This page was created by James A. Brokaw II. The last update was by Elizabeth Budd.
Commentaries on the Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: An Interactive CompanionMain MenuTranslator's NoteHow to Navigate This Interactive Digital EditionHow to SearchSacred Cantatas for the Liturgical Calendar; Particular Occasions; Oratorios; Secular Cantatas for Patrons, Institutions and Nonliturgical Occasions Courts, Nobility and CitizenryBach's Sacred Cantatas: A Chronological ViewBach's Chorale CantatasLibrettistsIndex of PersonsIndex by TitleIndex by BWVAbbreviations and ReferencesTags (Additional)About This BookHans-Joachim Schulze2ae1b5647981e0909a5eebd8c4ad594fae5c7179Translated by James A. Brokaw II0126ea3d86ccd38abff48e8bbc5d2fd7481f4f39Published by Windsor & Downs Press
Scheide 2001
12024-02-21T16:34:11+00:00James A. Brokaw II89d1888381146532c1ed4e8daedfe9043da4eff31782plain2024-03-25T14:33:28+00:00Elizabeth Budd1a21a785069fadf8223b68c2ab687e28c82d7c49Scheide, William. 2001. “Nochmals BWV 50 ‘Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft.’” BJ 87:117–30.
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12023-09-26T09:35:47+00:00Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft BWV 50 / BC A 1946Occasion unknown. in Leipzig after Trinity 1727. .plain2024-04-24T16:20:49+00:00BWV 50Leipzig51.340199, 12.360103BC A 194Johann Sebastian BachHans-Joachim Schulze, "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft BWV 50 / BC A 194" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 574James A. Brokaw IILeipzig after Trinity 1727
Purpose Not Transmitted, Date of Origin Unknown
Even today there is a profound lack of any information regarding the cantata Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft BWV 50 (Now is the salvation and the power) that could lead to a convincing classification of the work within Bach’s oeuvre. This is not a cantata in the strict sense but rather a fragment, a single movement broken off from its original context. One might imagine that it is the beginning or conclusion of a multimovement composition. Its text, from Revelation 12, points unmistakably to St. Michael’s Day: “Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft und das Reich und die Macht unsers Gottes seines Christus worden, weil der verworfen ist, der sie verklagete Tag und Nacht vor Gott” (10; Now is the salvation and the strength and the kingdom and the might of our God become Christ’s, for the one is cast down who accused them day and night before God).
A double choir with eight parts, a festival orchestra with trumpets and drums, oboes and strings: all unite in powerful fugal expositions but nevertheless leave several significant questions open. These concern obvious weaknesses of the composition and force us to consider the work’s authenticity, or at least that of the version handed down to us. In-depth analysis of the musical notation leads to the hypothesis of an original version with five instead of eight voices that was later arranged for double choir. The last word has yet to be spoken as to whether this revision was the work of Bach himself or that of a student or contemporary.1
Footnotes
Questions of authenticity have been addressed by Scheide (1982); Scheide (2001); Hofmann (1994); Stein (1999); and Rifkin (2000). ↵