Music for the Fourth Sunday
after Pentecost

Proper 7, Year C, June 20, 2010

Today's Cantor: Sargon de Jesus
Violin soloist:     Sarah Foard

Mass Setting:
Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena, Healey Willan

Voluntary

Opening Hymn 372:
Praise to the living God!, Leoni

Psalm 43
The congregation chants each half-verse of the psalm beginning at the asterisk *

At the Offertory—
Cantata 158, Der Friede sei mit dir (mvt. 1, pt. 2), J.S. Bach

Da bleib ich, da hab ich Vergnügen zu wohnen,
Da prang ich gezieret mit himmlischen Kronen.

There I shall stay, there I shall delight to dwell,
there I shall sparkle resplendent with a heavenly crown.

Text: Johann Georg Albinus (1649)   

Offertory Hymn 567:
Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old, St. Matthew

During Communion—
Cantata 158, Der Friede sei mit dir (mvt. 1, pt. 1), J. S. Bach

Welt, ade, ich bin dein müde,
Salems Hütten stehn mir an,
Wo ich Gott in Ruh und Friede
Ewig selig schauen kann.

World, farewell, I am tired of you,
the tents of Salem stand before me,
where in rest and peace,
forever happy, I shall behold God.
Text: Johann Georg Albinus (1649)

Communion Hymn 302:
Father, we thank thee who hast planted, Rendez à Dieu

Closing Hymn 535:
Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim, Paderborn

Voluntary

Music Notes:

ln the years before his appointment as Kantor at Leipzig in 1723, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) had served in various musical capacities in other German cities, notably Arnstadt, Weimar and most recently at Cothen. In each, he worked more or less at the whim of a wealthy, potentially temperamental, patron. While his new employment in the prosperous city of Leipzig did represent a demotion in job description (he had held the loftier position of Kappellmeister before), now the job promised stability—working for the city magistry—handsome accommodations, and good schooling for his sons. Further, the expansive range of his duties called on Bach to provide music and oversee performances at four principal city churches and for special occasions for many venues in Leipzig. Best of all, at age 43, Bach could now rely on superb musical forces at the churches and from a good pool of professional city musicians. Boy choristers—always a tricky issue owing to youth and dreaded, ever-approaching puberty—were superior in numbers and musicianship. They provided the crucial treble (soprano and alto) membership for his choral forces.

Composing for the Sunday service was at the heart of Bach’s duties. This meant music for the choir, and following the tradition of previous cantors, he delivered a weekly cantata, a 15-18 minute, multi-movement composition to sacred texts, either from the Lutheran bible or provided by local librettists. Movements for solo voices were often augmented by choral movements. Accompaniments ranged from simple continuo with a solo instrument or two, to a more elaborate string complement, and—on fancier occasions—winds and even brass. More than 200 such works survive and there is evidence that another 100 Bach cantatas do not.

Cantata BWV 158, Der Friede sei mit dir, for bass voice, treble chorus, solo violin, oboe and continuo dates from earlier than this period (probably composed at Weimar), but like many such works was recycled by Bach in the 1720s in Leipzig. Not only is the exact dating uncertain, its liturgical intent is as well. It is assumed that the central aria and the following recitative represent an earlier torso, which was re-used with the addition of flanking movements. While the middle movements point to the feast of the Purification in their emphasis on withdrawal from the world and desire for death, the outer ones touch twice upon the main Easter motif, the (sacrificed) Lamb of God. A week thematic link can be established only through the idea of the achievement of spiritual peace, to be found in the Gospel readings for the Purification and the third day of Easter.

The heart of the Cantata is a masterfully constructed aria Welt ade, ich bin dir müde, (which we hear today, split between the offertory and communion) into which Bach has fused the first verse of the chorale of that title by Johan Albinus. The question, whether the chorale was originally to be performed by soprano and oboe, or by one of the two soloistically, can be no more definitively answered now than that of the original scoring of the obbligato instrument. Much of the violin’s range remains strangely unutilized—the part never descends below middle “d”—and so, sometimes this florid part is played by a flute. In any event all questions must be left to the performers, since the autograph of the work is lost.

-- Owen Burdick

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Argillius Telluricus Eugenius me fecit