Speaking of looking back (see post below) I’ve recently been looking way back, about 275 years. I’ve loved Bach for a long time now but most of what I’ve listened to is his secular music, his violin concertos, the Brandenburgs, the harpsichord concertos, his cello suites, his violin sonatas, etc. Most of this music was written between the years 1717-1723 when Bach was in the employ of Prince Leopold of of Anhalt-Köthen. The prince loved Bach and apparently the feeling was mutual. Furthermore, the prince knew his music – he was a gifted violinist - and as a result he realized Bach’s genius. He put no restrictions on what Bach could write and for this we can thank Prince Leopold for some of the most glorious music in the Western canon. So, thanks Leo.
But all good things must come to an end. Leopold married in 1721 to a shrew who apparently had no appreciation of music and who felt that Leopold was spending far too much money on his court orchestra and Bach. Bach hated her and things began to deteriorate from there. By 1723 he felt he could no longer continue as Kapellmeister at Cöthen. Bach was offered the position as Cantor at Leipzig, and though Leopold’s shrew kicked the bucket before he accepted, Bach decided to move on anyway. Alas, if only she had died sooner, before Bach had started looking for other employment, musical history may have been changed forever. At any rate, Bach would spend the rest of his career at Leipzig until his death in 1750. And unlike his position with the prince, his new job imposed strict requirements on what he could write. The main requirement, other than teaching at the school, was to “provide weekly music at the two main churches in Leipzig”. This necessarily meant that most of what Bach wrote forever after was church music (though he would write both The Art of the Fugue and the wondrous Goldberg Variations late in life). Hence his St. Matthews Passion, the Mass in B Minor, and his chorale preludes and cantatas, both of which he wrote hundreds. The sheer volume of these works intimidate the newcomer. Which ones should we listen to? Which are the best? Having completed re-listening to Robert Greenberg’s Teaching Company course How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, I’ve now begun re-listening to his Bach and the High Baroque. This has inspired me to take a shot at the cantatas. The cantata form rose during the Baroque alongside opera and oratorio. They were essentially small scale operas intended for the church, for one or two singers, acting out the gospel lesson of the day or week. As such, a new one was needed weekly, which explains how we know of some 250 Bach cantatas, with many hundreds more thought lost.
I received Bach: Cantatas BWV 80, 140, 147; Jesu, meine Freude from Amazon last week and listened to the cantatas at home and during my morning workouts this week. And they are marvelous. I especially love the first movement choruses – the chorus of Wachet auf (“Sleepers Awake”), BWV 140, is truly sublime. I know I use this phrase a lot when discussing music, but it makes me giddy. Everyone knows some of this music, for instance the fourth movement choral movement of Wachet Auf can he heard here:
If you’ve ever been to church, you’ll recognize some of this music. If anyone told me twenty years ago that I’d be listening to and enjoying church music I’d have told them they were crazy but there it is. Here is that sublime first movement chorus to Cantata No. 140. Turn up the volume and enjoy:
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