Something for a Friday: All of Bach

[silvestrione]

Thanks for the replies about Hume. Not sure how I ever missed the Jordi Savall disc, as he is one of my most established favourite musicians...probably because they are solo pieces, and I prefer a viol consort...anyway, sorry to be off thread.

[Hitch]

Bach - Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage, BWV 248/1. Recorded 14th December 2023. Released today.

Notes from the All of Bach website:

"The Christmas Oratorio is one of Bach’s most famous works. It consists of six cantatas, covering all the days from Christmas Day to the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. Bach had written Christmas cantatas before, but never on this scale. Here, he saw an opportunity to immortalise music he had composed for one-off secular occasions, thus creating a moving, warm and dramatic narration of the Christmas story. Nowadays, the work is usually performed in its entirety, for practical reasons.

A special feature of the first cantata is the balance Bach attains between the jubilant celebration of the birth of Jesus and the serious, sad undertone that points to his fate on the cross. The opening chorus is like an orchestral firework show. Drum rolls, woodwind chirrups and trumpet blasts follow one another at a dizzying tempo. So it comes as no surprise that the original words of this chorus – then still part of a birthday cantata for the Electress of Saxony – were, “Resound, ye drums! Ring out, ye trumpets!” The rhythmical beats of the drums and the many repeated motoric motifs in the string and wind parts make it impossible to sit still. The words invite you to celebrate: shout, exult, arise, praise the days! It is eminently suitable for one of the most important and cheerful feast days in the Christian calendar. And it is exceptional that Bach’s music also gets today’s listeners into the Christmas mood.

A musical contrast is immediately introduced in the next movement: a minimal setting of a biblical text, in a solemn, dramatic minor key, in which the narrator explains that Joseph and Mary, who is with child, are journeying to Bethlehem for a census ordered by the emperor.

An expectant, melodious recitative for the alto leads to the first aria, which is undoubtedly one of the best-known in the Christmas Oratorio. In sensual words, the alto urges the believers in Jesus’s time to prepare for his birth. In doing so, Bach’s unknown librettist uses a metaphor that often appears in the Bible: the Messiah as bridegroom, with the believer as his bride. “Thy cheeks' beauty must today shine much more brightly” she sings in the middle part of the aria, “Hasten, the bridegroom to love with deep passion.”

This seductive text turns into a spiritual, melancholy chorale, accompanied by high flutes, to the melody of the well-known ‘O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden‘ from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The words are milder, but the final chords sound just as ceremonial and stately. And then it happens: Mary gives birth in the stable to Jesus, her first-born son, who she swaddles and lays in a manger, as there is no room at the crowded inn. The next movement seems like an intimate, one-part chorale, until the bass enters with his own text, in which he emphasises the theological significance of Jesus’s birth.

The festive mood returns in the next movement; an aria for the bass. Bach’s original audience associated trumpets with monarchs and kings, as they were often heralded by a fanfare of trumpets. So Bach’s use of a solo trumpet in this part fits the text well. Once again, Bach’s text includes a nice contrast: the king of the world spends the night in a hard manger.

Then the work is closed by a simple chorale, once again with high flutes. The believers pray to take Jesus into their hearts and never forget him. In the pauses between the lines, the timpani and trumpets enter, lending a royal sound once more to the innocent, simple prayer."

[Padraig]

Released today.

And a Happy Christmas to you, Hitch. It's a medal you deserve for reminding us to love Bach.

Today's offering was an extra special performance from our friends in the Netherlands. Full of the spirit of Christmas with all the joy and the tenderness in sincere expression. Lots of old faces to welcome back and new ones to meet. My new favourite!

[Hitch]

Tinsel-topped greetings to you, Padraig. I'm glad you enjoyed the latest offering from AoB. It strikes me that these snippets of joy would sit well in BBC1 or 2's schedule. A video of five to ten minutes' duration every evening might freshen the audience's palate and, one hopes, not stretch the Beeb's budget too far.

[hmvman]

A joyous performance of BWV 248/1. Lovely sound and pictures too!

[Hitch]

Released today: Bach - In Dulci Jubilo BWV 608

Notes from the All of Bach website:

"Though extremely short, this chorale prelude is nevertheless fairly well-known. That’s not surprising, as the hymn on which Bach based the prelude has been popular for hundreds of years: the German Christmas carol ‘In dulci jubilo’ originated in the fourteenth century. Although you can’t hear it any more in today’s familiar arrangements, the melody was originally intended to be sung in canon. Bach immediately seizes this musical opportunity, although of course entirely in his own way. The melody is heard in the soprano part, and is then repeated in the bass part. But Bach also adds middle voices, which augment the lyrical melody with a complex harmony. Moreover, the dancy quavers in these middle voices are reminiscent of the hymn’s creation myth, which is as follows:

The German mystic Hendrik Seuse tells how an angel descended to him in a vision. This angel took Seuse’s hand and led him in a heavenly dance, amid a choir of angels. Seuse then spontaneously broke into a hymn of praise for the birth of Jesus; a hymn that would later be known all over Northern Europe as ‘In Dulci Jubilo’. The hymn is unusual in that the words are written in both Latin and German, with lines that flow from one language into the other. So the language of the church blends with the worldly, exactly as it does in Seuse’s vision. This is not heard in Bach’s prelude, however, as the words only appeared in the community singing for the congregation in Bach’s day.

The nice thing about this arrangement is the particularly high register, which suggests a delicate stop selection. The bass part is very high; in the tenor register rather than the bass. In order to let the organist play the part with the pedals anyway, he or she uses a four-foot stop, meaning that the part sounds an octave higher."

[hmvman]

Short but very sweet......bit like our mince pie pastry!

[Padraig]

Short but very sweet......bit like our mince pie pastry!

That's a cracker for you and a short and sweet mince pie for the rest of us!

Merry Christmas

[hmvman]

That's a cracker for you and a short and sweet mince pie for the rest of us!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you too. Happy Bach listening over the festive period!

[Hitch]

Gloria Patri from Bach's Magnificat, BWV 243. Posted on AoB's YT channel on 28th December, this is actually an extract from the group's May 2014 recording.

Notes from the All of Bach website:

"The Magnificat is the first large choral work that Bach composed after his appointment in Leipzig in the spring of 1723. It is an ‘old-fashioned’ but delightful five-voiced work that uses Latin, just like the other rarity among Bach’s works, the Mass in B minor. The text comes from the Gospel of Luke, and is about the visit made by Mary to her cousin Elisabeth, who was also pregnant. She welcomed Mary with the words: ‘Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!’ Mary answered, saying: ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord (Magnificat anima mea Dominum), and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour, for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden’. The religious feast day associated with this event, the Feast of the Visitation, was held in Bach’s day on 2 July, although nowadays it is celebrated on 31 May. Bach may have planned the Magnificat to have been sung at this first important religious feast day after his appointment. But as his aim of composing a new cantata for each Sunday turned out to be rather a high one, he might have postponed the completion of the Magnificat until the next feast day, Christmas 1723. In any case, that was when it was first performed, supplemented by a few suitable hymns in German.

Bach revised his Magnificat ten years later. He replaced the recorders with transverse flutes, transposed the work to a different key, gave the solo trumpet passage in the tenth part to two oboes playing in unison, and left out the songs related to Christmas, which made the piece suitable for other occasions as well.

The Magnificat has twelve parts, each lasting no more than three minutes. But the expressive power of this song of praise about God’s justice is overwhelming. He lets rulers bite the dust while the humble are raised up, and he feeds the hungry while sending away the rich. The text is given warm colour by using brass for the martial sounds and woodwind for the more loving passages, alongside strings and basso continuo. The full ensemble plays only at the beginning, in the central section and at the end. In the intervening parts, different vocal and instrumental combinations alternate, in order to support the text as expressively as possible.

Bach also uses expressiveness down to the last detail; for example in the second part with dancy sounds to the word ‘exultavit’, in the fourth part by suddenly using almost the whole ensemble for the words ‘omnes generationes’ and in the sixth part through the triplets for the word ‘timentibus’. In part 7, Bach applies this same principle to the maximum, with a furious, six-voiced fugue to the text ‘fecit potentiam in brachio suo’, to illustrate with conviction how far the mighty arm of God extends."

[eighthobstruction]

....thanks and Happy New Year to those who keep this thread ticking over....fab....

[hmvman]

I think this year sees the 10th anniversary of the start of this project. Amazing - how they've kept up the high standards throughout and how that period of time has flown by!

Best wishes to you all for a very happy and musical New Year.

[Padraig]

I think this year sees the 10th anniversary of the start of this project. Amazing - how they've kept up the high standards throughout and how that period of time has flown by!

Best wishes to you all for a very happy and musical New Year.

And to you hmvman and all.

I noticed Hitch's post of 28 December - from the Magnificat. I've been following Bach's Christmas Oratorio over the Christmas period and instead of a piece celebrating the Visitation of Mary Bach chose to focus on the Annunciation. He had other plans for the Magnificat! In the absence of an AoB piece I have instead concentrated on the Christmas Oratorio and for the occasion I played for the first time the version from Brilliant Classics Bach Edition.This was a 1974 recording with Martin Flamig, the Dresden Philharmonic and Chorus, and soloists Arleen Auger, Annelies Burmeister, Peter Schreier, Theo Adam. Excellent, and I still have one section to play, tomorrow the 6th; when the Magi have finished their visit the crib is dismantled and the tree comes down.

[Padraig]

. . . when the Magi have finished their visit the crib is dismantled and the tree comes down.

Bach: Christmas Oratorio VI - 11. Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen - Koopman - YouTube

[Hitch]

Bach - Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier, BWV 469. Recorded 4th June, 2021; released 4th January 2024.

Notes from the All of Bach website:

"In this advent hymn or Christmas carol, the first person joins the three kings and the shepherds standing around Jesus’ crib. Instead of gold, incense and myrrh, he or she gives spiritual gifts: mind and thoughts, heart and soul.

The text of this chorale was first published around 1650. In Bach’s day, it was sung to a different melody. That version can be heard, for example, in the middle of the sixth and final cantata of the Christmas Oratorio. The version heard here comes from the hymnal published in 1736 by Georg Christian Schemelli, on which Bach collaborated as an arranger and composer. That book is the first time that the chorale appears with this new melody, which suggests that the melody was newly composed by Bach, although we do not know for certain.

Together, the simple chorale melody and the accompanying bass part form a subtle harmonic and melodic whole, which moves between warm E-flat major and devout C minor. On the word ‘Jesulein’ in the first strophe, for example, the singing voice descends to the lowest notes in the hymn and the harmony turns to minor. Just like the shepherds and the magi, here the hymn also falls devoutly to its knees.

The hymn became widely known over the course of the nineteenth century. The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was persecuted by the Nazis, wrote the following in 1943 from his prison cell, “In these days, I have discovered the hymn Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier. Up to now, it hadn’t meant much to me. You probably have to spend a long time alone in order to absorb it.” Thankfully, that is also possible outside prison, and particularly now that the text and music are available online."