' (The Lord is mindful of us), , is a

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

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 w ...

. The

early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

church cantata A church cantata or sacred cantata is a cantata intended to be performed during Christian liturgy. The genre was particularly popular in 18th-century Lutheran Germany, with many composers writing an extensive output: Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, ...

, possibly for a wedding, is difficult to date, but is generally considered to be an early work on stylistic grounds. The text is a passage from

Psalm 115 Psalm 115 is the 115th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Not unto us, O , not unto us, but unto thy name give glory". It is part of the Egyptian Hallel sequence in the fifth division of the Book of Ps ...

, assuring of God's blessing, especially for children. Scholars have suggested the work may have been written for the wedding of Johann Lorenz Stauber, the minister in

Dornheim Dornheim is a municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. The main attraction is the village church where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of th ...

who had married Bach and his first wife there in 1707, and Regina Wedemann, an aunt of Bach's wife, on 5 June 1708. Bach structured the work in five movements – an instrumental Sinfonia, a chorus, an

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

, a

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...

and a final chorus. He scored it for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of strings and continuo.

History and words

The precise date of composition for this cantata is unknown, but it is generally considered to be an early work. The English Bach scholar Richard Jones notes that "although it survives only in a later manuscript copy", its stylistic features are evidence of an earlier date: its text comprises "selected psalm verses only, without any free madrigalian verse", it has no recitative, and the compositional approach "still breathes the air of the seventeenth century". Young Bach2

Many of Bach's later church cantatas were composed for the requirements of the

liturgical calendar The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which ...

, but the early ones, including ''Der Herr denket an uns'', were written for special occasions. The text is taken from , speaking of a thoughtful and blessing God. The passage includes in verse 14: "The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children". Many commentators, from his biographer

Philipp Spitta Julius August Philipp Spitta (27 December 1841 – 13 April 1894) was a German music historian and musicologist best known for his 1873 biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Life He was born in , near Hoya, and his father, also called Phil ...

onwards, have concluded that the cantata was written for a wedding. They have proposed weddings where it might have been performed, including Bach's own in October 1707, when he married his first wife Maria Barbara in

. The Bach scholar Alfred Dürr and others suggest that the cantata may have been written for the wedding of the minister Johann Lorenz Stauber, who had conducted the wedding ceremony for Bach, and Regina Wedemann, an aunt of Maria Barbara, in Dornheim on 5 June 1708. However, the wedding hypothesis is not proven, and the general text could fit other occasions. The cantata was first published in 1864 in the Bach Gesellschaft first edition of the composer's complete works. It was published in the ''

Neue Bach-Ausgabe The New Bach Edition (NBE) (german: Neue Bach-Ausgabe; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete Wo ...

'' in 1958, edited by Frederick Hudson.

Scoring and structure

Bach structured the cantata in five movements, an instrumental sinfonia and two choral movements framing two

s, one for

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&n ...

(S), the other a

for

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 lo ...

(T) and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(B). As in Bach's other early cantatas, there are no recitatives. Besides the three solo voices, Bach scored the work for a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s (Vl),

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

(Va),

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

(Vc), bass (

violone The term violone (; literally "large viol" in Italian, " -one" being the augmentative suffix) can refer to several distinct large, bowed musical instruments which belong to either the viol or violin family. The violone is sometimes a fretted i ...

) and continuo, as a copy of the score from around 1731 by Johann Ludwig Dietel, a student of Bach, shows. The duration has been given as 10 minutes and the main key as

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

. In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows the ''

''. The table uses the symbol for common time (4/4). The continuo including violone and organ, playing throughout, is not shown.

Music

Each vocal movement of the cantata is assigned to one verse of the psalm. The work has been described as a brief, sunny and festive work.

1

The opening sinfonia is march-like in style, reminiscent of processional music. It includes the dotted rhythms characteristic of the

French overture The French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period. Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs. They are complementary in style (slow in dotted rhythms and fast in f ...

in the opening section, and a contrasting minor-mode middle section in

triplet A triplet is a set of three items, which may be in a specific order, or unordered. It may refer to: Science * A series of three nucleotide bases forming an element of the Genetic code * J-coupling as part of Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrosc ...

s. Two elements, the triplets and rising lines in imitation, return in later movements. The musicologist Julian Mincham concludes that "Bach, even at this early stage, was thinking across the movements and beginning to conceive such compositions as unified entities rather than suite-like potpourris".

2

The first chorus, "" (The Lord is mindful of us and blesses us), contains

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

writing which also appears in other early cantatas. The movement opens like an organ prelude, preparing for a permutation fugue, a type of fugue found in ''Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir'', BWV 131, for example. The vocal lines are rising in imitation, as in the sinfonia.

3

The soprano aria, "" (He blesses those who fear the Lord, both small and great.), opens with a short

ritornello A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. Early history The earliest use of the term "ritornello" in music referred to the final lines of a fourteenth-century madrigal, which were usu ...

theme and is in

ternary form Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples includ ...

. The vocal line is

scalar Scalar may refer to: *Scalar (mathematics), an element of a field, which is used to define a vector space, usually the field of real numbers * Scalar (physics), a physical quantity that can be described by a single element of a number field such ...

, contrasting with the obbligato violins, which play at times triplets, as in the sinfonia.

4

The duet aria, "" (May the Lord bless you more and more, you and your children), is based on a single line of text. The violins play an imitative

motif Motif may refer to: General concepts * Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose * Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions * Moti ...

that does not align with the vocal phrases. the movement has been described as calm and "gently-swaying". Mincham notes a subtle growth "in the imitative opening motives of the violins taken, incidentally, from the sinfonia and dominating this movement throughout".

5

The closing chorus, "" (You are the blessed of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Amen.), is "awash with rippling scale and

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

figures". It concludes with echoing of '' Amen''.

Recordings

* Bach-Collegium Stuttgart and Gächinger Kantorei, dir. Helmuth Rilling. ''Bach Edition: Cantatas 1''. Hänssler Classic, 1975. *

Concentus Musicus Wien Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW) is an Austrian baroque music ensemble based in Vienna. The CMW is recognized as a pioneer of the period-instrument performance movement. History Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt co-founded the CMW in 1953 ...

and

Tölzer Knabenchor The Tölzer Knabenchor (Tölz Boys' Choir) is a German boys' choir named after the Upper Bavarian city of Bad Tölz and since 1971 based in Munich. The choir is ranked among the most versatile and sought-after boys' choirs in the world. Histor ...

, dir.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt or historically Johann Nikolaus Graf de la Fontaine und d'Harnoncourt-Unverzagt; () (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk''. Teldec, 1989. * Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, dir.

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...

. ''J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 1''. Erato, 1994. * Bach Collegium Japan, dir. Masaaki Suzuki. ''J.S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 1''.

BIS Records BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden. BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings. ...

, 1995. *

Netherlands Bach Collegium The Netherlands Bach Collegium is a Baroque orchestra based in the Netherlands. It is conducted by Pieter Jan Leusink. They are noted for their Complete Cantatas Brilliant Series, a recording of the complete Bach cantata, sacred cantatas by Johann S ...

and

Holland Boys Choir Pieter Jan Leusink (born 5 April 1958 in Elburg) is a Dutch conductor of classical music. He studied organ in Zwolle at the Municipal Conservatory and took conducting lessons from Gottfried van der Horst. He founded the Stadsknapenkoor Elburg (E ...

, dir.

Pieter Jan Leusink Pieter Jan Leusink (born 5 April 1958 in Elburg) is a Dutch conductor of classical music. He studied organ in Zwolle at the Municipal Conservatory and took conducting lessons from Gottfried van der Horst. He founded the Stadsknapenkoor Elburg ( ...

. ''Bach Edition: Cantatas Vol. 4''. Brilliant Classics, 1999.

Notes

References

External links

*
Der Herr denket an uns BWV 196; BC B 11 / Sacred cantata (Wedding)
Leipzig University on Bach digital
Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196
performance by the

Netherlands Bach Society The Netherlands Bach Society ( nl, Nederlandse Bachvereniging) is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach's ''St Matthew ...

(video and background information)
BWV 196 Der Herr denket an uns
English translation,

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...

* Robert Cummings
Johann Sebastian Bach / Cantata No. 196, "Der Herr denket an uns," BWV 196 (BC B11)
AllMusic {{DEFAULTSORT:Herr Denket An Uns, Der Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach Psalm-related compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach Christian wedding music 1708 cantatas