(Now thank ye all our God),

BWV The (, ; BWV) is a Catalogues of classical compositions, 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 and the third edition in ...

192, 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 ...

for

Trinity Sunday Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christianity, Western Christian liturgical year, liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity. Trinity Sunday celebrates the Christian doctrine of the ...

composed by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

in 1730. It is an incomplete cantata, because its tenor part is missing. It is a

chorale cantata A chorale cantata is a church cantata based on a chorale—in this context a Lutheran chorale. It is principally from the Germany, German Baroque music, Baroque era. The organizing principle is the words and music of a Lutheran hymn. Usually a chor ...

, setting the unmodified three

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

s of Martin Rinckart's "Nun danket alle Gott" (" Now Thank We All Our God"). It has been regarded as an expansion of Bach's

chorale cantata cycle Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale cantata cycle is the Cantata cycle (Bach), year-cycle of Church cantata (Bach), church cantatas he started composing in Leipzig from the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday, Trinity in 1724. It followed the cantata cyc ...

History and text

Bach composed ''Nun danket alle Gott'' as a

for

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

, setting the unmodified text of the three

s of Martin Rinckart's hymn of thanksgiving " Nun danket alle Gott". It was first performed on 4 June 1730.

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 ...

assumed that it could have been written for a wedding. It has also been regarded as a cantata for Reformation Day. The cantata is not always seen as included in

Bach's chorale cantata cycle Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale cantata cycle is the Cantata cycle (Bach), year-cycle of Church cantata (Bach), church cantatas he started composing in Leipzig from the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday, Trinity in 1724. It followed the cantata cyc ...

. The original score is held by the

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin The Berlin State Library (; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany, and a property of the German public cultural organization the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (). Founded i ...

. The tenor part was lost and has been reconstructed by several scholars; e.g.,

Günter Raphael Günter Raphael (30 April 1903 – 19 October 1960) was a German composer. Born in Berlin, Raphael was the grandson of composer Albert Becker (composer), Albert Becker. His first symphony was premiered by Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1926 in Leipzig w ...

and Alfred Dürr.

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical 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 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

soloists, a four-part choir, two

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s, two

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

s, two

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

, 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 ...

. The work has three movements: # Chorus: Nun danket alle Gott # Duet aria (soprano and bass): Der ewig reiche Gott # Chorus: Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott

Music

The cantata begins with a

chorale fantasia Chorale fantasia is a type of large composition based on a chorale melody, both works for Pipe organ, organ, and vocal settings, for example the opening movements of Chorale cantata (Bach), Bach's chorale cantatas, with the chorale melody as a can ...

. Unusually, the

ritornello A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage in Renaissance music and 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 ...

is not immediately followed by the chorale melody, but by a three-part or even four-part imitative preparation. The first phrase of the chorale melody appears in the soprano over further imitation in the lower voices and by

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...

chords in the accompaniment. The other lines of the chorale are handled similarly. The duet aria is introduced by a ritornello "with a double hiatus suggestive of modesty or diffidence". The movement is structurally like 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 orato ...

but lacks a contrasting middle section. Unusually, the work ends not with a closing chorale, but with another chorale fantasia with a "rollicking

gigue The gigue ( , ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July ...

melody". Again, the soprano carries the chorale melody. As in the first movement, the lower voices sing imitative lines.

Recordings

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir 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 Bar ...

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael "Ton" Koopman (; born 2 October 1944) is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. He is a professor ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 20''. Antoine Marchand, 2002. * Bach Collegium Japan,

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist, 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 whi ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 51''. BIS, 2011. * Frankfurter Kantorei / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling. ''Die Bach Kantate Vol. 12''.

Hänssler Hänssler-Verlag is a German music publishing house founded in 1919 as Musikverlag Hänssler by (died 1972) to publish church music. In 1941 the Nazi government shut down the publishing house. It was allowed by the West German authorities to reo ...

, 1974. * Holland Boys Choir / Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink. ''Bach Edition Vol. 12''. Brilliant Classics, 1999. * Monteverdi Choir / English Baroque Soloists,

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, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Church cantata (Bach), Bach's church ...

. ''Bach Cantatas Vol. 10''. Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.

References

External links

"''Nun danket alle Gott'', BWV 192"
performance by the

Netherlands Bach Society The Netherlands Bach Society () 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 Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'' on Good Friday and has performed the work ...

(video and background information) *
"BWV 192 ''Nun danket alle Gott''"
English translation,

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

* {{Authority control Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach 1730 compositions Chorale cantatas