Actus Tragicus
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Actus Tragicus
(God's time is the very best time), , also known as ''Actus tragicus'', is an early sacred cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Mühlhausen, intended for a funeral. The earliest source for the composition is a copied manuscript dated 1768, therefore the date of the composition is not certain. Research leads to a funeral of a former mayor of Mühlhausen on 16 September 1708. The text is a carefully compiled juxtaposition of biblical texts, three quotations from the Old Testament and four from the New Testament, combined with funeral hymns, of which two are sung and one is quoted instrumentally, and some additions by an anonymous author. Bach scored the work for four vocal parts and a small ensemble of Baroque instruments, two recorders, two violas da gamba and continuo. The work is opened by an instrumental Sonatina, followed by through-composed sections which have been assigned to four movements. The structure is symmetrical around a turning point, when the lower voice ...
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Church Cantata (Bach)
Throughout his life as a musician, Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for both secular and sacred use. His church cantatas are cantatas which he composed for use in the Lutheran church, mainly intended for the occasions of the liturgical year. Bach's ''Nekrolog'' mentions five cantata cycles: "Fünf Jahrgänge von Kirchenstücken, auf alle Sonn- und Festtage" (Five year-cycles of pieces for the church, for all Sundays and feast days), which would amount to at least 275 cantatas,Alfred Dörffel. Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe Volume 27: '' Thematisches Verzeichniss der Kirchencantaten No. 1–120''. Breitkopf & Härtel, 1878. Introduction, p. VI or over 320 if all cycles would have been ideal cycles.Günther Zedler''Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach: Eine Einführung in die Werkgattung''.Books on Demand, 2011. p. 24–25/ref> The extant cantatas are around two-thirds of that number, with limited additional information on the ones that went missing or survived as fra ...
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Old Covenant
The Mosaic covenant (named after Moses), also known as the Sinaitic covenant (after the biblical Mount Sinai), refers to a covenant between God and the Israelites, including their proselytes, not limited to the ten commandments, nor the event when they were given, but including the entirety of laws that Moses delivered from God in the five books of Torah. Historical-critical scholarship The concept of a covenant began long before the biblical era, specifically the beginnings of Israel. According to George E. Mendenhall, covenants were originally established as legal customs and then later were replicated in the field of religion. These covenants were created on the basis of an oath, a promise between two parties followed by performance. Engaging in an oath implied that the more powerful party would ensure that the other received proper punishment if it were to default. In the case of religion, the god(s) would be carrying out punishment. Such covenants assured that either bless ...
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Figured Bass
Figured bass is musical notation in which numerals and symbols appear above or below (or next to) a bass note. The numerals and symbols (often accidentals) indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones that a musician playing piano, harpsichord, organ, or lute (or other instruments capable of playing chords) should play in relation to the bass note. Figured bass is closely associated with basso continuo: a historically improvised accompaniment used in almost all genres of music in the Baroque period of Classical music ( 1600–1750), though rarely in modern music. Figured bass is also known as thoroughbass. Other systems for denoting or representing chords include plain staff notation, used in classical music; Roman numerals, commonly used in harmonic analysis; chord letters, sometimes used in modern musicology; the Nashville Number System; and various chord names and symbols used in jazz and popular music (e.g., C Major or simply C; D minor, Dm, or D−; G ...
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Violas Da Gamba
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Frets on the viol are usually made of gut, tied on the fingerboard around the instrument's neck, to enable the performer to stop the strings more cleanly. Frets improve consistency of intonation and lend the stopped notes a tone that better matches the open strings. Viols first appeared in Spain in the mid-to-late 15th century, and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque (1600–1750) periods. Early ancestors include the Arabic ''rebab'' and the medieval European vielle,Otterstedt, Annette. ''The Viol: History of an Instrument. ''Kassel: Barenreiter;-Verlag Karl Votterle GmbH & Co; 2002. but later, more direct possible ancestors include the Venetian ''viole'' and the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish ''vihuela ...
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Recorder (musical Instrument)
The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as ''internal duct flutes'': flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition. Recorders are made in various sizes with names and compasses roughly corresponding to various vocal ranges. The sizes most commonly in use today are the soprano (also known as descant, lowest note C5), alto (also known as treble, lowest note F4), tenor (lowest note C4), and bass (lowest note F3). Recorders were traditionally constructed from wood or ivory. Modern professional instruments are almost invariably of wood, often boxwood; student and scholastic recorders are commonly of molded plastic. The recorders' internal and external proportions vary, but the bore i ...
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Bass (voice Type)
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E2–E4/F4 Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the ''basso cantante'' (singing bass), ''basso buffo'' ("funny" bass), or the dramatic ''basso profondo'' (low bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German ''Fach'' system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can ...
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Tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widely defined to be B2, though some roles include an A2 (two As below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to the second F above middle C (F5). The tenor voice type is generally divided into the ''leggero'' tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or . History The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word ''wikt:teneo#Latin, tenere'', which means "to hold". As Fallows, Jander, Forbes, Steane, Harris and Waldman note in the "Tenor" article at ''Grove Music Online'': In polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the [tenor was the] structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental; by the 15th century it came to signify the male voice that ...
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Alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by either low women's or high men's voices. In vocal classification these are usually called contralto and male alto or countertenor. Such confusion of "high" and "low" persists in instrumental terminology. Alto flute and alto trombone are respectively lower and higher than the standard instruments of the family (the standard instrument of the trombone family being the tenor trombone), though both play in ranges within the alto clef. Alto recorder, however, is an octave higher, and is defined by its relationship to tenor and soprano recorders; alto clarinet is a fifth lower than B-flat clarinet, already an 'alto' instrument. There is even a contra-alto clarinet, (an octave lower than the alto clarinet), with a range B♭0 – D4. Etymo ...
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Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261  Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano"
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Johann Olearius (1611–1684)
Johann Olearius (17 September 1611 – 24 April 1684) was a German hymnwriter, preacher, and academic. Olearius taught philosophy at his ''alma mater'', the University of Wittenberg. He also served as a court preacher and chaplain. He compiled "one of the largest and most important German hymnals" of the 1600s. His hymn "Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott" is the base for the chorale cantata Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, BWV 129, ''Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott'', BWV 129, by Johann Sebastian Bach, who also included a stanza of "Tröstet, tröstet meine Lieben" (Comfort, comfort ye my people) in his Bach cantata, cantatas Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV 30, ''Freue dich, erlöste Schar'', BWV 30. References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olearius, Johann 1611 births 1684 deaths German Lutheran hymnwriters German chaplains University of Wittenberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Wittenberg 17th-century hymnwriters ...
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Wilhelm Rust
Wilhelm Rust (August 15, 1822 – May 2, 1892) was a German musicologist and composer. He is most noted today for his substantial contributions to the Bach Gesellschaft edition of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Born in Dessau, Rust studied piano and organ with his uncle Wilhelm Karl Rust, and later under Friedrich Schneider (1843–1846). From 1845 to 1848 he was music teacher in a Hungarian nobleman's family. He went to Berlin in 1849, where he taught and joined the Singakademie in 1850. He joined the Leipzig Bach-Verein in 1850, and played in numerous concerts. He became organist of St. Luke's in 1861, conductor of the Berlin Bach-Verein from 1862 to 1874, and Royal Music Director in 1864. He received an honorary D.Phil. from the University of Marburg in 1868. In 1870, he became teacher of theory and composition at the Stern Conservatory. In 1878 he moved to Leipzig, where he became a teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory and organist at the Thomaskirche. In 1880 he succeed ...
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Bach Gesellschaft
The German Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was a society formed in 1850 for the express purpose of publishing the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach without editorial additions. The collected works are known as the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe. On completion of the project, the Society dissolved itself. The nineteenth-century society should be distinguished from its successor, the Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society), founded in 1900. Origins of the Bach-Gesellschaft The founders of the society were Moritz Hauptmann, cantor of the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, (and thus a successor of Bach); Otto Jahn, author of a noted biography of Mozart; Carl Ferdinand Becker, teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory; and the composer Robert Schumann. Publication history The Bach-Gesellschaft began publishing Bach's works in 1851 with a volume that started with BWV 1, the cantata ''Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1''. (Worklist for J.S. Bach). It completed publication in 1900 wit ...
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