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Commentaries on the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: An Interactive Companion

Gelobet sei der Herr BWV 129 / BC A 93

Trinity, June 8, 1727

The Trinity cantata Gelobet sei der Herr BWV 129 (Praised be the Lord) belongs to Bach’s annual cycle of chorale cantatas. However, Bach composed it long after he had prematurely stopped work on the cycle in 1725, clearly intending to fill a gap in the sequence. In contrast to the majority of his chorale cantatas, in this case Bach did not employ a contemporary poet and instead used all strophes of the church hymn as source text without revisions to any of them. The hymn is by Johann Olearius and is first documented in 1665. Olearius is perhaps the best-known member of an extensive Saxon-Thuringian theological family. Born in Halle in 1611 and orphaned at an early age, Johann Olearius nevertheless found so much support that he was able to enter the University of Wittenberg in 1635, having attended gymnasium in Halle and Merseburg. In 1635 he became an adjunct to the philosophical faculty and two years later was appointed superintendent in Querfurt. In 1643 Duke August of Saxe-Weissenfels, administrator of the archdiocese of Magdeburg, appointed him senior court preacher (Oberhofprediger) and confessor at Halle. In 1664 he became general superintendent there, transferring in 1680 to the new royal seat in Weissenfels, where he died four years later. In addition to numerous theological writings, in 1671 he authored a collection of twelve hundred hymns entitled Geistliche Singe-Kunst, whose texts Johann Philipp Krieger frequently drew upon for his vocal works. In 1667 Olearius honored the completion of an organ by Christian Förner for the castle and cathedral chapel by delivering a sermon entitled Das fröhliche Halleluja aus dem 150. Psalm bey Christlicher Einweihung des schönen Neuerbauten Orgelwercks in der Fürstlichen . . . Domkirchen zu Halle (The joyous hallelujah from Psalm 150 for the Christian consecration of the beautiful, recently completed organ in the royal cathedral church in Halle). 

Whether Bach initially conceived his cantata on the chorale strophes mentioned above for the Feast of Trinity cannot be answered with certainty at present. Olearius designated the chorale itself as “Ermunterung aus dem Fest-Evangelio Johannes 3 zur dankbaren Betrachtung des hohen Geheimnisses der Dreieinigkeit” (Exhortation from the Gospel feast John 3 for the grateful consideration of the high mystery of the Trinity); it thus ranks as one of the more important of the chorales assigned to Trinity. On the other hand, certain features of the original performing parts suggest that the work might have been for the Feast of Reformation 1726 and only later transferred to Trinity Sunday.1 If so, Bach may have fulfilled a long-cherished intention from the beginning, since only Trinity is conceivable as the rightful place for Olearius’s text.

Of the chorale’s five strophes, the first is for God the Father, the Creator; the second is for the Son and Redeemer; the third is for the Holy Spirit; strophes 4 and 5 belong together and sing in praise of the Holy Trinity. The simple, urgent language, the even meter of the verse, and the clear structure with several repetitions give the text its effect. This can be seen in the opening strophe:

Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, mein Licht, mein Leben,
Mein Schöpfer, der mir hat mein Leib und Seel gegeben,
Mein Vater, der mich schützt von Mutterleibe an,
Der alle Augenblick viel Guts an mir getan.

Praised be the Lord, my God, my light, my life.
My creator, who has given me my body and soul.
My Father, who protects me from the womb onward,
Who at every moment has done many good things for me.


In similar fashion, the same priorities are made clear in the last strophe:

Dem wir das Heilig itzt mit Freuden lassen klingen 
Und mit der Engel Schar das Heilig, Heilig singen,
Den herzlich lobt und preist die ganze Christenheit:
Gelobet sei mein Gott in alle Ewigkeit.

To whom we now let “Holy” be heard with joy
And with the angels’ host sing Holy, Holy,
Whom the entire Christendom sincerely praises and glorifies:
Praised be my God in all eternity.


As expected, Bach’s composition places the greatest emphasis on the opening movement, with its festive setting of trumpets and drums, oboes, a flute, strings, and basso continuo. With the very first measure there unfolds an unbuttoned, cheerful performance, led by the violins and flute, coupled together and brightened by brief interjections by the three brass instruments. As usual, the chorale melody is presented by the soprano with long note values, while the other voices support it with a contrapuntal web of highly diverse motivic structure.

In the three movements that follow, the chorale melody for the most part recedes, although it seems constantly to be present, even apart from the occasional quotation or echo of the theme. In the first aria, the bass voice is accompanied only by the basso continuo and thereby allows an urgent, expressive, and subtly varied melody to unfold in the voice. In the second aria, the soprano, flute, solo violin, and continuo unite in an elegiac quartet in whose delicately embossed tissue a seven-tone figure seems to be ever present. After this overcast E minor intermezzo, the third aria, in G major for alto with obbligato oboe d'amore, regains firmer contours through the confident, dance-like gesture of its 6
8
meter and the unified thematics in instrumental and vocal parts. The concluding chorale does not restrict itself to simple four-part texture with colla parte instruments. Once again, a festive brilliance unfolds as a counterpiece nearly equal in weight to the opening movement. In contrast to the first movement, here the brass instruments take up the scepter, yielding it only for brief episodes in which the chorale melody is heard in a simple setting.

Footnotes

  1. The text for BWV 129 appears in a printed booklet for use by the Leipzig congregation for Trinity 1727. See Schabalina (2008, 77).—Trans.

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