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• 1 2023-09-26T09:34:21+00:00 Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen BWV 49 / BC A 150 12 Dialogue Cantata. Twentieth Sunday After Trinity. First performed 11/03/1726 in Leipzig (Cycle III). Text by C Birkmann. plain 2024-04-24T16:17:35+00:00 1726-11-03 BWV 49 Leipzig 51.340199, 12.360103 08Trinity20 Dialogue Cantata Twentieth Sunday After Trinity BC A 150 Johann Sebastian Bach C Birkmann Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen, BWV 49 / BC A 150" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 464 James A. Brokaw II Leipzig III

  Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, November 3, 1726

  The dialogue cantata Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen BWV 49 (I go and seek you with longing) is for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity and was first performed on November 3, 1726, in Leipzig. The text, written by an unknown author,¹involves the Gospel reading of the Sunday, the parable of the royal wedding from Matthew 22: 

  And Jesus answered and spoke once more in parables to them, saying: The kingdom of Heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son. And he sent forth his servants to call the guests to the wedding; and they did not want to come. Once again, he sent other servants out and said: Say to the guests: Look, I have prepared my meal; my oxen and fat calves are slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding! But they scorned it and went on their way, one to his field, the other to his shop; several seized his servants and mocked and killed them. When the king heard this, he became angry and sent forth his army and killed these murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants: The wedding is indeed ready, but the guests were not worthy of it. Therefore, go out on the streets and invite whomever you find and invite them to the wedding feast. And the servants went out on the streets and brought together whomever they found, evil and good, and the tables were all full. Then the king went in to greet the guests and saw there a person who was not wearing a wedding cloak and said to him: Friend, how did you come here and are not wearing a wedding cloak? But he fell silent. Then the king said to his servants: Bind him, hand and feet, and throw him out into the darkness! There will be his howling and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (1–14)

  
  In the cantata libretto, this parable appears only near the end; beforehand, the bridal mysticism of the Song of Songs is the main topic. According to the tradition of the unio mystica,² which began in the Middle Ages and was still very much alive in Bach’s era, Jesus and the Soul conduct a dialogue, lose one another, find one another again, and ultimately join with one another in intimate love. The theme of Jesus as bridegroom and the Soul as his bride—varied a hundredfold and appearing in sermons, devotional literature, commentaries, prayers, and hymns—appears in the libretto of our cantata in the form of recitatives, arias, and a chorale strophe with text interpolations. 
  
  The first aria serves as exposition of the “search motif” (Suchmotiv):

  Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen
  Dich, meine Taube, schönste Braut.
  Sag an, wo bist du hingegangen,
  Daß dich mein Auge nicht mehr schaut?
  
  I go and seek with longing
  You, my dove, fairest bride.
  Tell me, where have you gone,
  That my eye no longer sees you?

  
  The following recitative first sees the lovers still separated. Jesus begins:

  Mein Mahl ist zubereit’
  Und meine Hochzeitstafel fertig,
  Nur meine Braut ist noch nicht gegenwärtig.
  
  My meal is prepared,
  And my wedding table ready,
  Only my bride is not yet present.

  
  A bit later, he repeats his “Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen / Dich, meine Taube, schönste Braut.” The Soul approaches with “Mein Jesus redt von mir; / O Stimme, welche mich erfreut” (My Jesus speaks of me; / O voice that cheers me) and immediately begins a short dialogue that concludes with the statement “Mein Bräutigam, ich eile nun, / Die Hochzeitskleider anzutun” (My bridegroom, I now hasten, / To put on the wedding clothes). The metaphor of the wedding garment as symbol of salvation is further developed in the Soul’s aria:

  Ich bin herrlich, ich bin schön,
  Meinen Heiland zu entzünden.
  Seines Heils Gerechtigkeit
  Ist mein Schmuck und Ehrenkleid;
  Und damit will ich bestehn,
  Wenn ich werd im Himmel gehn.
  
  I am glorious, I am fair,
  To inflame my savior.
  The righteousness of his salvation
  Is my adornment and robe of honor;
  And with these I shall pass through
  When I will go to heaven.

  
  The ensuing dialogue, initiated by the Soul, first brings Jesus’s promise, inspired by a passage from the prophet Hosea:

  So bleibt mein Herze dir gewogen,
  So will ich mich mit dir
  In Ewigkeit vertrauen und verloben.
  
  Thus my heart remains devoted to you,
  Thus to you I will
  Engage and betroth myself in eternity.

  
  Alluding to the Sunday Gospel reading, the Soul responds:

  Wie wohl ist mir! 
  Der Himmel ist mir aufgehoben:
  Die Majestät ruft selbst und sendet ihre Knechte,
  Daß das gefallene Geschlechte
  Im Himmelssaal
  Bei dem Erlösungsmahl
  Zu Gaste möge sein.
  Hier komm ich, Jesu, laß mich ein!
  
  How happy I am!
  Heaven is reserved for me:
  Majesty itself calls and sends its servants
  So that the fallen race
  In the heavenly chamber
  At the meal of redemption
  May be guests.
  Here I come, Jesus, let me in!

  
  Jesus closes with “Sei bis in Tod getreu, / So leg ich dir die Lebenskrone bei” (Unto death be true, / Then I will set upon you the crown of life). In the concluding duet, Philipp Nicolai’s “morning star” hymn is uttered by the Soul:

  Wie bin ich doch so herzlich froh,
  Daß mein Schatz ist das A und O,
  Der Anfang und das Ende.
  Er wird mich doch zu seinem Preis
  Aufnehmen in das Paradeis;
  Des klopf ich in die Hände.
  Amen! Amen!
  Komm, du schöne Freudenkrone, bleib nicht lange!
  Deiner wart ich mit Verlangen.
  
  But how sincerely glad I am 
  That my treasure is the alpha and omega,
  The beginning and the end.
  He will indeed—to his praise—
  Take me into paradise;
  At that I clap my hands.
  Amen! Amen!
  Come, you beautiful crown of joy, do not delay for long!
  I await you with longing.

  
  These chorale verses are intertwined with a paraphrased word of the Lord from Jeremiah 31: “Ich habe dich je und je geliebt; darum habe ich dich zu mir gezogen aus lauter Güte” (3; I have loved you ever and ever; therefore, I have drawn you to me out of sheer loving-kindness). The version meant for Jesus in the cantata reads:

  Dich hab ich je und je geliebt,
  Und darum zieh ich dich zu mir.
  Ich komme bald,
  Ich stehe vor der Tür,
  Mach auf, mein Aufenthalt!
  
  You I have loved ever and ever,
  And therefore I draw you to me.
  I shall come soon,
  I stand before the door,
  Open up, my dwelling place!

  
  At the beginning of his composition Bach placed a concerto movement in E major for organ, string instruments, and an oboe d’amore. This is the last movement of a concerto whose opening and middle movements Bach had used two weeks earlier in the solo cantata for alto, Gott soll allein mein Herze haben BWV 169 (God alone shall have my heart). The first aria, devoted to the search motif, pairs the bass, the vox Christi, with the obbligato organ. While the voice seems to veer between confidently advancing forward and irritated questioning, the instrumental part often has to cover long and often tortuous paths.
  
  The first recitative becomes an arioso as the bass enters for a second time, adopting the 3
  8 meter of the preceding aria. With regard to the “Ehrenkleid” (robe of honor) that is the subject of its text, the ecstatic aria of the Soul, with oboe d’amore and violoncello piccolo, bestows a brilliant sonorous vestment upon the soprano. In the concluding duet, a lively concertante chorale setting of the melody from Philipp Nicolai’s Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How brightly gleams the morning star), the obbligato organ reassumes its position of primacy among all accompanying instruments.

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  Footnotes

  1. In 2015 Christine Blanken identified Christoph Birkmann as the librettist for BWV 49 and five other cantatas preceding the Advent season in 1726. Birkmann, a musically active student of theology at the University of Leipzig from December 1724 to September 1727 who regularly attended Bach’s performances, published an annual cycle of cantata texts in 1728 that contains thirty-one works known to have been performed in Leipzig during Birkmann’s time there, among which are twenty-three known cantatas by Bach. See Blanken (2015a).—Trans.↵
  2. Herbst (1958).↵