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Despite their heterogeneous nature, the cantatas from the first cycle establish some characteristic features that remain constant for the entire Leipzig cantata repertoire, such as the grand style choral opening (only rarely do solo pieces appear right at the start) and the closing four-part chorales that are simple but expressive. The newly composed choral and instrumental ensembles are larger than those of the Weimar cantatas, as are those of Weimar cantatas re-performed in Leipzig (for example, two recorders are added to BWV 18 and the string complement is enlarged in BWV 182). The instrumentation is more refined yet also more standardized (all the cantatas call for a full four-part string ensemble usually with fixed wind groups, such as three trumpets and timpani or double oboes and recorders). While the overall scoring patterns may seem less capricious and colorful than in the Weimar cantatas (compare Table 6.3), Bach's unbowed spirit of discovery continued to spur his exploration of new instrumental sonorities and combinations. From the start, he regularly made use of the new lower-register oboe types not available to him before, in particular the oboe d'amore and oboe da caccia, and from the spring of 1724 he began using the transverse flute. Instrumental virtuosity is heightened, and the technical demands on the vocal ensemble and soloists are no less striking.

Bach's compositional goals remained unchanged: not one to write aria after aria, chorus after chorus, and cantata after cantata, he expanded the cantata genre by broadening the scope of the conventional types of choruses, arias, recitatives, and chorales. The development of his opening cantata choruses—a major focus in the first cantata cycle—is breathtaking. In these expansive movements, the orchestral and choral sections become fully integrated (as opposed to the traditional separation of instrumental introduction and choral complex), and in addition, the entire vocal-instrumental apparatus engages in an intensive, multilayered musical interpretation of the text. In the impressive initial series of newly composed cantatas, BWV 75, 76, 24, 167, 136, 105, and 46, the last two mark a new plateau of artistic accomplishment in the church cantata genre, both in the intricacy of their compositional design and in the vigorous musical expression and striking rhetorical power of their opening choruses: “Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht” (Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant), BWV 105/1, for four-part choir and a compact ensemble of horn, 2 oboes, doubling strings, and continuo—an eight-part score extending over 128 measures; and “Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgendein Schmerz sei” (Behold, and see if there be any sorrow), BWV 46/1, for four-part choir and trumpet, 2 recorders, 2 oboi da caccia, strings, and continuo—a thirteen-part score 142 measures long. By comparison, Bach's largest pre-Leipzig cantata chorus, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis,” BWV 21/1, is a nine-part score of 58 measures, with a 20-measure instrumental sinfonia. Bach incorporated the music of BWV 46/1 ten years later into the Gloria section of the
B-minor Mass
, a clear testimony of the value he attached to the quality of this movement.

The development of interpretive imagery in Bach's musical language also took a new turn in the first months at Leipzig. For example, an aria like “Wie zittern und wanken / der Sünder Gedanken, / indem sie sich untereinander verklagen” (How tremble and waver / the sinners' thoughts / in that they accuse one another), of cantata BWV 105, translates the poetic text precisely into a fitting musical idea (see Ex. 8.1). First of all, the rhyme structure of the initial lines of the poem (wanken / Gedanken) determines Bach's symmetric phrasing of the corresponding vocal declamation. Then, the texture of the setting is fashioned to represent the image of “trembling
and
wavering” simultaneously by a two-layered score: the motive of wavering thoughts in the floundering and halting melodic gestures that alternate between soprano and oboe in an overlapping manner, and the trembling thoughts in a string accompaniment based on a tremolo figure that proceeds, for purposes of intensification, at two different speeds. The word-generated texture thus created in this passage provides a strong unifying device that helps structure the instrumental ritornello and the movement as a whole, so that other, similarly word-generated musical ideas, like the long melisma on “verklagen” from the next line, can blend in without compromising their identity (Ex. 8.2). Incidentally, the melodic-rhythmic shape of that melisma shows the demanding vocal technique Bach now required of his singers—a tribute to the effectiveness of his vocal lessons over a span of barely two months.

Considering the many adjustments and complications he faced during his first year in office, it is remarkable that Bach, despite some unavoidable (though not haphazard) scrambling for suitable cantata texts, was able to create an annual cycle that established new compositional standards not just for himself but for the cantata genre itself. At the same time, the first
Jahrgang
in toto possessed neither literary conformity nor overall musical consistency. For his second annual cycle of 1724–25, however, Bach could, with his increased preparation time, turn to the proven concept of a cantata cycle based on a uniform libretto type. While entire cycles had been set by a number of his colleagues, most notably Georg Philipp Telemann (beginning with his Eisenach cycle of 1711) but also Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel in Gotha and Johann Friedrich Fasch in Zerbst, Bach himself had never been in a position to compose a full
Jahrgang
—his Weimar settings of Salomo Franck's
Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer
of 1715 had to pursue a monthly rather than weekly schedule. But on the first Sunday after Trinity 1724, Bach could begin with a most promising cantata project of great homogeneity, whose scope he was able to define himself (Table 8.8). Every cantata was to be based on a seasonal church hymn of the ecclesiastical year; the first and last stanza of the hymn were to serve as the opening and final movements of the cantata, and the internal hymn stanzas were to be variously paraphrased, condensed, and reconfigured to accommodate the metric structure of the madrigal verses for recitatives and arias.
66

T
ABLE
8.8. Second Annual Cycle (
JahrgangII)—
Performance Schedule, 1724–25

BWV

Cantata

Liturgical Date

Performance

Chorale cantatas:

20

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, II (2 parts)

1
st
Sunday after Trinity

6/11/1724

2

Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein

2
nd
Sunday after Trinity

6/18/1724

7

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam

St. John's Day

6/24/1724

135

Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder

3
rd
Sunday after Trinity

6/25/1724

10

Meine Seel erhebt den Herren

Visitation

7/2/1724

93

Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten

5
th
Sunday after Trinity

7/9/1724

107

Was willst du dich betrüben

7
th
Sunday after Trinity

7/23/1724

178

Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält

8
th
Sunday after Trinity

7/30/1724

94

Was frag ich nach der Welt

9
th
Sunday after Trinity

8/6/1724

101

Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott

10
th
Sunday after Trinity

8/13/1724

113

Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut

11
th
Sunday after Trinity

8/20/1724

33

Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

13
th
Sunday after

Trinity 9/3/1724

78

Jesu, der du meine Seele

14
th
Sunday after Trinity

9/10/1724

99

Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, I

15
th
Sunday after Trinity

9/17/1724

8

Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?

16
th
Sunday after Trinity

9/24/1724

130

Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir

St. Michael's Day

9/29/1724

114

Ach lieben Christen, seid getrost

17
th
Sunday after Trinity

10/1/1724

96

Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn 1

8
th
Sunday after Trinity

10/8/1724

5

Wo soll ich fliehen hin

19
th
Sunday after Trinity

10/15/1724

180

Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele

20
th
Sunday after Trinity

10/22/1724

38

Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir

21
st
Sunday after Trinity

10/29/1724

115

Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit

22
nd
Sunday after Trinity

11/5/1724

139

Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott

23
rd
Sunday after Trinity

11/12/1724

26

Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig

24
th
Sunday after Trinity

11/19/1724

116

Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ

25
th
Sunday after Trinity

11/26/1724

Start of ecclesiastical year

62

Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, II

1
st
Sunday in Advent

12/3/1724

91

Gelobet seist du, Jesu

Christ Christmas Day

12/25/1724

121

Christum wir sollen loben schon

2
nd
day of Christmas

12/26/1724

133

Ich freue mich in dir

3
rd
day of Christmas

12/27/1724

122

Das neugeborne Kindelein

Sunday after Christmas

12/31/1724

41

Jesu, nun sei gepreiset

New Year's Day

1/1/1725

123

Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen

Epiphany

1/6/1725

124

Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht

1
st
Sunday after Epiphany

1/7/1725

3

Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, I

2
nd
Sunday after Epiphany

1/14/1725

111

Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit

3
rd
Sunday after Epiphany

1/21/1725

92

Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn

Septuagesimae

1/28/1725

125

Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin

Purification

2/2/1725

126

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort

Sexagesimae

2/4/1725

127

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott

Estomihi

2/11/1725

1

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern

Annunciation

3/25/1725

[245

St. John Passion (2
nd
version)

Good Friday (Vespers)

3/30/1725]

(End of chorale cantata cycle; for later additions, see Table 8.9.)

Cantatas on texts of unknown origin:

249
‡

Kommt, gehet und eilet

Easter Sunday

4/1/1725

4
*

Christ lag in Todes Banden

Easter Sunday

 

6

Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden

2
nd
day of Easter

4/2/1725

42

Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats

Quasimodogeniti

4/8/1725

85

Ich bin ein guter Hirt

Misericordias Domini

4/15/1725

Cantatas on texts by Mariane von Ziegler:

103

Ihr werdet weinen und heulen

Jubilate

4/22/1725

108

Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe

Cantate

4/29/1725

87

Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen

Rogate

5/6/1725

128

Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein

Ascension Day

5/10/1725

183

Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, II

Exaudi

5/13/1725

74

Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, II

Whitsunday

5/20/1725

68

Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt

2
nd
day of Pentecost

5/21/1725

175

Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen

3
rd
day of Pentecost

5/22/1725

176

Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding

Trinity Sunday

5/27/1725

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