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• 1 2023-09-26T09:36:44+00:00 Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben BWV 248 VI / BC D 7 VI 9 Epiphany. Part of Christmas Oratorio. First performed 01/06/1735 at Leipzig. plain 2024-04-24T18:38:32+00:00 1735-01-06 BWV 248 VI Leipzig 13Epiphany Epiphany BC D 7 VI Johann Sebastian Bach Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben, BWV 248 VI / BC D 7 VI" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 648 James A. Brokaw II Christmas Oratorio Leipzig

  Christmas Oratorio VI, January 6, 1735

  The sixth and last cantata of the Christmas Oratorio is for Epiphany, one of the high feasts of the church calendar. It was performed for the first time on January 6, 1735, “in the morning at St. Thomas, in the afternoon at St. Nicholas.” Its text’s rather peculiar beginning—“Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben” (Lord, when the haughty enemies snort)—has to do in part with the Gospel reading of the day and in part with the work’s genesis. Only the closing section of the Gospel reading, the account of the wise men from the East, is presented in this cantata, because the first section went to the fifth cantata of the oratorio. Following the prophecy from Micah quoted there, it continues in Matthew 2:

  Then Herod secretly called the wise men to him and carefully asked of them when the star would appear? And he directed them to Bethlehem and said: Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find it, tell me, that I may also come and worship it. When they had heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star, which they had seen in the East, went before them until it came and stood above where the infant was. When they saw the star they were overjoyed and went into the house and found the infant with Mary, his mother, and fell before him and prayed to him and opened their treasures and gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And God ordered them in a dream that they should not return to Herod, and they returned by a different way back to their country. (7–12)

  
  The text of this final cantata in the oratorio is divided into three plot segments, corresponding to the three sections of the biblical account: Herod’s search order, the discovery of the infant Jesus, and the choice to return home by a different way. As expected, the freely versified portions of the libretto—the arias and the opening chorus—are older movements that Bach already had on hand, supplied with new texts. This matches Bach’s procedure in the five preceding cantatas of the oratorio. However, this cantata is unique within the oratorio in that the freely versified recitatives are also retexted. This is because the last cantata of the oratorio goes back to a complete church cantata comprising six movements (BWV 248.1) whose occasion is unknown. This original version, passed down to us in fragmentary form, began with a choral movement, which was followed by three recitatives in alternation with two arias, and ended with a concertante chorale arrangement. Recent scholarship suggests it may have involved a cantata for St. Michael’s Day in 1734, whose musical substance as well as several textual formulations may have been adopted for the sixth cantata in the Christmas Oratorio.¹ Thus only the evangelist’s recitatives and one four-part chorale can be regarded as newly composed.
  
  The unidentified librettist for the sixth cantata was therefore tasked with delivering a complete new text for an existing work, a technique Bach had occasionally favored early in his tenure at Leipzig but later abandoned as impractical. This reversion to an old habit in January 1735 may have been the result of the composer’s exhaustion when faced with the task of having to bring such a wide-ranging and comprehensive project as the Christmas Oratorio to a conclusion in a short period of time. Phenomena of this kind can be seen in various cycles that Bach either left unfinished or completed belatedly with great effort. For example, the early Weimar Orgelbüchlein (BWV 599–644) was never completed; nor was the late Art of Fugue (BWV 1080). For a long time there were only five French Suites for keyboard until the usual count of six was reached with the work in E major. In the Six Suites for Violoncello, the sixth changes from an instrument with four strings to one with five; and in the six Brandenburg Concertos, the last one deviates markedly from the preceding five in scoring and compositional approach. In the vocal works, the chorale cantatas offer the most striking example of an incomplete cycle that was begun in mid-1724 and broken off prematurely in early 1725.
  
  With regard to the Christmas Oratorio, on the other hand, one must assume a timely and comprehensive scheme, as the publication of the entire text beforehand shows. The procedure in the sixth cantata therefore should be considered to be the composer’s precautionary reduction of workload—a license he granted himself while increasing his librettist’s burden.
  
  The degree of difficulty of the task the librettist had to solve would be easier to judge had the original text been preserved. As it is, one must rely on speculation. The prehistory of the opening chorus appears to lie even farther back than the lost cantata. In the oratorio it reads, anticipating the persecution by Herod and his minions:

  Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben,
  So gib, daß wir in festem Glauben
  Nach deiner Macht und Hülfe sehn!
  Wir wollen dir allein vertrauen,
  So können wir den scharfen Klauen
  Des Feindes unversehrt entgehn.
  
  Lord, when the haughty enemies snort,
  Grant that we, in steadfast faith,
  May look to your power and help!
  We want to put our trust in you alone,
  That we may escape, unharmed,
  The sharp claws of the foe.

  
  A prime candidate for the original version is the opening movement of a birthday cantata from 1731, unfortunately lost, for the commander of the Leipzig garrison, Joachim Friedrich Graf von Flemming.² In any case, the “Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben” can be convincingly matched to the poem by Christian Friedrich Henrici: 

  So kämpfet nur, ihr muntern Töne,
  Und fallt und steigt und wechselt schöne,
  Erfüllt ein angenehmes Chor,
  Jedennoch stellet in dem Hören,
  Ein tief- und zärtliches Verehren,
  Die Bilder unserer Seelen vor.
  
  But battle on, you lively tones,
  And fall and climb and change with beauty,
  Fill out a pleasing chorus,
  Each one supplying to the ear
  A deep and tender reverence,
  The images of our very souls. 

  
  A recitative-aria movement pair follows the first evangelist’s section of our cantata. The recitative attacks and unmasks Herod’s deceit; the aria measures human capabilities against divine power:

  Nur ein Wink von seinen Händen
  Stürzt ohnmächtiger Menschen Macht.
  Hier wird alle Kraft verlacht!
  Spricht der Höchste nur ein Wort,
  Seiner Feinde Stolz zu enden,
  O so müssen sich sofort 
  Sterblicher Gedanken wenden.
  
  Only a wave from his hands
  Strikes down the impotent power of men.
  Here all power is mocked!
  If the Most High speaks but a word
  To end his enemies’ pride,
  O then must at once
  The thoughts of mortals change.

  
  The Gospel reading continues with the discovery and worshiping of the infant Jesus; it is answered by the opening strophe from Paul Gerhardt’s chorale Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier (I stand at your manger here). The last section of the Gospel reading about the wise men’s journey home is likewise commented upon by a recitative-aria pair. Where the recitative, following the tone of the Song of Songs, speaks of Jesus as friend and treasure, of “sanftmutsvollem Trieb und größter Zärtlichkeit” (desire full of gentleness and greatest tenderness), the aria takes joy in battle and presents itself as filled with the certainty of faith:

  Nun mögt ihr stolzen Feinde schrecken
  Was könnt ihr mir für Furcht erwecken?
  Mein Schatz, mein Hort ist hier bei mir.
  Ihr mögt euch noch so grimmig stellen,
  Droht nur, mich ganz und gar zu fällen,
  Doch seht! Mein Heiland wohnet hier.
  
  Now, might you haughty foes be terrified;
  What fear could you awaken in me?
  My treasure, my refuge, is here with me.
  You might pretend to be so ferocious,
  Threaten to vanquish me completely,
  Yet see! My savior dwells here.

  
  The last recitative asks, reassuringly:

  Was will der Hölle Schrecken nun?
  Was will uns Welt und Sünde tun,
  Da wir in Jesu Armen ruhn?
  
  What does hell’s terror now want?
  What will the world and sin do to us
  Now that we rest in Jesus’s arms?

  
  The fourth strophe from Georg Werner’s hymn Ihr Christen auserkoren (You Christian elect) closes the cantata and, with it, the Christmas Oratorio:

  Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen
  An eurer Feinde Schar,
  Denn Christus hat zerbrochen, 
  Was euch zuwider war.
  Tod, Teufel, Sünd und Hölle
  Sind ganz und gar geschwächt;
  Bei Gott hat seine Stelle
  Das menschliche Geschlecht.
  
  Now you are well avenged
  Against your enemy host,
  For Christ has smashed to pieces
  What was against you.
  Death, devil, sin, and hell
  Are all and completely weakened;
  Beside God it has its place:
  The human race.

  
  The opening chorus and closing chorale of our cantata are dominated by the high trumpets and their high-spirited, triadic melody. Worth noting in the opening movement is the varying emphasis given instruments versus chorus. The instrumental dominance at the beginning, which only admits the entry of the voices after nearly fifty measures, is contrasted by the inexorable gains of the voices in the further course of the movement. This depends upon Bach’s use of what is called Vokaleinbau (vocal embedding): at the end, instead of simply repeating the extensive opening instrumental ritornello without change, Bach “builds in” the choral voices as well, thereby enriching the movement’s conclusion. For the three recitatives and, in particular, the two arias, the loss of the original text inhibits an adequate understanding of musical events. For example, in the tenor aria, there is a remarkable discrepancy between the energetic gestures of its melody and the soft timbre of the two oboi d’amore; in the soprano aria, the obvious parentage of an instrumental dance movement is not yet fully understood. In that case, the striking performance marking “Largo e staccato” might be an artifact of Bach’s effort to adapt a clearly secular composition to the sacred style.

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  Footnotes

  1. Glöckner (2000).↵
  2. So kämpfet nur, ihr muntern Töne BWV 1160/1 (But battle on, you lively tones).—Trans.↵