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• 1 2023-09-26T09:34:51+00:00 Ich habe genung BWV 82 / BC A 169 11 Cantata for solo bass. Purification of Mary. First performed 02/02/1727 in Leipzig (Cycle III). Text by Christoph Birkmann. plain 2024-04-24T16:55:03+00:00 1727-02-02 BWV 82 Leipzig 51.340199, 12.360103 16Purification Cantata for solo bass Purification of Mary BC A 169 Johann Sebastian Bach Christoph Birkmann Hans-Joachim Schulze, "Ich habe genung, BWV 82 / BC A 169" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 518 James A. Brokaw II Leipzig III

  Purification of Mary, February 2, 1727

  The cantata Ich habe genung BWV 82 (I have enough) is among the very few true solo cantatas composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is for the first Marian feast in the church year, the Purification of Mary. This feast, celebrated since the seventh century, concerns the codes of conduct for those who have recently given birth, as recorded in Leviticus 12. This is also the basis for the Gospel reading of the day, found in Luke 2:22–32, the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple. Verse 22 reads: “And as the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord.” Following a discussion of the animal sacrifice customary for this occasion, verses 25–32 continue:

  And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, and waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came, prompted by the Spirit, into the temple. And when the parents brought the infant Jesus into the temple to do for him as one does according to the law, he took him in his arms and praised God and said: Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, as you have said; for my eyes have seen your savior, which you have prepared before all peoples, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people Israel.

  At first glance, most music texts for this feast do not seem to have anything to do with a feast in honor of Mary. Almost all of them focus on the words of Simeon: the fulfillment of his dearest wish for an encounter with the savior and his longing for death. The unknown poet responsible for the text of our cantata holds fast to this tradition as well.¹ Even in the first aria, obviously spoken by Simeon, one can see in which direction he plans to channel his thoughts:

  Ich habe genung,
  Ich habe den Heiland, das Hoffen der Frommen, 
  Auf meine begierigen Arme genommen;
  Ich habe genung, 
  Ich hab ihn erblickt,
  Mein Glaube hat Jesum ans Herze gedrückt; 
  Nun wünsch ich, noch heute mit Freuden 
  Von hinnen zu scheiden.
  Ich habe genung!
  
  I have enough,
  I have taken the savior, the hope of the devout, 
  Into my eager arms;
  I have enough, 
  I have seen him,
  My faith has pressed Jesus to my heart; 
  I only wish, even today, with joy
  To depart from this life. 
  I have enough!

  Beginning with the second movement, a recitative, the longing for a blessed departure from this world is generalized; hence, Simeon is spoken about in the third person:

  Ich habe genung,
  Mein Trost ist nur allein,
  Daß Jesus mein und ich sein eigen möchte sein.
  Im Glauben halt ich ihn, 
  Da seh ich auch mit Simeon
  Die Freude jenes Lebens schon. 
  Laßt uns mit diesem Manne ziehn!
  
  I have enough,
  My consolation is but alone
  That Jesus might be mine and I his own. 
  In faith I hold him,
  For I too see, with Simeon, 
  The joy of that life already. 
  Let us go with this man!

  Increasingly, the movements that follow are filled with hope for “the joy of that life.” The second aria longs for the sleep of death as the first step in separation from this world:

  Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen, 
  Fallet sanft und selig zu!
  Welt, ich bleibe nicht mehr hier, 
  Hab ich doch kein Teil an dir, 
  Das der Seele könnte taugen.
  Hier muß ich das Elend bauen, 
  Aber dort, dort werd ich schauen 
  Süßen Friede, stille Ruh.
  
  Fall asleep, you weary eyes,
  Fall softly and blessedly closed! 
  World, I remain here no longer, 
  I have indeed no part of you 
  That could be of use to the soul. 
  Here I must bear misery,
  But there, there I will see 
  Sweet peace, still repose.

  The last recitative alludes to Luther’s hymn Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (With peace and joy I depart), his translation of the ancient Canticum Simeonis:

  Mein Gott! Wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun! 
  Da ich im Friede fahren werde
  Und in dem Sande kühler Erde 
  Und dort bei dir im Schoße ruhn?
  Der Abschied ist gemacht,    
  Welt, gute Nacht.    
  
  My God! When might come that lovely: Now! 
  When I shall depart in peace
  And rest in the sand of the cool earth 
  And there within your bosom?
  The departure is made, 
  World, good night.

  Longing for death, hinted at by the opening aria, becomes the main idea in the closing aria:

  Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod, 
  Ach hätt er sich schon eingefunden. 
  Da entkomm ich aller Not,
  Die mich noch auf der Welt gebunden.
  
  I look forward to my death, 
  Ah, had it already arrived! 
  There I will escape all distress,
  Which still binds me in the world.

  The remarkable change in perspective between the first movement and the second can perhaps be explained by the fact that the text Bach used, expressly for a solo cantata, is a revision and expansion of an older text, which is preserved in a reprint of 1744.²  This version, for several voices, began with the dictum from Luke 2:29, “Herr, nun läßest du deinen Diener im Friede fahren” (Lord, now let your servant depart in peace); closed with a chorale; and contains, in addition to one recitative, only a single aria, “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen.”
  
  Bach’s composition of this libretto, not particularly rich in contrast but well-balanced and thematically self-contained, comes from 1727. It has been reasonably suggested that Bach composed the earliest version of the St. Matthew Passion in the weeks immediately before or afterward. Should this be the case, then our cantata can be associated broadly with that work’s conceptual preparation, and this exceptional status can be seen in the effusive or ecstatic opening movement; the “heavenly length” of the “Schlummer” aria; and the closing movement, which gradually turns inward with anticipation.
  
  Bach conceived the first version (BWV 82.1) of the cantata in 1727 for the bass voice, string instruments, and one oboe. Four years later, there followed a transposition from C minor to E minor (BWV 82.2), a soprano replaced the bass, and a transverse flute took the place of the oboe. At about the same time, Anna Magdalena Bach began copying the solo part of movements 2 and 3 along with an accompaniment into her 1725 notebook. Four years later, Bach assigned the solo voice to a mezzo soprano and returned to the original key of C minor (BWV 82.3). About a decade later, we have evidence of two performances, in which the bass recovered its rightful place and the instrumental ensemble was augmented in various ways. The soloist in these performances, probably after 1745, is likely to have been Johann Christoph Altnickol, Bach’s student and later his son-in-law. In May 1747 Bach himself confirmed in writing that although Altnickol was a skilled performer of violin and cello, he mostly participated in the chorus (choro musico) as a bass singer to help with the lack of bass voices at the St. Thomas School. Johann Elias Bach, a cousin of the cantor of St. Thomas, spent several years as his secretary and in-house tutor for the children in the Leipzig household. In 1741 he briefly mentioned a “Basso solo” that Johann Sebastian Bach had lent a Weissenfels singer but had not yet received back, so that further lending was not contemplated at the moment. Although this work cannot at present be identified more precisely, it may have been the cantata Ich habe genung.
  
  In any case, this composition was clearly one of Bach’s favorite pieces, and he performed it often with pleasure. Whether he undertook the revisions for soprano and mezzo soprano to address problems of setting, we do not know. It is just as plausible that highly capable singers asked Bach to arrange the cantata for their specific voice ranges to test their ability to master demanding parts in three of the most different aria characters and successfully meet the challenge of this consummate masterpiece. This is still possible today. Although the original—and final—version for bass is the only complete one, the alternative versions for higher voices can be convincingly reconstructed with minimal effort, making them readily available to performers.

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  Footnotes

  1. Based on this text’s inclusion in an annual cantata cycle published in Nuremberg in 1728 by Christoph Birkmann, a theology student at the University of Leipzig from 1724 to 1727, it is likely that Birkmann is the text’s author. See Blanken (2015b, 49ff.).—Trans.↵
  2. Wollny (2000, 54–57).↵
• 1 2023-09-26T09:35:47+00:00 In allen meinen Taten BWV 97 / BC A 189 8 Chorale cantata per omnes versus on hymn by Paul Fleming. Occasion unknown. First performed in 1734 in Leipzig after Trinity 1727. . plain 2024-04-24T17:14:13+00:00 BWV 97 Leipzig 51.340199, 12.360103 Chorale Cantata per omnes versus BC A 189 Johann Sebastian Bach Paul Fleming Hans-Joachim Schulze, "In allen meinen Taten BWV 97 / BC A 189" in Die Bach Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs, (Leipzig: Evangelisches Verlagsanstalt 2007), p. 565 James A. Brokaw II in 1734 Leipzig after Trinity 1727

  Purpose Not Transmitted, 1734

  This cantata, In allen meinen Taten BWV 97 (In all my deeds), belongs to a small group of vocal compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach that are based on a chorale in its original state, that is, with all of its strophes intact and unchanged. Sibling works that particularly bear mentioning here are the cantatas Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut BWV 117, Nun danket alle Gott BWV 192, Lobe den Herrn, den mächtigen König der Ehren BWV 137, and Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan BWV 100. For the most part, these are chorale compositions without specific occasions in the church calendar; that is, the chorale’s equivocal assignments in hymnals are reflected in concertante church music. With respect to our cantata, a copy from the second half of the nineteenth century seems to qualify this observation, since it mentions that the work is for the fifth Sunday after Trinity. But since this statement cannot be corroborated by other evidence, it remains uncertain.¹
  
  More significant is a note in Bach’s score, entered by a contemporary, according to which the last three movements are meant for performance “after the wedding” (nach der Trauung). In fact, the hymn In allen meinen Taten is found in hymn collections of the period beneath the rubric “Standes- und Berufs-Lieder” (Hymns of rites of passage in life and profession) with the separate heading “Vom Ehe- und Hausstande” (Of marriage and household). Bach’s score is dated 1734 in the hand of the composer. Whether the work was initially intended for a wedding or whether the note was applied in connection with a much later reperformance remains unclear at present. The person who made the note “nach der Trauung” can certainly be regarded as reliable because he apparently belonged to the circle around Bach’s son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol in Naumburg, is later known to have been active in Jena and even in Leipzig, and is thought to have been born only in 1734 or 1735.²
  
  It should also be borne in mind that the chorale in question originally was focused in an entirely different direction. In hymnaries of the period, it even appears with the heading “Ein schönes Reiselied” (A beautiful journeying hymn), and this characterization has to do with the biography of the poet. Paul Fleming, the hymn’s author, came from Hartenstein in Saxony, not far from Zwickau near the Ore Mountains. He was born there in 1609 as the son of a schoolmaster whose promotion to deacon and then pastor made possible his son’s attendance at the secondary school in Mittweida as well as the St. Thomas School in Leipzig and finally his study of medicine at the University of Leipzig. In Leipzig his poetic ambitions received a major boost when he met Martin Opitz, twelve years his senior, who was head of the Silesian school of poetry. The turmoil of war and, in particular, developments following the death of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden caused Fleming to leave Leipzig and seek his fortune in the land of Duke Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein. From October 1633 until April 1635 he took part in a delegation journey to Moscow that hoped to win transit permits for a later delegation through Reval, Moscow, Astrakhan, and the Caspian Sea to Persia. This second expedition indeed took place, and Fleming was again among the participants. On this trip, his time away from home lasted almost four years. Within months of his return to Hamburg in early 1640, Fleming died as a result of the stress of travel. He penned the chorale In allen meinen Taten during preparations for his first trip in 1633, a journey that was shorter but hardly less dangerous. 
  
  In its original form, the chorale included more than the nine strophes used in Bach’s cantata. Older hymn collections preserve this more extensive version as a Reise-Lied, even though they recommend omitting some of the verses if the hymn were to be sung for other occasions. The first of these special Reise-Strophen reads:

  Ich zieh in ferne Lande,
  Zu nützen einem Stande,
  An den er mich gestellt.
  Sein Segen wird mir lassen,
  Was gut und recht ist, fassen,
  Zu dienen seiner Welt.
  
  I travel to distant lands
  To serve a purpose
  For which he has placed me.
  His blessing will allow me
  What is good and right to grasp
  To serve his world.

  
  Other special strophes concern Christ as protector and aid in danger, the means of travel, protection against enemy attacks through the intervention of an angel, the hope for a happy return, the blessing and protection of those at home. The nine strophes that form the core of the chorale, which appear in nearly all pertinent hymn collections, address the main idea presented in the first strophe from various perspectives:

  In allen meinen Taten
  Laß ich den Höchsten raten,
  Der alles kann und hat;
  Er muß zu allen Dingen,
  Solls anders wohl gelingen,
  Selbst geben Rat und Tat.
  
  In all my deeds
  I let the Most High counsel me,
  Who has and can do everything;
  He must, in all things,
  If it should otherwise succeed,
  Give counsel and action himself.

  
  As we have said, Bach’s composition relies upon the unchanged chorale text and, indeed, that of the shorter version comprising only nine strophes. Because Bach dispenses here with the otherwise common procedure of reshaping the internal strophes to approach the modern formal world of aria and recitative, several strophes must accommodate themselves to composition not only as arias but even as recitatives. However, Bach made every effort in the opening and closing movements to compensate for this problematic aspect. The first movement in particular radiates dignity and celebration, as it combines the modern instrumental form of French overture with cantus firmus polyphonic chorale arrangement. 
  
  Accordingly, oboes, strings, and the basso continuo proceed in a solemn introduction marked Grave with stately harmonies in alternation with dotted rhythms and pathos-laden, wide-ranging scales. As expected, the soprano presents the chorale melody. But in contrast to his method in his chorale cantatas composed a decade earlier, the other voices do not provide motet-like counterpoint, with the choir enclosed in an independent motivically unified instrumental part. Instead, the three lower voices perform passages that are scarcely different from the animated instrumental part; little care is taken to maintain the distinction between vocal and instrumental voice leading. Certainly, Bach is aiming for a meaningful unity here as he effects a far-reaching integration of the vocal part with the dominant instrumental part—but very much at the expense of the choral singers. With respect to the French overture form, the composer opts for a two-part design, distancing himself from the traditional tripartite scheme. Even so, the connection to the origins of the form is preserved in other ways: in two episodes in the fast section, a classic example of a “French trio”—two oboes and a bassoon—emerges soloistically.
  
  A reminiscence of a completely different kind awaits in the closing chorale: here the four-part vocal texture joins the three independent parts of the strings, thereby achieving a seven-part texture, for which Johann Sebastian Bach had previously shown a preference near the end of his time at Weimar.
  
  The arias and recitatives, situated between the cornerstones of the French overture and closing chorale, all avoid any reference to the chorale tune, the melody O Welt ich muß dich lassen (O world, I must leave you) by Heinrich Isaac. Instead, they attempt in many different ways to interpret the chorale strophes. The relatively large number of single movements makes possible a broad spectrum of various procedures and settings. The secco recitative is represented here, in which the voice is supported only by the continuo, as well as the accompagnato recitative, enriched by the strings. An aria for alto and strings that pays tribute to the catchy syncopations of the fashionable Lombard rhythm is juxtaposed to a rather conventional aria for soprano and two oboes. A bass aria accompanied only by the basso continuo effects a kind of barrenness that seems appropriate to the text “mein Sorgen ist umsonst” (my care is in vain), while the same procedure in the duet for soprano and bass allows the confirming and empowering imitation in the voices to be perceived clearly. The tenor aria, the fourth movement, seems a bit curious among these events; here a solo violin is added to the voice, which seeks to evoke another memory: with virtuoso figuration, expressive scales, and chordal textures of two to four parts, it harks back to the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Alone (BWV 1001–6), which Bach completed by 1720 at the latest and which may go back to his years at Weimar.

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  Footnotes

  1. Marc-Roderich Pfau has proposed that BWV 97, as well as three further chorale cantatas without stipulated occasions in the church calendar, may have been composed by Bach for the court of Weissenfels when Bach held the title of court music director there from 1729 to 1736. See Pfau (2015, 347).—Trans.↵
  2. Wollny (2000, 90–92); Wollny (2002, 46–47).↵