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• 1 2023-09-26T09:34:22+00:00 Wachet, betet, betet, wachet BWV 70.2 / BC A 165 18 Twenty-sixth Sunday After Trinity. First performed 12/6/1716 in Weimar. Text by Salomon Franck. plain 2024-04-24T16:30:57+00:00 1716-12-06 BWV 70 Weimar 51.340199, 12.360103 10Trinity26 Twenty-sixth Sunday After Trinity BC A 165 Johann Sebastian Bach Salomo Franck Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Wacht, betet, betet, wachet, BWV 70 / BC A 165" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 505 James A. Brokaw II Weimar

  Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity, November 21, 1723

  As it now exists, the cantata Wachet! betet! betet! wachet BWV 70.2 (Watch! pray! pray! watch) is assigned to the twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity. It was first performed in Leipzig for this particular Sunday in late November 1723, one week before the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the new church year. However, most of the work was composed seven years earlier for the worship service in the castle church at Weimar. In this earlier form (BWV 70.1) it belongs to a group of three cantatas that Johann Sebastian Bach, then concertmaster, presented one week apart in December 1716.¹ This unusual flurry of performances is perhaps best explained by his desire to succeed the Kapellmeister in the Ernestine royal seat,² who had died at the beginning of the month, and to put his compositional capabilities on display—as well as his unusual stamina.
  
  Bach took all three texts from a collection by Salomon Franck that became available in late 1716, Evangelische Sonn- und Fest-Tages-Andachten. The remarkable feature of these 1716 texts by Salomon Franck is that they consist entirely of free poetry, except for the closing chorale. Thus they avoid biblical passages. An opening movement for chorus is followed by four arias, and a chorale strophe closes the libretto. In contrast to other cantata texts of the period—even those by Salomon Franck himself—these texts avoid not only biblical passages but also the fashionable poetic form of the recitative.
  
  The freely versified core element of the Weimar cantata Wachet! betet! betet! wachet—the opening chorus and the arias—is for the second Sunday in Advent, whose Gospel reading is found in Luke 21:25–36; it contains— following on Jesus’s speech about the destruction of Jerusalem—predictions about his future:

  And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars; and on the earth the people will be distressed, and they will have trepidation, and the sea and the waves will rage, and the people will faint for fear and in expectation of the things that shall happen on the earth, for also the powers of heaven will be in motion. And then they will see the Son of Man come in a cloud with great power and glory. When, however, this begins to happen, then look up and lift your heads, for your salvation draws near. And he recounted to them a parable: Look at the fig tree and all the trees: When they now begin to bud, you see them and notice that now summer is near. So also you: when you see these things happen, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you: This generation shall not pass away until all is fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Take heed of yourselves, however, that your hearts are not consumed with eating and drinking and with concerns for nourishment, lest that day come quickly upon you, for like a snare it will come over all that live on earth. So now watch at all times and pray that you might be worthy, to escape all that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.

  
  In accordance with this account, Salomon Franck’s cantata text is situated between fear and hope, at one moment calling up the end times, at the next longing for rescue through Jesus. The text of the opening chorus takes up the close of the Sunday Gospel reading “So seid nun wach allezeit und betet, daß ihr würdig werden möget” (So now watch at all times and pray that you might be worthy):

  Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! 
  Seid bereit
  Allezeit,
  Bis der Herr der Herrlichkeit 
  Dieser Welt ein Ende machet.
  
  Watch! pray! pray! watch! 
  Be prepared
  At all times
  Until the Lord of Glory 
  Makes an end of this world.

  
  With alarming immediacy in the first aria, the current dangerous situation is exemplified by the torment of the people of Israel in Egypt and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

  Wenn kömmt der Tag, an dem wir ziehen
  Aus dem Ägypten dieser Welt?    
  Ach! laßt uns bald aus Sodom fliehen,    
  Eh uns das Feuer überfällt! 
  Wacht, Seelen, auf von Sicherheit, 
  Und glaubt, es ist die letzte Zeit!
  
  When will come the day, when we will withdraw 
  Out of the Egypt of this world?
  Ah, let us flee soon from Sodom 
  Before the fire attacks us!
  Awaken, souls, out of complacency 
  And believe it is the end of time!

  The second aria speaks against this, with confidence in the foretold appearance of the Son of God:

  Laßt der Spötter Zungen schmähen, 
  Es wird doch und muß geschehen, 
  Daß wir Jesum werden sehen,
  Auf den Wolken, in den Höhen. 
  Welt und Himmel mag vergehen, 
  Christi Wort muß fest bestehen.
  
  Let the tongues of the mockers scorn, 
  Yet it will and must occur
  That we will see Jesus
  Upon the clouds, in the heights. 
  World and heaven may pass away, 
  Christ’s word must stand firm.

  The third aria paraphrases the words “sehet auf und erhebet eure Häupter” (look up and lift your heads) from the Gospel reading, while in the fourth aria the end of days is evoked:

  Seligster Erquickungstag,
  Führe mich zu deinen Zimmern. 
  Schalle, knalle, letzter Schlag,
  Welt und Himmel geht zu Trümmern! 
  Jesus führet mich zur Stille,
  An den Ort, da Lust die Fülle.
  
  Most blessed day of refreshment, 
  Lead me to your mansions.
  Resound, crack, final stroke, 
  World and heaven go to ruin.
  Jesus leads me to quiet,
  At the place where pleasure is abundant.

  
  Salomon Franck’s libretto closes with the fifth strophe of Christian Keymann’s 1658 hymn, Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht (I will not leave my Jesus).
  
  In contrast to Weimar, in Leipzig church music fell silent between the first Sunday of Advent and the first day of Christmas—the period known as tempus clausum. Bach thus had no further use for a cantata written for the second day of Advent. The late Trinity period suggested itself as an alternative, in particular the twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity, whose Gospel reading in Matthew 25 contains Jesus’s speech about the Last Judgment, beginning with formulations that are similar to those of the Advent Gospel: “When, however, the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all holy angels with him, then he will sit upon the throne of his glory and all nations shall be gathered before him. And he will separate them from one another, just as a shepherd places the sheep to his right and the goats to his left” (31–32). The address to the righteous destined for eternal life culminates in the words “Was ihr getan habt einem unter diesen meinen geringsten Brüdern, das habt ihr mir getan” (Whatever you have done to one among these, the least of my brothers, that you have done to me), while the unmerciful meet their punishment with the justification, “Was ihr nicht getan habt einem unter diesen Geringsten, das habt ihr mir auch nicht getan” (Inasmuch as you have not done it for one of the least of these, you have not done it for me).
  
  Taking up these concepts of the fall from grace and the Last Judgment, a librettist, possibly in Leipzig but unknown by name, expanded Salomon Franck’s Advent libretto with four recitatives. These are formulated, respectively, as a reprimand to hardened sinners, a lament over the inadequacies of mortals, a threat of relentless punishment, and the confident hope in salvation. In addition, a strophe from the hymn Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele (Rejoice greatly, O my soul) was inserted so that the six-movement text of 1716 became an eleven-movement libretto, with two chorale strophes, four Leipzig recitatives, and five Weimar aria movements.
  
  Bach’s composition of this extensive libretto makes every effort to eliminate any discrepancy between the original components and those composed later. Even so, one cannot fail to recognize that the opening chorus, the arias, and even the concluding chorale clearly embody Bach’s “Weimar style.”
  
  Fanfare motives and restless rising and falling scales characterize the sense of expectation in the opening chorus, whereby on the word “betet” the harmony darkens and the motion seems to pause. The entire instrumental ensemble, comprising a trumpet, an oboe, and strings, is also used for the first recitative. Continuously interrupted by the excited tone repetitions of the stile concitato, the recitative begins as a castigation of obdurate sinners.³ It soon takes on a gentler tone for the “erwählte Gotteskinder” (chosen children of God), and for the phrase “Anfang wahrer Freude” (beginning of true joy), it includes an extended coloratura passage. The first aria about the withdrawal from the “Ägypten dieser Welt” (Egypt of this world), given to the alto, is characterized by a deep melancholy earnestness. Its key of A minor is closely related to E minor, the key of the soprano aria “Laßt der Spötter Zungen schmähen.” Here the voice is accompanied by a sonorous obbligato part formed by all the strings, out of which the concertante first violin emerges briefly or for longer sections. The first part of the cantata, to be performed before the sermon, closes with a simple chorale movement in the “Leipzig style” on the melody Wie nach einer Wasserquelle (As from a spring of water).
  
  The second half of the cantata begins with the tenor aria “Hebt euer Haupt empor” (Lift up your heads), its rather abrupt cheerfulness seeming to continue the text of the preceding chorale, “Freu dich sehr o meine Seele und vergiß all Not und Qual” (Rejoice greatly, O my soul, and forget all distress and torment). In the ensuing bass recitative, the apocalyptic scenario of the Last Judgment descends upon this apparently ideal world. Above plunging scales and anxiously diverging chords, the trumpet menacingly sounds the melody Es ist gewißlich an der Zeit (The time is certainly drawing near). Yet even here, Jesus’s mercy is not far away, and an extended coloratura evokes the joyousness with which the faithful can leave this earthly existence. Still, peace and blessedness must once more shrink before the horrors of the apocalypse as, in the three-part bass aria, the contrasts characterizing the two recitatives and the first part of the opening aria are heard again. The Leipzig style of the chorale at the end of the first half now steps aside for a movement in the “Weimar style.” The four choral voices are joined by three independent parts in the strings in their high registers so that the cantata is granted a full-textured finale in seven voices.

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  Footnotes

  1. Early Weimar versions for the other two works, with the BWV2 designations BWV 147a and 186a, are not included in BWV3 because the editors decided against including “Werke, die Bach geschrieben haben könnte da sie ebenfalls in den WeimarerTextdrucken von 1714–1717” (works that Bach could have written, because their texts are preserved in Weimar publications of 1714–1717) (BWV3, xi). Moreover, “eineHäufung von drei Adventskantaten im Jahre 1716 entspricht aber nicht den Weimarer Gepflogenheiten monatlich neue Stücke [s. Dok. II Nr. 66]; für den 2. Advent 1716ist bereits die Kantate BWV 70.1 durch Weimarer Stimmen nachweisbar” (a group of three Advent cantatas for the year 1616 does not accord with the stipulations at Weimar for a new cantata every month [cf.Dok II Nr. 66]. BWV 70.1 is already documented for 2. Advent by Weimar performing parts) (BWV3, 232 [no. 186]).↵
  2. Weimar was among a large number of duchies in central Thuringia ruled by descendants of the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin. A helpful overview can be found in Marshall and Marshall (2016, xvi–xviii).—Trans.↵
  3. Stile concitato: “A style . . . defined by Monteverdi and employed in his Combattimentodi Tancredi e Clorinda (1624) and Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi to express anger and warfare” (NHDM, s.v. “Concitato”).—Trans.↵