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Sie werden euch in den Bann tun BWV 44 / BC A 78
Exaudi, May 21, 1724
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his cantata Sie werden euch in den Bann tun BWV 44 (They shall place you under a ban) for the Sunday before Pentecost; it is the earlier of two compositions with the same name from 1724 and 1725. Its text begins with a passage from the Sunday Gospel reading, which is found at the end of John 15 and the beginning of chapter 16 and consists of parts of Jesus’s farewell addresses to his disciples:
But when the comforter comes, whom I will send you from the father, the spirit of truth, which from the father goes out, he shall testify of me. And you also shall testify, for you have been with me since the beginning. Such things I have said to you that you shall not be upset. They shall place you under a ban. The time is coming that who kills you will believe that he does God a service thereby. And such things they will do to you because they recognize neither my Father nor me. (15:26–16:3)
The librettist of our cantata may be identical with an as yet unidentified author to whom a total of eight cantata texts can be attributed. With one exception, these libretti belong to the season of the church calendar between Easter and Pentecost and were set to music by Bach in 1724 and 1725. Characteristic of this group is the movement sequence New Testament passage–aria–chorale strophe–recitative and aria–concluding chorale strophe. There are frequent textual cross references, so that in the ideal case the libretto can be relatively short though quite dense and rich in content.
Our Exaudi cantata begins with words of Jesus warning of the persecution of the disciples: “Sie werden euch in den Bann tun. Es kömmt aber die Zeit, daß, wer euch tötet, wird meinen, er tue Gott einen Dienst daran” (John 16:2; They shall place you under a ban. The time is coming that who kills you will believe that he does God a service thereby). The ensuing aria takes up this announcement and encourages Christians to be steadfast:
Christen müssen auf der Erden
Christi wahre Jünger sein.
Auf sie warten alle Stunden,
Bis sie selig überwunden,
Marter, Bann und schwere Pein.
Christians must on earth
Be Christ’s true disciples.
For them await, at every hour,
Until they, blessed, overcome
Torture, banishment, and severe pain.
The opening strophe from Martin Moller’s chorale of 1587 takes this thought further:
Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid
Begegnet mir zu dieser Zeit.
Der schmale Weg ist trübsalvoll,
Den ich zum Himmel wandern soll.
Ah God, how much heartbreak
Confronts me at this time.
The narrow way is full of tribulation
That I shall travel to heaven.
The ensuing recitative evokes the danger of persecution by the Antichrist, “der grosse Ungeheuer” (the great monster), who plans the eradication of Christians and their teachings by sword and fire:
Er bildet sich dabei wohl ein,
Es müsse sein Tun Gott gefällig sein.
Allein, es gleichen Christen denen Palmzweigen,
Die durch die Last nur desto höher steigen.
He probably imagines that
His actions must be pleasing to God.
However, Christians are like those palm branches
That through their burden only climb all the higher.
Here, the palm is to be understood as the tree of life; the image of its branches that stand erect under a burden belongs to the repertoire of Baroque emblematics. In a compilation by Andreas Alciatus printed at Augsburg in 1531, in a similar place there is a palm tree weighed down that lifts up more strongly the more it is pressed down. Even a strophe of the seventeenth-century song “Anke von Tharau” takes up this thought.1
By way of the metaphor of palm fronds, the text of our cantata reaches hope and consolation. The last aria begins “Es ist und bleibt der Christen Trost, / Daß Gott für seine Kirche wacht” (It is and remains the Christians’ consolation / That God watches over his church) and then proceeds, sure of its effect, to powerful expressions such as “aufgetürmten Wettern” (towering clouds), “Trübsalsstürmen” (storms of tribulation), and the victorious “Freudensonne” (sunshine of joy). With the concluding strophe of Paul Fleming’s “In allen meinen Taten” (In all my deeds), the cantata libretto returns to the beginning of the Sunday Gospel reading, the verse “Wenn aber der Tröster kommen wird” (But when the comforter comes):
So sei nun, Seele, deine
Und traue dem alleine,
Der dich erschaffen hat.
Es gehe, wie es gehe,
Dein Vater in der Höhe,
Der weiß zu allen Sachen Rat.
Then be now true, Soul, to yourself
And trust him alone
Who has created you.
Be it as it may,
Your father on high
Knows counsel in all things.
Bach’s composition distinguishes itself from its sibling works through its treatment of the opening biblical passage in particular. In the musical setting of 1725, it is found only as a recitative or arioso for the bass, the vox Christi. In our cantata, on the other hand, the statement of Jesus “Sie werden euch in den Bann tun” is the basis for an extended five-part movement with two oboes, tenor, and bass, as well as basso continuo. The forceful declamation, begun by the two oboes and then taken up and continued by the voices, is surely to be understood as the inevitability of impending persecution; in addition, the strict imitative technique probably symbolizes the force of law of the passage. The ensuing “Es kömmt aber die Zeit, daß, wer euch tötet, wird meinen, er tue Gott einen Dienst daran” is contrasted by a change of tempo, meter, style, and setting: the four-part chorus performs the text three times, at first hesitantly, frequently interrupted by the instruments, the monstrous “wer euch tötet” brought forth in only a whisper; the third time it is coherent, self-confident, and composed.
The ensuing text “Christen müssen auf der Erden / Christi wahre Jünger sein” is composed literally as the testimony of the individual. A rather hesitant alto voice is paired with an elegiac solo oboe, and both are grounded by the calming stability of a relatively strong bass foundation. Even the key words in the middle section, “Marter, Bann und schwere Pein” (torture, banishment, and severe pain), seem more to be surmountable episodes than permanent threats.
As in the cantata’s sibling works, the chorale in the center of the composition is given to a single voice. The accompanying basso continuo takes up the head motive of the chorale in abbreviated form and intensifies it with halftone steps for the word “Herzeleid” (heartbreak) in the text. The result is a chorale bicinium on the melody Herr Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht, for which organ works by the Lüneburg master Johann Georg Böhm may have provided models.2
The powerfully declaimed bass recitative on the futile efforts of the Antichrist signals the transition to another sphere, represented by the inner joy of the soprano aria “Es ist und bleibt der Christen Trost” (It is and remains the Christian’s comfort). The warmth of this harmony-saturated ensemble of strings and oboes and the dissolved, delicate concertante of the highest instrumental parts characterize the movement in such measure that even the depiction of the “sich türmende Wetter” (towering clouds) and the “Trübsalstürmen” (storms of tribulation) do not seriously endanger the Arcadian image. A simple chorale setting of the melody O Welt, ich muß dich lassen closes the cantata in serene composure.
Footnotes
- A very well known seventeenth-century folk song, also known as “Ännchen von Tharau.” Simon Dach wrote the poem in 1636; it was set to music by 1642 by Heinrich Albert. The text was translated from East Prussian to High German by Gottfried Herder; a modern version of the song with a melody by Friedrich Silcher can be found on line.—Trans.↵
- In the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, a bicinium was a composition for only two parts and was often used to teach counterpoint.—Trans.↵