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• 1 2023-09-26T09:34:18+00:00 Es wartet alles auf dich BWV 187 / BC A 110 7 Seventh Sunday After Trinity. First performed 08/04/1726 in Leipzig (Cycle III). plain 2024-04-24T17:28:10+00:00 1726-08-04 BWV 187 Leipzig 50.979493, 11.323544 05Trinity07 Seventh Sunday After Trinity BC A 110 Johann Sebastian Bach Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Es wartet alles auf dich, BWV 187 / BC A 110" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 342 James A. Brokaw II Leipzig III

  Seventh Sunday after Trinity, August 4, 1726

  
  This cantata, Es wartet alles auf dich BWV 187 (All are waiting upon you), originated in 1726 and was first performed on August 4, the seventh Sunday after Trinity. The time of its composition and its structure show that it belongs to a sequence of cantatas spanning the period from early February to late September 1726 that contains compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as his Meiningen cousin Johann Ludwig Bach. A striking commonality among these works, roughly twenty-five in total, is the structure of their texts. They begin with a passage from the Old Testament, followed by a recitative and aria in free poetry. Another biblical passage follows, this time from the New Testament, which is followed by another aria, a recitative, and a closing chorale strophe. Only relatively recently has Bach research identified the reason for this remarkable coincidence. All the compositions—seven by Johann Sebastian Bach, eighteen by Johann Ludwig Bach—go back to a uniform cantata text cycle. At first, only a reprint of this text cycle was known, remarkably also from 1726, with the title Sonn- und Fest-Tags-Andachten über die ordentlichen Evangelia (Sunday and feast day devotions on the regular Gospels). Shortly before the turn of the twenty-first century, what is presumably the oldest print of this cycle was discovered. It was published in 1704 under nearly the same title, stipulating that the poems were to be set to music “In der Hochfürstl. Sachs. Meining. Hof-Capell” (In the royal Sachs. Meining. court chapel). In addition, another edition dated 1719 came to light, this one mentioned briefly in 1856 by the author and historian Ludwig Bechstein. It showed that the Meiningen cycle in this new edition of 1719 must have been available to Bach in 1726.¹
  
  Nothing is known about the author of this annual cycle of texts. Presumably, he is to be sought near Meiningen, where the first edition of 1704 was likely published. Indeed, many individual texts were set to music by Johann Ludwig Bach’s predecessor Georg Caspar Schürmann.² Johann Ludwig Bach began his tenure as Hofkapellmeister in 1711 and is likely to have composed the cantatas in question no later than the second decade of the eighteenth century. One possibility worth mentioning is that the unnamed author may have been none other than the duke of Meiningen, Ernst Ludwig. Ten years after the death of the duke, a lexicon of the period stated that among the holdings in the Royal Library at Meiningen were to be found “in his hand . . . two complete annual cycles of church music, which were performed in the castle church at Meiningen.”³ What is meant here, at least according to our present knowledge, is not musical compositions but more likely libretti for church music. Moreover, it can be assumed that many of these texts were composed several times, even if proof of multiple compositions is found only here and there. Georg Caspar Schürmann could have been the first, in 1705; after him—probably soon after 1711—Johann Ludwig Bach; and in 1726, Johann Sebastian Bach. The Rudolstadt print of 1726 has evidence of another composer, who may have been Johann Graf, Kapellmeister at the Schwarzburg royal seat. 
  
  All the text editions named above contain the express notice that the poems relate to the ordentlich (regular or usual) Gospel texts. Actually, this confirmation was unnecessary, since the relation to the Gospel reading of the Sunday cannot be overlooked, even if the cantata text does not include literal quotations. This is the case for the text of the cantata Es wartet alles auf dich; it is nevertheless closely bound to the Gospel reading for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, as expected. This reading is found in Mark 8 and deals with the feeding of the four thousand:

  At that time, since many people were there and had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and spoke to them: I feel sorry for these people, for they have now been with me for three days and have had nothing to eat; and if I allow them to leave me for home without having eaten, they shall faint by the way, for several have come from afar. His disciples answered him: From where shall we take bread here in the desert in order to satisfy them? And he asked them: How many loaves do you have? They spoke: Seven. And he ordered the people to sit on the earth. And he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and broke them, and gave them to his disciples to set before them, and they laid them before the people. And they had a few small fishes, and he gave thanks and commanded that they also be set before them. They ate and were filled, and they lifted the other pieces, seven baskets. And they were about four thousand who had eaten; and he released them. (1–9)

  
  The librettist of our cantata places two appropriate verses from Psalm 104 at the beginning: “Es wartet alles auf dich, daß du ihnen Speise gebet zu seiner Zeit. Wenn du ihnen gibest, so sammeln sie, wenn du deine Hand antust, so werden sie mit Güte gesättigt” (27–28; All are waiting upon you, that you give them food in due time. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you offer your hand, then they are filled with goodness). The poet chooses Alexandrine meter for the recitative that follows. The motto of this movement could be “The Goodness of God in Nature”:

  Was Kreaturen hegt das große Runde der Welt!
  Schau doch die Berge an, da sie bei tausend gehen;
  Was zeuget nicht die Flut? Es wimmeln Ström und Seen.
  Der Vögel großes Heer zieht durch die Luft zu Feld.
  Wer nähret solche Zahl?
  Und wer vermag ihr wohl die Notdurft abzugeben?
  Kann irgendein Monarch nach solcher Ehre streben?
  Zahlt aller Erden Gold ihr wohl ein einig Mahl?
  
  What creatures are nourished by the great orb of the world!
  Just look at the mountains as they roll out to thousands;
  What does the torrent not bring forth? Streams and lakes are teeming.
  The great flock of birds moves through the air to the field.
  Who nurtures such multitudes?
  And who might be able to fulfill their needs?
  Can any monarch strive after such honor?
  Could all the earth’s gold buy them a single meal?

  
  Christian Fürchtegott Gellert’s Die Himmel rühmen des Ewigen Ehre (The heavens praise the honor of the eternal) seems to be anticipated here, even as the cantata poet hews closely to the biblical text, in particular, Psalm 104. This is true in even greater measure for the first aria, on a verse from Psalm 65: “Du krönest das Jahr mit deinem Gut, und deine Fußstapfen triefen von Fett” (12; You crown the year with your goodness, and the paths of your feet drip with fat). The aria text is derived from it:

  Du Herr, du krönst allein das Jahr mit deinem Gut.
  Es träufet Fett und Segen
  Auf allen deines Fußes Wegen,
  Und deine Gnade ists, die allen Gutes tut.
  
  You, Lord, you alone crown the year with your goodness.
  Fat and blessings drip
  Upon the paths of your feet,
  And your grace it is that does all goodness.

  
  The cantata poet begins the second part of the cantata once again with a biblical passage, this one appropriate for the feeding of the four thousand. Taken from the sixth chapter of Matthew (and actually belonging to the Gospel reading for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity), it is the warning against the worries of those of little faith: “Darum sollt ihr nicht sorgen noch sagen: Was werden wir essen, was werden wir trinken, womit werden wir uns kleiden? Nach solchem allen trachten die Heiden, denn euer himmlischer Vater weiß, daß ihr dies alles bedürfet” (31–32; Therefore should you neither worry nor say: What will we eat, what will we drink, with what will we clothe ourselves? After all, for such things do the heathen strive, for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all of these). The trust in God expressed here characterizes both of the last freely versified movements, the aria “Gott versorget alles Leben” (God cares for all life) and the recitative “Halt ich nur fest an ihm mit kindlichem Vertrauen” (If I only hold fast to him with child-like trust). The cantata concludes with two strophes from Hans Vogel’s chorale of 1563 Singen wir aus Herzensgrund (Let us sing from the depths of our hearts): “Gott hat die Erde zugericht, / Läßts an Nahrung mangeln nicht” (God has established the earth, / Allows no lack of nourishment) and finally “Wir danken sehr und bitten ihn, / Daß er uns geb des Geistes Sinn” (We greatly thank and pray to him / That he will grant us the Spirit’s mind).
  
  The composition of this wide-ranging, meaningful, and grateful text displays the cantor of St. Thomas School at the height of his powers of invention and creativity. As expected, Bach sets the opening psalm text as a choral movement. In accord with the gravity and intensity of the text, he implemented canon and fugue as the predominant formal principles. The length of the text permitted scarcely any other possibility than stating one phrase after the other in a motet-like fashion, but even so, the composer still took the opportunity at the end to recall the text and music from the beginning in abbreviated form, creating a satisfyingly rounded conclusion. In the third movement, an aria, Bach combines a dance gesture with a full instrumental sonority. The rich blessings described in the text are reflected in the emphatic harmonies of the entire string ensemble.
  
  The New Testament passage at the beginning of the cantata’s second part is given to the bass voice, the vox Christi. Gravity and intensity predominate here as well, this time symbolized by the spartan simplicity of the three-part alla breve texture comprising voice, basso continuo, and strings in unison and the unassuming, unadorned, and straightforward theme. On the other hand, in the soprano aria “Gott versorget alles Leben,” overflowing gratitude is reflected in the expansive melodic garlands of the obbligato oboe. The middle section of this aria, with contrasting meter and tempo, is devoted to the call “Weicht, ihr Sorgen” (Retreat, you cares) until, in closing, the heavily expressive instrumental Adagio of the beginning is recalled. The cantata closes with a simple choral setting of the sixteenth-century melody Da Christus geboren war (When Jesus was born).
  
  About a decade after its first performance the cantata was repurposed in a remarkable fashion. Bach included its arioso solo movements as well as the opening chorus in the concluding portions of his Mass in G Minor BWV 235. Although he drew upon other cantatas as the source movements for the Kyrie and Gloria, he fashioned the “Gratias agimus” from the “Darum sollt ihr nicht sorgen” in the second part of our cantata. Its magnificent alto aria “Du Herr, du krönst allein das Jahr” became the “Domini Fili unigenite”; the soprano solo “Gott versorget alles Leben” served as the source for the “Qui tollis” and “Quoniam”; finally, the main part of the opening chorus became "Cum Sancto Spiritu." There has been much argument about the apparent incongruity between the original and the arrangement. What is decisive, however, is that Bach dared to associate such fundamentally different texts because of his high estimation of the cantata movements’ qualities of invention and development and, hence, their flexibility and versatility.

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  Footnotes

  1. Blankenburg (1977); Schulze (2002b).↵
  2. Kuster (1987).↵
  3. “Von seiner Hand . . . 2 völlige Jahr-Gänge Kirchen-Music welche auch in der Schloß-Kirche zu Meiningen ist musicieret worden.”—Trans.↵