(Just resist sin), BWV 54, is a

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, ...

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 ...

. He composed the solo cantata for

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 ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

between 1711 and 1714, and probably performed it on the seventh Sunday after

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

, 15 July 1714. It is Bach's first extant church cantata for a solo voice. The text of the short work was written by

Georg Christian Lehms Georg Christian Lehms (; 1684 – 15 May 1717) was a German poet and novelist who sometimes used the pen-name ''Pallidor''. He published poetry, novels, libretti for operas, and the texts of cantatas. Life Born in Liegnitz (now in Poland) in 168 ...

, for two

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 ...

s and a connecting

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repea ...

. The topic is to resist sin, based on the

Epistle of James The Epistle of James). is a general epistle and one of the 21 epistles ( didactic letters) in the New Testament. James 1:1 identifies the author as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" who is writing to "the twelve tribes ...

. The text was published in a 1711 collection, dedicated to the Sunday

Oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's-e ...

. It is not known when Bach composed the work but is assumed that he performed it as part of his monthly cantata productions in 1714 on the seventh Sunday after Trinity, 15 July. The solo voice is accompanied by strings: 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 ...

parts, two

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 ...

parts and continuo. The composition begins with a striking

dissonant In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...

chord.

History and words

The history of the composition is not clear. The text was written by

for

, the third Sunday in Lent, and published in 1711 in . It concentrates on avoiding sin, based on the

. The first line of movement 3 quotes . Bach may have composed the cantata already before taking up regular cantata compositions in

. He was appointed concertmaster of the Weimar court capelle of the co-reigning dukes

Wilhelm Ernst Wilhelm Ernst (25 August 1905, in Gelsenkirchen – 23 July 1952, in Gelsenkirchen) was a German chess master. Biography He was a winner at Weidenau 1937. He played several times in German Chess Championship; took second, behind Kurt Richter, at ...

and Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar, on 2 March 1714. As concertmaster, he assumed the principal responsibility for composing new works, specifically cantatas for the (palace church), on a monthly schedule. The Bach scholar

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 ...

suggested that Bach performed the cantata for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity of 1714. The prescribed readings for the Sunday are from the

Epistle to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...

, "the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life" (), and from the

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...

, the feeding of the 4000 (). The cantata text relates to the epistle of both Sundays, but shows no connection to either Gospel. While Dürr assumes that Bach first performed the cantata on 15 July 1714, other scholars arrive at different dates.

John Eliot Gardiner Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Life and career Born in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, son of Rolf Gardiner and Marabel Hodgkin, Gard ...

and others assume Oculi that year which would make it the earliest cantata performed after the promotion. It is his first extant church cantata for a solo voice, followed by , 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 ...

. The cantata is the first of four written for a single

soloist, the others, all composed in 1726, being , ''Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust'', BWV 170, and , BWV 169, two of which also have texts by Lehms. It is not clear what sort of alto singer (boy contralto? adult male falsettist? high tenor?) might have been the intended or actual first performer of "Widerstehe doch der Sünde", especially given its low range and

tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or character ...

compared with other alto solo writing by Bach such as or ''Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust'', BWV 170. If the cantata was written early in Bach's (second) Weimar period, then perhaps the soloist could have been Adam Immanuel Weldig, the only falsettist in the Weimar court chapel in 1708 (the other five singers being a bass, two tenors and two teenage discantists). However, Weldig's designation as "falsettist" may indicate that he was a soprano and not an alto. Weldig left Weimar in 1713 so could not have sung if the first performance was as late as 1714 as suggested by Dürr.

Scoring and structure

The cantata, structured in three movements, is scored as chamber music for a solo

voice, two

s (Vl), two

s (Va), and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

(Bc). The duration is given as 14 minutes. The manuscript title page reads: "Cantata.à 2 Violini, 2 Viole, Alto, Solo, è Cont.: del J.S.B.". In the following table of the movements, the scoring follows 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 ...

. The

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

and

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

s are taken from

, using the symbols for common time (4/4) and alla breve (2/2). The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.

Music

1

The first movement, "" (Just resist sin) is a

da capo aria The da capo aria () is a musical form for arias that was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and orator ...

, which opens with a surprising dissonance and leaves its key of

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

open until a cadence in measure 8. Dürr describes it as a call to resistance and compares it to the beginning of the

"", a call to be ready, in the cantata for

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

''Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland'', BWV 61, composed in 1714. Gardiner comments: "It is a deliberate shock tactic to rouse his listeners to the need to 'stand firm against all sinning, or its poison will possess you'". Bach used the first aria again in his '' St Mark Passion''.

2

The recitative "" (The way of vile sins) is secco, accompanied by the continuo. The words "So zeigt sich nur ein leerer Schatten und übertünchtes Grab" (It shows itself as only an empty shadow and a whitewashed grave) are expressed in "pale" harmonies. The final lines are

arioso In classical music, arioso (also aria parlante ) is a category of solo vocal piece, usually occurring in an opera or oratorio, falling somewhere between recitative and aria in style. Literally, arioso means ''airy''. The term arose in the 16th cen ...

and illustrate in (It is like a sharp sword, that pierces through body and soul) the movement of the sword by fast runs in the continuo.

3

The final aria "" (He who sins is of the devil) is again a da capo aria, but shows elements of a four-part

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

for the voice, the violins in

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, the violas in unison and the continuo. Gardiner describes the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

as "insinuating

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

" and the "contorted

counter-subject In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme. Characteristics A subject may be perceivable as a complete mus ...

to portray the wily shackles of the devil".

Recordings

The sortable listing is taken from the selection provided by Aryeh Oron on the Bach-Cantatas website. The sortable table is based on the listing on the Bach Cantatas website. The type of orchestra is roughly shown as a large group by red background, and as an ensemble playing period instruments in

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...

by green background.

Notes

References

Sources

*
''Widerstehe doch der Sünde'', BWV 54; BC A 51 / Sacred cantata (7th Sunday after Trinity)

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

''Widerstehe doch der Sünde''
history, scoring, ''Bach'' website

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 ...

External links

''Widerstehe doch der Sünde'', BWV 54
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)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): ''Widerstehe doch der Sünde'', BWV 54
saturdaychorale.com 30 April 2015 *Víkingur Ólafsson – Bach: Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 (Transcr. by Víkingur Ólafsson) live at Harpa, Reykjavík. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGXBudB_reM&list=RDnGXBudB_reM&start_radio=1 Deutsche Grammophon: Víkingur Ólafsson {{DEFAULTSORT:Widerstehe Doch Der Sunde Bwv 54 Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach 1714 compositions