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Bach's Chorale Cantata Cycle
Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale cantata cycle is the year-cycle of church cantatas he started composing in Leipzig from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724. It followed the cantata cycle he had composed from his appointment as Thomaskantor after Trinity in 1723. Bach's second cantata cycle is commonly used as a synonym for his chorale cantata cycle, but strictly speaking both cycles overlap only for 40 cantatas. Two further chorale cantatas may belong to both cycles: the final version of , and the earliest version of ; it is, however, uncertain whether these versions were first presented in Bach's second year in Leipzig. Bach composed a further 13 cantatas in his second year at Leipzig, none of them chorale cantatas, although two of them became associated with the chorale cantata cycle. After his second year in Leipzig, he composed at least eight further cantatas for inclusion in his chorale cantata cycle. Around the start of the Bach Revival in the 19th century, almost no manu ...
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''; organ works such as the '' Schubler Chorales'' and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant c ...
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BWV 38
(Out of deep anguish I call to You), 38, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the 21st Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 29 October 1724. The cantata is part of Bach's second cantata cycle, which focused on Lutheran hymns. The chorale cantata is based on Martin Luther's penitential hymn "", a paraphrase of Psalm 130. Luther's first and last stanza are used unchanged: the former treated as a chorale fantasia, the latter as a four-part closing chorale. An unknown librettist paraphrased the three inner stanzas as two sets of recitatives and arias. Bach scored the cantata for four vocal soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of four trombones, two oboes, strings and continuo. The cantata is unusual in its use of the chorale tune not only in the outer movements, but as material for motifs in recitative and aria, once even taking the chorale melody as a continuo line. In keeping wi ...
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Wie Schön Leuchtet Der Morgenstern, BWV 1
('How beautifully the morning star shines'), 1, is a church cantata for Annunciation by Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1725, when the cantata was composed, the feast of the Annunciation (25 March) coincided with Palm Sunday. Based on Philipp Nicolai's hymn "" (1599), it is one of Bach's chorale cantatas. Bach composed it in his second year as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig, where the Marian feast was the only occasion during Lent when music of this kind was permitted. The theme of the hymn suits both the Annunciation and Palm Sunday occasions, in a spirit of longing expectation of an arrival. As usual for Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the hymn was paraphrased by a contemporary poet who retained the hymn's first and last stanzas unchanged, but transformed the themes of the inner stanzas into a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. is the last chorale cantata of Bach's second cantata cycle, possibly because the librettist who provided the paraphrases for ...
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Reformation Day
Reformation Day is a Protestant Christian religious holiday celebrated on 31 October, alongside All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) during the triduum of Allhallowtide, in remembrance of the onset of the Reformation. According to Philip Melanchthon, 31 October 1517 was the day German Martin Luther nailed his ''Ninety-five Theses'' on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire. Historians and other experts on the subject argue that Luther may have chosen All Hallows' Eve on purpose to get the attention of common people, although that has never been proven. Available data suggest that 31 October was the day when Luther sent his work to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz. This has been verified; nowadays, it is regarded as the start of the Reformation alongside the unconfirmed (Melanchthon appears to be the only source for that) nailing of the ''Ninety-five Theses/grievances'' to All Saints' Church's door on the same dat ...
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Eyn Geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn
' ("A spiritual song booklet"), sometimes called First Wittenberg Hymnal and ' (Choir hymnal), was the first German hymnal for choir, published in Wittenberg in 1524 by Johann Walter who collaborated with Martin Luther. It contains 32 sacred songs, including 24 by Luther, in settings by Walter for three to five parts with the melody in the tenor. Luther wrote a preface for the part books. The collection has been called the root of all Protestant song music. History Martin Luther used hymns in German to affirm his ideas of reformation and to have the congregation actively take part in church services. ' was the third German hymnal, after the "", published in Nürnberg by Jobst Gutnecht, and the "Erfurt Enchiridion", published in Erfurt, both also dating from 1524. ' was published in Wittenberg and is often referred to as the first Wittenberg hymnal. It came with a foreword by Martin Luther: The collection was the first German collection of hymns for choir and was published in ...
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BWV 125
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the cantata (; "With peace and joy I depart"), , for use in a Lutheran service. He composed this chorale cantata in Leipzig in 1725 for the feast for the Purification of Mary, which is celebrated on 2 February and is also known as Candlemas. The cantata is based on Martin Luther's 1524 hymn "" and forms part of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, written to provide Sundays and feast days of the liturgical year with cantatas based on a related Lutheran hymn. The gospel for the feast day, the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, includes Simeon's canticle , which Luther paraphrased in his hymn, providing an unusually close relation of the hymn and the liturgical occasion. Bach had used single stanzas of the hymn in his early funeral cantata , and in cantatas of his first Leipzig cycle. In the format of the chorale cantata cycle, an unknown librettist retained the first and last of Luther's four stanzas while paraphrasing the inner stanzas. In this canta ...
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BWV 14
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a, was published in 1998. The catalogue groups compositions by genre. Even within a genre, compositions are not necessarily collated chronologically. For example, BWV 992 was composed many years before BWV 1. BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions. History The first edition of the ''Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis'' was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder, the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) edition f ...
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BWV 178
The (BWV; ; ) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a, was published in 1998. The catalogue groups compositions by genre. Even within a genre, compositions are not necessarily collated chronologically. For example, BWV 992 was composed many years before BWV 1. BWV numbers were assigned to 1,126 compositions in the 20th century, and more have been added to the catalogue in the 21st century. The Anhang (Anh.; Annex) of the BWV lists over 200 lost, doubtful and spurious compositions. History The first edition of the ''Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis'' was published in 1950. It allocated a unique number to every known composition by Bach. Wolfgang Schmieder, the editor of that catalogue, grouped the compositions by genre, largely following the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft (BG) editio ...
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BWV 121
(We should praise Christ highly), 121, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed this Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for the second day of Christmas and first performed it on 26 December 1724. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn by Martin Luther " Christum wir sollen loben schon". History and words Bach composed the cantata in his second year in Leipzig for the Second Day of Christmas. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to Titus (), the Acts of the Apostles ( and ), and the Gospel of Luke (). The source for the melody is Martin Luther's setting of the hymn " Christum wir sollen loben schon", a German translation of the Latin " A solis ortus cardine" (c. 430). The opening chorus is its first verse and the closing chorale is its eighth verse, both unchanged. The hymn's other verses are freely adapted as madrigalian recitatives and arias by an unknown poet. Scoring and structure The piece is scored for alto, tenor and ...
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BWV 114
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Ah, dear Christians, be comforted), 114, in Leipzig for the 17th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 1 October 1724. Bach created the work as part of his second annual cantata cycle when he was ''Thomaskantor'' (director of music) in Leipzig. That cycle was planned as a cycle of the chorale cantatas for all occasions of the liturgical year. is based on a hymn of penitence by Johannes Gigas (1561). An unknown poet kept three stanzas in their original form, which Bach set as an opening chorale fantasia, a central fourth movement with the soprano accompanied only by the continuo, and a four-part closing chorale as movement 7. The poet reworded the other stanzas as arias and recitatives, including references to the prescribed gospel about the healing of a man with dropsy. Bach scored the cantata for four vocal parts, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of a horn to reinforce the chorale tune, a transverse flute, 2 ...
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BWV 96
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Lord Christ, the only Son of God), 96, in Leipzig for the 18th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 8 October 1724. The chorale cantata, part of Bach's second annual cycle, is based on the hymn in five stanzas "" by Elisabeth Cruciger, published in in 1524. The hymn, related to mysticism and comparing Jesus to the Morning star, matches two aspects of the prescribed gospel for the Sunday, the Great Commandment and a theological dispute about the term "Son of David". An unknown poet kept the first and last stanza for the first and last movement of the cantata, and paraphrased the inner stanzas as four movements, alternating recitative and aria. Bach set the first stanza as a chorale fantasia with the cantus firmus in the alto, adding sparkle by a "dancing" soprano and the illumination of a sopranino, which he used for the first time in his cantatas. In the four inner movements, all four vocal parts have their solo ...
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BWV 91
(Praise be to You, Jesus Christ), 91, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote the Christmas cantata in Leipzig in 1724 for Christmas Day and first performed it on 25 December 1724. The chorale cantata is based on the hymn "" (1524) by Martin Luther. History and words The chorale cantata from Bach's second annual cycle is based on the main chorale for Christmas Day, "" (1524) by Martin Luther. The beginning summarizes Christmas in two lines: "" (Praise be to You, Jesus Christ, since You were born a man). All stanzas end with the acclamation . The cantata was Bach's first composed for Christmas Day in Leipzig; in his first year in Leipzig 1723 he had chosen to perform again , written before in Weimar. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle to Titus, "God's mercy appeared" () or from Isaiah, "Unto us a child is born" (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Nativity, Annunciation to the shepherds and the angels' song (). The unknown poet of the ...
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