''Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet'' (We have a new governor), 212, is a secular cantata by

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 wo ...

. It was entitled the "Cantate burlesque" ( burlesque cantata) by Bach himself, but is now popularly known as the ''Peasant Cantata''. It is the last definitely dated Bach cantata.

History and text

This cantata's libretto was written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as

Picander Christian Friedrich Henrici (January 14, 1700 – May 10, 1764), writing under the pen name Picander, was a German poet and librettist for many of the cantatas which Johann Sebastian Bach composed in Leipzig. Henrici was born in Stolpen. He stud ...

, and was written for performance on 30 August 1742. On that day the Erbherr, Lehnherr and Gerichtsherr Carl Heinrich von Dieskau, Saxon-Crown-Princely Kammerherr to the Rittergut Kleinzschocher near

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday with a huge fireworks display and, as was customary, took homage from the peasants on the same occasion. It is thought that Picander asked Bach to set his poetry to music. The text describes how an unnamed farmer laughs with the farmer's wife Mieke about the tax collector's machinations while praising the economy of Dieskau's wife, ending by especially cheering on Dieskau. In places it uses the dialect of

Upper Saxony {{short description, Historic lands in Central Germany Upper Saxony (german: Obersachsen) was the name given to the majority of the German lands held by the House of Wettin, in what is now called Central Germany (''Mitteldeutschland''). Concept ...

("Guschel" for mouth, "Dahlen" for love-games, "Ranzen" for belly and "Neu-Schock" for a 60

Groschen Groschen (; from la, grossus "thick", via Old Czech ') a (sometimes colloquial) name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in various states of the Holy Roman Empire and other parts of Europe. The word is borrowed from the late L ...

piece).

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for two voices: the farmer ( bass) and Mieke ( soprano). The instrumentation includes a string trio of

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 regu ...

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

and basso continuo, accompanied by a flute,

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

and second violin respectively. The piece has 24 movements, more than any other Bach cantata: #Overture (A major- A minor- A major) #Duet aria: ' (A major) #Duet recitative: ' (A major) #Aria (soprano): ' (A major) #Recitative (bass): ' (D major) #Aria (bass): ' (D major) #Recitative (soprano): ' (B minor) #Aria (soprano): ' (B minor) #Duet recitative: ' #Aria (soprano): ' (G major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (B-flat major) #Recitative (soprano): ' #Aria (soprano): ' (A major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (G major) #Recitative (soprano): ' #Aria (soprano): ' (D major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (A major) #Duet recitative: ' #Aria (soprano): ' (B minor) #Duet recitative: ' #Chorus: ' (F major)

Music

In accordance with the nature of the text, Bach created a relatively simple composition held with short sentences and usually simple accompaniment. He repeatedly drew on popular dance forms, folk and popular melodies (such as ''

La Folia ''La Folía'' (Spanish), or ''Follies'' (English), also known as ''folies d'Espagne'' (French), ''La Follia'' (Italian), and ''Folia'' (Portuguese), is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, ...

'' and the folk song "Mit dir und mir ins Federbett, mit dir und mir aufs Stroh", whose title translates as "With you and me into the feather bed, with you and me onto the straw") and excerpts from his own pieces (BWV Anh. 11 and BWV 201 / 7).

Recordings

* Rudolf Ewerhart,

Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württe ...

. ''Bach Cantatas''. Vox 1965 * Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien. ''J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 211 & BWV 212''.

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" ap ...

1967 *

Peter Schreier Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019) was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. Schreier was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor conduct ...

, Kammerorchester Berlin. ''Bach made in Germany Vol. VII – Secular Cantatas VII'', Eterna 1975 * Rosmarie Hofmann, Gregory Reinhadt, Linde-Consort, Hans-Martin Linde. ''J. S. Bach: Bauern-Kantate; Kaffee-Kantate''. EMI Reflexe 1984 *

Emma Kirkby Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, (; born 26 February 1949) is an English soprano and early music specialist. She has sung on over 100 recordings. Education and early career Kirkby was educated at Hanford School, Sherborne School for Girls in Dorse ...

, David Thomas, Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood. ''J. S. Bach: Coffee Cantata / Peasant Cantata''. L'Oiseau-Lyre 1987 *

Helmuth Rilling Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Internationale Bachakademie ...

Bach-Collegium Stuttgart Bach-Collegium Stuttgart is an internationally known German instrumental ensemble, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1965 to accompany the Gächinger Kantorei in choral music with orchestra. Its members are mostly orchestra musicians from Germany and ...

. ''Edition Bachakademie Vol. 67 – Secular Cantatas''.

Hänssler Hänssler-Verlag is a German music publishing house founded in 1919 as Musikverlag Hänssler by Friedrich Hänssler Senior (died 1972) to publish church music. The company is now based in Holzgerlingen. Since 1972 Hänssler Verlag has also publis ...

1996 *

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 ...

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Baroqu ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 5''. Antoine Marchand 1996 *

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for wh ...

Bach Collegium Japan Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in Baroque music, playing on period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music ...

. ''J. S. Bach: BWV 203, 209, 212''. BIS 2016 *''Bach: Kantaten No. 32'', Orchester der J. S. Bach-Stiftung,

Rudolf Lutz Rudolf Lutz (born 1951) is a Swiss organist, harpsichordist, conductor and composer. Education Lutz studied at the Zurich University of the Arts, in Zürich and at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Career From 1973 he was ...

J. S. Bach-Stiftung The J. S. Bach-Stiftung, known in English as the J. S. Bach Foundation, is a Swiss foundation established in St. Gallen in 1999 to support the performance of the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

, 2020

References

Bibliography

Alfred Dürr Alfred Dürr (3 March 1918 – 7 April 2011) was a German musicologist. He was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Professional career Dürr studied musicology and Clas ...

: ''Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kantaten.'' Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. *

Werner Neumann Werner Neumann (21 January 1905, Königstein – 24 April 1991, Leipzig) was a German musicologist. He founded the Bach-Archiv Leipzig on 20 November 1950 and was a principal editor of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of the complete wo ...

: ''Handbuch der Kantaten J.S.Bachs''. 1947, 5. Auf. 1984. *

Hans-Joachim Schulze Hans-Joachim Schulze (born 3 December 1934) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who served as the director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig from 1992 to 2000. With Christoph Wolff, he was editor of the '' Bach-Jahrbuch'' (Bach yearbook) from ...

: ''Die Bach-Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs''. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006. (Edition

Bach-Archiv Leipzig The Bach-Archiv Leipzig or Bach-Archiv is an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach-Archiv also researches the Bach family, especially their music. Based in Leipzig, the city where ...

) (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), (Carus-Verl.) *

Christoph Wolff Christoph Wolff (born 24 May 1940) is a German musicologist. He is best known for his works on the music, life, and period of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff is an emeritus professor of Harvard University, and was part of the faculty sinc ...

: ''Die Welt der Bach-Kantaten''. Stuttgart; Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 2006.

External links

*
Cantata BWV 212 Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet
on bach-cantatas

on the ''Bach'' website (in German)
Entries for BWV 212
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (Peasant Cantata) Secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach 1742 compositions