Schlage Doch, Gewünschte Stunde, BWV 53
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' (''Haste to strike, oh longed for hour''),
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 ...
 53, is an
aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...
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 four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...
,
bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...
s, strings and continuo. It was likely composed in the early 18th century, although its date of first performance is unknown. From the second half of the 18th century until the early 1950s the aria was attributed to
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 ...
. In 1955, it was suggested by the Bach scholar Karl Anton that the aria's composer was more likely to be a member of Melchior Hoffmann's circle. The aria was likely part of an otherwise lost church cantata for a funeral. The aria was first published in 1863, by the
Bach Gesellschaft The German Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was a society formed in 1850 for the express purpose of publishing the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach without editorial additions. The collected works are known as the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausg ...
. It is one of three works to have been attributed to Bach before being attributed to Hoffmann, the others being the German Magnificats BWV 189 and BWV Anh. 21. It is one of the oldest known western compositions in which tuned bells are used in concert with other musical instruments.


History and attribution

The cantata has often been attributed to
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 ...
. However,
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 ...
did not include it in his 1971 book ''Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach'', based on the ''
Bach-Jahrbuch The ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' ("Bach yearbook" or according to the publication's website "Bach Annals") is an Periodical literature, annual publication related to the composer Bach. It is published in German by the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig. It is t ...
1955''. In the Appendix of the subsequent English version of the 2006 book on Bach's cantatas with
Richard D. P. Jones Richard Douglas P. Jones is a British musicologist and editor, known especially for his work as a Bach scholar. After graduating from the University of Oxford, he has taught at Cardiff University and Sheffield University. Selected publications E ...
, BWV 53 appears amongst the spurious cantatas. In that Appendix, the entry for 'composer' is listed as Melchior Hoffmann, accompanied by a
question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History The history of the question mark is ...
. According to
Johann Nikolaus Forkel Johann Nikolaus Forkel (22 February 1749 – 20 March 1818) was a German musicologist and music theorist, generally regarded as among the founders of modern musicology. His publications include the two-volume ''Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik'' ...
, the aria was composed by a young Bach, which would mean around the first decade of the 18th century.
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 Phili ...
, in his multi-volume Bach biography in the second half of the 19th century, thought that Bach wrote the aria in his middle Leipzig period, that is around the middle of the 1723–1750 period, when he would also have written other chamber cantatas for private performance, most of them solo cantatas. According to Charles Sanford Terry, Bach composed the aria between 1723 and 1734. Biographers in the late 19th and early 20th century attributing the work to Bach include Bitter and
Schweitzer Schweitzer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965), German theologian, musician, physician, and medical missionary, winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize * Anton Schweitzer (1735–1787), German op ...
. In 1950,
Wolfgang Schmieder Wolfgang Schmieder (May 29, 1901 – November 8, 1990) was a German music librarian and musicologist. Schmieder was born in Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz, Poland).Eggebrecht, Hans. "Wolfgang Schmieder". ''Oxford Music Online''. 2001, https://doi.o ...
listed the aria as No. 53 in the first edition of the ''
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis 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 ...
'' (BWV). In 1761,
Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf (Leipzig, 23 November 1719 – 28 January 1794, Leipzig) was a German music publisher and typographer. Biography Breitkopf was the son of the publisher Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, founder of the publishing hou ...
offered manuscript copies of the aria in a catalogue printed for the
Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...
fair in Leipzig. This catalogue does not name the composer.
Johann Kirnberger Johann Philipp Kirnberger (also ''Kernberg''; 24 April 1721, Saalfeld – 27 July 1783, Berlin) was a musician, composer (primarily of fugues) and music theorist. He studied the organ with Johann Peter Kellner and Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber, and st ...
added this copy to the – the library of his employer
Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (9 November 1723 – 30 March 1787) was an early modern German composer and music curator who served as princess-abbess of Quedlinburg. She was a princess of Prussia as the daughter of Frederick William I of Prus ...
.
Wilhelm Rust Wilhelm Rust (15 August 1822 – 2 May 1892) was a German musicologist and composer. He is most noted today for his substantial contributions to the Bach Gesellschaft edition of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Born in Dessau, Rust studied pia ...
's edition of ''Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde'', as Cantata No. 53 in Vol. 12.2 of the
Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe Joh. Seb. Bach's Werke () is the Bach Gesellschaft's collected edition of Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions, published in 61 volumes in the second half of the 19th century. The series is also known as Bach-Gesellschaft edition (; BGA), or as ''B ...
(BGA), published in 1863, was based on the copy. The date of the first performance is unknown. The cantata was performed in the
Gewandhaus Gewandhaus () is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The ...
in Leipzig in 1867 and 1873. Martin Elste's history of Bach performances notes that between 1904 and 1907 in Germany, the most performed work was the
St Matthew Passion The ''St Matthew Passion'' (), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets the 26th and 27th chapters of th ...
(49 times), with second place taken by BWV 53 (20 times). The ''
Bach-Jahrbuch The ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' ("Bach yearbook" or according to the publication's website "Bach Annals") is an Periodical literature, annual publication related to the composer Bach. It is published in German by the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig. It is t ...
'' of 1906 lists 20 public performances of ''Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde'', in various European cities, in the period from late 1904 to early 1907, which makes it, among the cantatas listed for that period, the most often performed; by the 1930s, ''
Actus tragicus (God's time is the very best time), , also known as ''Actus tragicus'', is an early sacred cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Mühlhausen, intended for a funeral. The earliest source for the composition is a copied manuscript dated 1 ...
'' (BWV 106) became the most often performed cantata.
Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and French polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, ...
in 1935 called ''Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde'' " e best known of the solo cantatas for alto". While current Bach scholarship has ruled out Bach as its possible composer, there is no clear consensus that Hoffmann should be confirmed as the composer of the piece. In the ''Bach-Jahrbuch'' of 1955 (published 1956), described the aria as being extracted from a multi- movement cantata which originated in the circle around Hoffmann. A year later, Dürr confirmed that BWV 53 was likely composed by Hoffmann. In 1994 the musicologist
Peter Wollny Peter Wollny (born 29 June 1961) is a German musicologist, a Bach scholar who has served the Bach Archive Leipzig beginning in 1993, and as its director from 2014. Wollny has contributed to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, and has been an editor of '' Ca ...
conjectured that the aria BWV 53 might have been part of the funeral music by Hoffmann, commissioned for the memorial service at Halle on 1 May 1713, to mark the death of
Frederick I of Prussia Frederick I (; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) List of margraves and electors of Brandenburg, Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg–Pr ...
in February 1713. In the 1998 revision of the BWV, by Dürr and , ''Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde'' was moved to the second ''Anhang'', that is the ''Anhang'' of works doubtfully attributed to Bach, naming Hoffmann as its possible composer. If composed by Hoffmann, it must have originated from around the first decade of the 18th century: Hoffmann died in October 1715, ten years after becoming
organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
and
director musices Director musices, Latin for director of music, was a title held by music directors especially at European universities or cathedrals; sometimes also at cathedral schools. The title is still used at universities in Sweden. In Finland it is an honora ...
(music director) of the Neukirche in Leipzig. Many modern full scores or vocal scores, such as the editions of
Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher. Overview The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...
and Eulenburg, name the composer of ''"Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde"'' as "M. Hoffmann" or "Melchior Hoffmann".


Text

The author of the text is unknown. It is sometimes attributed to Salomon Franck; Spitta believed that Franck's style can be recognized in the text. As the work was likely composed for a funeral service, the text reflects the hour of death as desired. Translations have included "Haste to strike, oh longed for hour", "Strike my hour, so long awaited", and "Strike then thou, O blessed hour". The title of the cantata is rendered In English as "Strike, O Bell" in the Oxford Orchestral Series, as "Strike thou ear" in the edition of
Novello & Co Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group. In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...
and as "Sound your knell" in the editions of
Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel () is a German Music publisher, music publishing house. Founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, it is the world's oldest music publisher. Overview The catalogue contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works ...
and
Augener & Co Augener & Co. was a music-publishing business in London, established by George Augener (1830–1915), originally "Georg", a German national born in Fechenheim near Frankfurt am Main, who had previously been an apprentice with André's publishing h ...
. In a middle section, the angels are asked to open heavenly meadows, to see Jesus soon ("Kommt, ihr Engel, … Öffnet mir die Himmelsauen, meinen Jesum bald zu schauen"). The German text of the aria and its English translation by
Lucy Broadwood Lucy Etheldred Broadwood (9 August 1858 – 22 August 1929) was an English folksong collector and researcher, and great-granddaughter of John Broadwood, founder of the piano manufacturers Broadwood and Sons. As one of the founder members of the ...
are as follows:


Music and scoring

The aria is composed in the key of
E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...
and has a
time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...
of . It is scored 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 four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...
, two bells (respectively playing E and B), 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 ...
s,
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 continuo (
cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
,
organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...
). It is the oldest known composition in which bells are used as a musical instrument. According to musicologist Jeremy Montagu, it is possible that originally the bells might have been activated by the manuals or pedals in the organ register. In modern editions the bells sound as the ''E'' above
middle C C or Do is the first note of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63  Hz. The actual frequency has d ...
and the ''B'' as a fifth higher; the marking ''Campanella'' could signify bells in the treble range, as marked, or in the tenor or bass register one or two octaves below. The aria could not have been performed using conventional church bells, because of their size and the problem of coordinating players in the church and the belfry. When Bach redesigned the organ of the Blasius church in
Mühlhausen Mühlhausen () is a town in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's Central Germany (geography)#Geographical centre, geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen ...
in 1708, he added a novelty: a register with bells (chimes) in the pedalboard. This mechanism—a in German—was one of Bach's own devising and constructed in collaboration with the organ-builder
Johann Friedrich Wender Johann Friedrich Wender (baptized 6 December 1655 – 13 June 1729) was a German organ builder who had his workshop in Mühlhausen. Born in Dörna, Thuringia, Wender collaborated with Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: ...
, who had previously assisted Bach on a similar project in
Arnstadt Arnstadt () is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, on the river Gera (river), Gera about south of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia, and has a well-preserved historic centre with a partially ...
. According to W. Gillies Whittaker, the musical style of the cantata is "somewhat unusual", with questionable scoring for the violas. He states, however, that the principal theme "is so lovely and the charm of the whole so great that one questions whether any other composer of the day could have written it". In the aria, the tolling bells and continuo play in concert, echoed in the bell-like accompaniment of the crotchets in the violins. The ''Campanella'' scoring for the two bells was originally notated in the
bass clef A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff. Placing a clef on a staff assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines or four spaces, whi ...
with the standard conventions for transposing instruments (so that ''B'' and ''E'' are scored as ''D'' and ''G'' respectively). No clear indication is given of the pitch of bells (high or deep). The aria is characterized by an
obbligato In Western classical music, ''obbligato'' (, also spelled ''obligato'') usually describes a musical line that is in some way indispensable in performance. Its opposite is the marking '' ad libitum''. It can also be used, more specifically, to ind ...
bell duet. Clifford Bartlett calls the bell knell "memorable and powerful". Simon Crouch notes that "some of he aria'sthematic material is suggestive of Bach but the accompanying bells would be unique amongst Bach's surviving output". Forkel considers the usage of bells of doubtful taste.


Recordings

The work was first recorded by in 1926; this was the first time a cantata credited to Bach was recorded. in 1999 the discographer Martin Elste singled out the recordings of Leisner and of , conducted by
August Wenzinger August Wenzinger (1905–1996) was a prominent cellist, viol player, conductor, teacher, and music scholar from Basel, Switzerland. He was a pioneer of historically informed performance, both as a master of the viola da gamba and as a conductor of ...
in 1951, as being noteworthy. In the table below, voice types in the third column adopt the terminology as rendered on the issued recording.


Ballet version

In 1992 the choreographer Mark Morris set BWV 53 as a ''
pas de deux In ballet, a ( French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The ''pas de deux'' is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well-known ...
'' for a female and male dancer. It was titled ''Beautiful Day'' in explicit reference to Morris's 1985 ''pas de deux'' ''One Charming Night'' (to music of
Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...
). Morris's biographer, Joan Acolella, described "Beautiful Day" as one of his most sublime dances—"intimate" with no vestiges of the perversity of the 1985 piece. In a review in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', the critic Jack Anderson felt however that the piece was "choreographically rigid" with too much adherence to the musical score.


References


External links

* *
Performance of BWV 53 by Marriane Beate Kieland with Cologne Chamber Orchestra
youtube.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlage Doch Gewunschte Stunde BWV 53 Church cantatas 1730 compositions Bach: spurious and doubtful works German church music Frederick I of Prussia