This tag was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Elizabeth Budd.
Erwünschtes Freudenlicht BWV 184.2 / BC A 88
Pentecost Tuesday, May 30, 1724
This cantata, Erwünschtes Freudenlicht BWV 184 (Desired light of joy), was performed for the first time on May 30, 1724, in Leipzig. However, little can be said about its prehistory, beyond the fact that it goes back in its essential parts to a festive piece from Bach’s time at Köthen (BWV 184.1). Unfortunately, neither the text nor the occasion for the performance is known. It may have been a congratulatory cantata for the birthday of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen or a musical New Year’s congratulation, perhaps in 1720 or 1721. Bach incorporated the presumed homage cantata into the Leipzig church music repertoire by means of a tried-and-true procedure: parody, in other words, by supplying the existing music with a new text as suitably as possible. In contrast to Bach’s later practice in Leipzig, he seems to have accomplished this in his early Leipzig years in 1723 and afterward by an en bloc method by simply adding the new text to the entire piece. As far as possible, the course of the source work remained untouched, and all movements—indeed, including the recitatives—were simply provided with new words.With regard to our Pentecost cantata and its handwritten performance materials that originated in Köthen, a comparison shows that only a single recitative in the Köthen cantata was crossed out and replaced by a chorale, while everything else was brought over to the later work. Whether this economical approach to the source work and its rather provisional arrangement in May 1724 were the consequences of time pressure or whether Bach had already planned a performance for Pentecost 1723 shortly after his arrival in Leipzig cannot be determined at this time. In Köthen, Bach may have planned ahead of time n order not to be caught empty-handed should he be expected to provide musical activities during the period between his arrival in Leipzig and officially taking office.
The unknown author of the parody text clearly did his best but was unable to work a miracle. In addition to two arias, his Köthen text contained two truly wide-ranging recitatives, probably paeans to the Köthen reigning house and its wise guidance for the state’s well-being. It would not be easy to create a new wording for these sections, particularly considering the lack of contrast in the source text, the Gospel reading for the day, found in John 10. Its account of the good shepherd and his flock is taken up right at the beginning of the first recitative:
Erwünschtes Freudenlicht,
Das mit dem neuen Bund anbricht
Durch Jesum, unsern Hirten!
Desired light of joy,
Which with the new covenant dawns
Through Jesus, our shepherd!
There is no way to determine what language in the Köthen archetype was replaced by these words; however, it is conceivable that the name “Leopold,” the name of the prince of Köthen, stood in place of the oddly emphatic “Freudenlicht.” But then again, perhaps the “Freudenlicht” belonged to the Köthen original version, and instead of “mit dem neuen Bund” (with the new covenant) it simply read “mit dem neuen Jahr” (with the new year). Either way, the author of the parody text had plenty of space at his disposal to develop the shepherd motif extensively. It almost goes without saying that a borrowing from Psalm 23, “Der Herr ist mein Hirte” (The Lord is my shepherd), had to be included. Thus, near the end of the first recitative:
O Hirte, so sich vor die Herde gibt,
Der bis ins Grab und bis in Tod sie liebt!
Sein Arm kann denen Feinde wehren,
Sein Sorgen kann uns Schafe geistlich nähren,
Ja kömmt die Zeit, durchs finstre Tal zu gehen,
So hilft und tröstet uns sein sanfter Stab.
Drum folgen wir mit Freuden bis ins Grab.
Auf! Eilt zu ihm, verklärt vor ihm zu stehen.
O shepherd, who so gives himself for his flock,
Who loves them unto the grave and death!
His arm can repel their enemies,
His caring can spiritually nourish us sheep.
Yes, when the time comes to go through the dark valley,
Then his gentle staff helps and comforts us.
Therefore, we follow him with joy to the grave.
Arise! Hurry to him, to stand before him transfigured.
In contrast to these verses, with their unmistakable reliance on biblical diction, the ensuing aria text all too clearly approaches the vocabulary of secular homage music:
Gesegnete Christen, glückselige Herde,
Kommt, stellt euch bei Jesu mit Dankbarkeit ein!
Verachtet das Locken der schmeichlenden Erde,
Daß euer Vergnügen vollkommen kann sein.
Blessed Christians, blissful flock,
Come, present yourselves to Jesus with gratitude!
Despise the allure of the flattering earth
That your contentment may be complete.
The relationship between the second recitative-aria pair is similar. The recitative suggests in vivid language that even sinners can be admitted to the flock through Jesus’s act of redemption and can hope for “vollkommne Himmelsfreude” (perfect heavenly joy). The associated aria may well have preserved much of the language of the secular archetype:
Glück und Segen sind bereit,
Die geweihte Schar zu krönen.
Jesus bringt die güldne Zeit,
Welche sich zu ihm gewöhnen.
Fortune and blessing are ready
To crown the consecrated host.
Jesus brings the golden age
To those who accustom themselves to him.
The concluding movement is scarcely different, with its rather vague statement:
Gute Hirte, Trost der Deinen,
Laß uns nur dein heilig Wort!
Laß dein gnädig Antlitz scheinen,
Bleibe unser Gott und Hort,
Der durch allmachtsvolle Hände
Unsern Gang zum Leben wende.
Good Shepherd, comfort of your own people,
Leave us only your holy word!
Let your gracious countenance shine,
Remain our God and refuge,
Who through your almighty hands
May turn our journey toward life.
The chorale strophe, interpolated by Bach at the penultimate position in place of a recitative, seems a bit out of place in this environment; it comes from the 1526 hymn O Herre Gott, dein göttlich Wort (O Lord God, your divine word), by Anarg von Wildenfels.
Right at the beginning, Bach’s composition had to contend with a torrent of verbiage in the recitative. Flute figuration helps loosen the music’s flow; its stubbornly maintained rhythmic pattern may have been inspired by the appearance of light described in the text (should the secular original have mentioned something similar). Despite subtle gradations of harmony and intervallic offset, the thirty-fold return of the motive leaves the impression of a certain rigidity. Serenity and contentment infuse the ensuing tranquil duet for soprano and alto with its cozy intimacy of the voices and the relaxed interplay between the dance-like refrain of the entire ensemble and the virtuoso passagework of the two transverse flutes. By contrast, the second aria, for tenor in B minor, has a somewhat conflicted effect, with an unshakable “walking” bass in eighth-note motion, above which an equally adamant solo violin favoring sixteenth notes and the freer and more self-assured voice hint at the outlines of the polonaise, only to call it into question immediately through passagework and ornamentation.
Following the chorale movement in an unusually high register, a bucolic chorus in gavotte rhythm concludes the work. In the four-part sections, places where the voices cross betray the music’s origin as a duet, typical for Bach’s work at Köthen. In expanded form, this choral movement made a return in 1733 to honor the Saxon electoral prince in the cantata Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen BWV 213 (Let us care for, let us watch). A year later, when Bach was at work on the Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, he briefly considered but abandoned a plan to transpose the movement for that work with the text “Ehre sei dir Gott gesungen” (May honor be sung to you, God).