s work: in the Weimar Orgelbüchlein chorale arrangement Meine Seel erhebt den Herren;1 in a free-standing work for organ, Fuga sopra il Magnificat BWV 733; in two separately transmitted chorale movements (BWV 323, 324); then in the Suscepit Israel of the Magnificat in its E-flat major (BWV 243a) and D major (BWV 243) versions; and in addition several times in our church cantata, as well as in the organ chorale arrangement derived from its movements (BWV 648), one of the six Schübler Chorales BWV 645–50.
The text of our cantata is based on the Gospel reading of the day, the song of praise to Mary in the house of Zachariah, contained in Luke 1:
Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, und mein Geist freuet sich Gottes meines Heilandes. Denn er hat seine elende Magd angesehen, siehe von nun an werden mich selig preisen alle Kindes-Kind. Denn er hat große Ding an mir getan, der da mächtig ist und des Name heilig ist. Und seine Barmherzigkeit währet immer für und für bei denen, die ihn fürchten. Er übet Gewalt mit seinem Arm und zerstreuet, die hoffärtig sind in ihres Herzens Sinn. Er stößet die Gewaltigen vom Stuhl, und erhebet die Niedrigen. Die Hungrigen füllet er mit Gütern und lässt die Reichen leer. Er denket der Barmherzigkeit und hilft seinem Diener Israel auf wie er geredet hat unsern Vätern, Abraham und seinem Samen ewiglich. (46–55)
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. For he has looked upon his wretched maid; behold, from now on all generations will praise me as blessed. For he has done great things for me, he who is mighty and whose name is holy. And his mercy endures forever and ever for those who fear him. He uses force with his arm and scatters those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He throws the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and left the rich empty. He thinks of mercy and helps up his servant Israel as he said to our fathers, Abraham and his seed in eternity.
As usual in Bach’s chorale cantatas, much of the original text has been reshaped to become recitatives and arias. Although there was no strophic chorale text to arrange in the case of our cantata but biblical text instead, the procedure was not substantially different from what was usual for the majority of the chorale cantatas: the beginning and end of the source text remain unchanged—except for a brief passage in the middle part—and everything else was paraphrased by an unknown librettist, expanded and adapted to the new purpose with appropriate changes in meter. Thus “Meine Seel erhebt den Herren” to “von nun an werden mich selig preisen alle Kindes-Kind” remained unchanged. The same thing happened with the doxology—not included in Luke 1 but traditionally appended to the canticle for Mary: “Lob und Preis sei Gott dem Vater und dem Sohn und dem Heiligen Geiste. Wie es war im Anfang, jetzt und immerdar und von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. Amen” (Praise and glory to God the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, now and forever and from eternity to eternity. Amen). In addition, the verses “Er denket der Barmherzigkeit und hilft seinem Diener Israel auf” were retained without change.
The librettist created the first aria from the verses “Denn er hat große Ding an mir getan, / Der da mächtig ist und des Name heilig ist” while including various verses from Psalms 24, 71, 126, and 139:
Herr, der du stark und mächtig bist,
Gott, dessen Name heilig ist,
Wie wunderbar sind deine Werke!
Du siehest mich Elenden an,
Du hast an mir so viel getan,
Daß ich nicht alles zähl und merke.
Lord, you who are strong and mighty,
God, whose name is holy,
How wondrous are your works!
You look upon me in my wretchedness,
You have done so much for me
That I cannot count and notice it all.
The recitative that follows is based on the verses “Und seine Barmherzigkeit währet” to “die hoffärtig sind in ihres Herzens Sinn.” The Gospel text is expanded by including verses from Jeremiah 3, for the most part, as well as the Revelation of St. John:
Des Höchsten Güt und Treu
Wird alle Morgen neu
Und währet immer für und für
Bei denen, die allhier
Auf seine Hilfe schaun
Und ihm in wahrer Furcht vertraun.
Hingegen übt er auch Gewalt
Mit seinem Arm
An denen, welcher weder kalt
Noch warm
Im Glauben und im Lieben sein;
Die nacket, bloß und blind,
Die voller Stolz und Hoffart sind,
Will seine Hand sie Spreu zerstreun.
The goodness and faithfulness of the Most High
Become every morning new
And endure forever and ever
For those who here
Look to his help
And, in true fear, trust him.
However, he also uses force
With his arm
On those who are neither cold
Nor warm
In faith and in love;
Whom, naked, bare, and blind,
Whom, full of pride and arrogance,
His hand will scatter like chaff.
The image of the associated aria, “Gewaltige stößt Gott vom Stuhl” (God throws the powerful from their thrones), is less clear and unified; the rhyme “Schwefelpfuhl” (lake of brimstone), also borrowed from Revelation, is characteristic. The last freely versified movement, again a recitative, based on the phrase “Abraham und seine Samen” (Abraham and his seed) from Luke, draws repeatedly upon the creation story in Genesis, for instance, with these verses:
Was Gott den Vätern alter Zeiten
Geredet und verheißen hat,
Erfüllt er auch im Werk und in der Tat.
Was Gott dem Abraham, als er zu ihm in seine Hütten kam,
Versprochen und geschworen,
Ist, da die Zeit erfüllet war, geschehen.
Sein Same mußte sich so sehr
Wie Sand am Meer
Und Stern am Firmament ausbreiten.
What God to the fathers of old
Has spoken and promised
He fulfills in works as well as in action.
What God to Abraham, when he came to him in his tents,
Promised and swore
Is, when the time was fulfilled, done.
His seed had to spread as much
As sand at the ocean
And stars in the firmament.
Finally, the librettist refers to various parts of the Gospel of John:
Der Heiland ward geboren,
Das ewge Wort ließ sich im Fleische sehen,
Das menschliche Geschlecht von Tod und allem Bösen
Und von des Satans Sklaverei
Aus lauter Liebe zu erlösen;
Drum bleibts dabei,
Daß Gottes Wort voll Gnad und Wahrheit sei.
The savior was born,
The eternal word appeared in the flesh
To redeem the human race of death and all evil
And from Satan’s slavery
Out of pure love;
Therefore, it remains
That God’s word is full of grace and truth.
Bach’s composition of this text is dominated by the broadly conceived opening movement, whose structure is typical of the choral cantata annual cycle. The tension between the joyousness of the text and the modal, ecclesiastical tone of the liturgical melody presented a problem. Bach solved it by means of a lively, concertante instrumental part that is driven by anapestic motives in G minor and that here and there has the character of a violin concerto. By virtue of its brevity, the cantus firmus receives two expositions, first in the soprano and then, in tonal transposition, in the alto. The closing portion draws upon the beginning to round out the movement.
The second movement, “Herr, der du stark und mächtig bist,” embeds the voice in a four-part texture of string instruments, which, as soon as the voice falls silent, is joined by the oboes as a kind of forte registration. This last effect is not provided for in Bach’s composing score. Apparently, it was a subsequent decision Bach made only while copying out the performing parts. With its triadic motives and tight voice leading, the aria clearly follows the textual idea of “the strong and mighty.”
The second aria, “Gewaltige stößt Gott vom Stuhl,” in which the bass voice is accompanied only by the basso continuo, is of the type “aria with heroic affect.” The powerful, almost martial main theme predominates here, despite the wide-ranging text. Even so, the composer knows how to extract many new aspects from this thematic model, such as for the text’s “lifting up of the lowly” when the theme’s trajectory is reversed for the first time and is distinguished from what came before by a sudden piano; or for the rich, whom God leaves “bloß und leer” (bare and empty), a vocal texture that seems “bare and empty” because it is interspersed with rests; or for the “hungrigen” (hungry), to which the chromaticism of compassion is assigned for several measures.
This “chromaticism of compassion” subsequently characterizes the duet “Er denket der Barmherzigkeit,” a closely worked quartet texture for alto, tenor, basso continuo, and woodwinds that sounds the liturgical melody in two sections as cantus firmus. Originally, Bach had given this part to the trumpet, but for a reperformance in the 1740s, he replaced it with two oboes. As mentioned at the beginning, he also prepared an organ transcription of this movement, one of the set later known as the Schübler Chorales BWV 645–50. After the last recitative, largely accompagnato due to its text, the liturgical melody is heard a final time, now in four parts, as expected. As in the opening movement, the melody is given two expositions in order to accommodate the text of the doxology.
Footnotes
- Although Bach reserved a page in the manuscript by inscribing it with the title “Meine Seel erhebt den Herren,” he did not in fact compose an arrangement of the chorale in the Orgelbüchlein.—Trans.↵