Lobe Den Herrn, Meine Seele, BWV 69a

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata (Praise the Lord, my soul), 69a, also BWV69.1, at Bach Digital website: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 69.1; BWV 69a; BC A 123 / Sacred cantata (12th Sunday after Trinity) in Leipzig for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 15 August 1723. It is part of his first cantata cycle.

History and words

Bach wrote the cantata in his first year in Leipzig, which he had started after Trinity of 1723, for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the ministry of the Spirit (), and from the Gospel of Mark, the healing of a deaf mute man (). The unknown poet referred to the gospel, but saw God constantly doing good for man in the healing more generally. The opening chorus is therefore taken from , "Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget the good He has done for you". The poetry refers to "telling" several times, related to the healed man's ability to speak: "Ah, that I had a thousand tongues!" ( movement 2), "My soul, arise! tell" (movement 3) and "My mouth is weak, my tongue mute to speak Your praise and honor" (movement 4). Several movements rely on words of a cantata by Johann Oswald Knauer, published in 1720 in in Gotha. The closing chorale picks up the theme in the sixth verse of Samuel Rodigast's hymn "" (What God does, is done well) (1675).

Bach first performed the cantata on 15 August 1723. He performed it again around 1727, revised the instrumentation of an aria, and used it in his last years for a cantata for a ceremony, the inauguration of the town council at church, .

Scoring and structure

To express the praise of the words, the cantata is festively scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of three trumpets, timpani, three oboes, oboe da caccia, oboe d'amore, recorder, bassoon, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.

The cantata is in six movements:
# Chorus:
# Recitative (soprano):
# Aria (tenor):
# Recitative (alto):
# Aria (bass):
# Chorale:

Music

Bach reflected the duality within the words of the psalm in the opening chorus by creating a double fugue. Both themes of the movement in D Major are handled separately and then combined. In the first aria, a pastoral movement, the tenor is accompanied by oboe da caccia, recorder and bassoon. In a later version, around 1727, Bach changed the instrumentation to alto, oboe and violin, possibly because he did not have players at hand for the first woodwind setting. In the second aria the contrast of (suffering) and (joy) is expressed by chromatic, first down, then up, and vivid coloraturas. The closing hymn is the same as the one of , of 1714, but for no apparent reason without the obbligato violin.

Recordings

* ''J. S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk – Sacred Cantatas Vol. 4'', Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Tölzer Knabenchor, Concentus Musicus Wien, soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor, Paul Esswood, Kurt Equiluz, Ruud van der Meer, Teldec 1977
* ''J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 6'', Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ruth Ziesak, Elisabeth von Magnus, Paul Agnew, Klaus Mertens, Antoine Marchand 1997
* ''J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 13'', Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Yoshie Hida, Kirsten Sollek-Avella, Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooy, BIS 1999
* ''Edition Bachakademie Vol. 140 – Sacred Vocal Works'', Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Sibylla Rubens, Anke Vondung, Marcus Ullmann, Hänssler 1999
* ''Bach Cantatas Vol. 6'', John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Katharine Fuge, Robin Tyson, Christoph Genz, Peter Harvey, Soli Deo Gloria 000

References

Sources

*

Cantata BWV 69a Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele
history, scoring, sources for text and music, translations to various languages, discography, discussion, Bach Cantatas Website

Chapter 15 BWV 69a Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele / Bless the Lord, my soul.
Julian Mincham, 2010
* Luke Dahn

bach-chorales.com

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Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
Psalm-related compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
1723 compositions