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Cantata BWV 71 "Gott ist mein König" Although the text of this work is clearly sacred, the work was composed for annual civic celebrations in Mühlhausen. The work holds a special place among Bach’s total oeuvre for several reasons, including the following:
Bach himself referred to the work as a "Gratulatory Motetto." This is probably not an indication of anything unusual in this work; rather, in the late 17th century and earliest years of the 18th century, the term "cantata" was generally reserved for solo secular vocal pieces in Italian. Sometimes, the terminology was as deliberately vague as "Music" (music) or Kirchenmüsik (church music), never mind the interchangeability of terms such as cantata, motetto, actus, and concerto (modern audiences and musicologists would be intolerant of such lack of clarity!). The work was written in 1708, and first performed on February 4 of that year. The text combines large portions of Psalm 74 with some hymn text and poetry. The largest portion, however, comes from the biblical source, and this is essentially the foundation for the entire work. According to Martin Petzoldt:
(See "Liturgical and Theological Aspects," in The World of the Bach Cantatas: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Early Sacred Cantatas, ed. Christoph Wolff [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995].) The first movement is a sort of smorgasbord of late Baroque style. In its mere 37 measures, Bach employs full a full orchestra of 3 trumpets, timpani, 2 flutes, cello, 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, violone, and organ, along with SATB choir and SATB soloists. This large orchestra, especially with the trumpets and drums, allows a festive, brilliant mood to be set from the very start, but Bach never really allows the full orchestra and voices to sound together for too long, nor does either the texture or timbre remain a constant for any stretch. The choral parts are almost exclusively homophonic and accompanied by the full orchestra, with active sixteenth-note passages providing transitions between choral outbursts; meanwhile, the solo voices are polyphonic and accompanied by strings and continuo. The music is set primarily in C major, but quick side trips to a minor and d minor provide a modicum of tonal variety. In 1708, when the work was written, Bach’s primary job was as the organist at St. Blasius’s church in Mühlhausen. It is therefore no surprise 1) that Bach did not write many compositions in this time, and 2) that when he did, the organ is given a more important role than was typical of that time. A good example of his special treatment of the organ occurs in the second movement, "Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr," of Cantata BWV 71, an aria for soprano and tenor with organ alone–there are no other supporting instruments. Initially, the organ "merely" provides continuo-type support, but by the seventh measure, the organ takes on an independent role, echoing the vocal lines; Bach indicates that these echoing passages are to be played in the "Positiv," where the pipes were normally physically separated from the other divisions of the organ, enhancing the echo effect through distance. What you see in the score excerpt below are the following items:
Eventually, the organ’s role in this movement evolves even further into an elaborate featured solo passage to close the movement.
In movement three we find the first of two fugues in this cantata. Here, the "coro senza ripieni" (chorus without tutti) presents a four-voice fugue. It is set in a minor, relative minor to the primary key of the first movement, and one position away on the circle of fifths from the preceding movement, set in e minor. One might think that with the C major — e minor — a minor key arrangement of the first three movements, a return to C is in the works for movement 4. Such is not the case. In fact, Bach moves to "the flat side" for the bass arioso which follows. The depth of the bass voice is offset by the higher and lighter sounds of 2 oboes and 2 flutes. Konrad Küster, professor of musicology at Freiburg University, writes that this movement is not a da capo aria, but rather a series of short refrains in an A-B-A arrangement. It is, indeed, composed of two contrasting sections. The two sections are outlined below:
The second section is not entirely self-contained, as the cadence from V to I in F major provides the bridge back to the music of the opening. Despite Küster’s claim that this is not a da capo aria, I doubt modern audiences would perceive it any other way. One last note on this movement: I find Bach’s limited word painting amusing here. Each time the bass soloist sings the word "Nacht" (night), the vocal line makes a large leap downward, sometimes as little as a fifth, but often spanning a much wider gap. In this way, night remains distinct from day, with the day (Tag) always being higher and brighter and the night always falling.
In the final movement, Bach employs a "permutation fugue." The permutation fugue was a common feature in keyboard works of the day. It is "so named because the voices enter in canon-like fashion, with two or three countersubjects appearing after the main theme, as beads on a string, in each voice. After the initial exposition, the order of entries can be altered, and the entire structure can be transposed to another key, in order to produce different permutations of the original material." (George B. Stauffer, "Bach the Organist," 90, in The World of the Bach Cantatas, ed. Christoph Wolff [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995]). Many of Bach’s earlier works were indeed for keyboard, and we already know that he was a master of fugal writing. It is no surprise that, given his limited experience in writing choral works at this time in his career, Bach would turn to the more comfortable world of keyboard music to find some inspiration. The fugue only lasts 45 measures (followed by a three-measure closing by the orchestra alone, as a transition to the final section of this movement). The fugue is marked "senza ripieni," meaning the orchestra drops out, except, of course, for the continuo line. "Ripieni" is an alternate term for "tutti", meaning all or everyone. The term is most common in works of the concerto grosso genre, of which this piece is not an example. However, the underlying principle driving the concerto grosso is the juxtaposition of two ensembles, one larger (ripieno) and one smaller (concertino). This combination of different ensembles allows a variety of textural, dynamic, and timbral possibilities. Bach creates such variety here by omitting the ripieno (=orchestra) and allowing a primarily vocal sound to dominate the opening of the fugue. Gradually, after each of the voices in the choir (in SATB order) has entered with the fugue subject, the same subject spreads into the orchestra. The orchestra follows the order established by the voices in having the subject introduced first by instruments in the highest register, then the alto, tenor, and bass registers respectively. Once the fugue has built to include all instruments but trumpets and drums, they, too, enter to bring the fugue to a climax, providing affirming punctuations before a cadence brings the fugue to a close. The movement does not yet end, however, until an additional choral section, featuring primarily chordal entrances and a flurry of descending scale passages in the orchestra conclude the movement with an insistent shout of "Glück, Heil, Glück, Heil und grosser Sieg!" to both God and the new mayor. The work made such a good impression that the council asked Bach to write another festival work for the following year; by the time a year had passed, however, Bach had moved on to Weimar. Now test your knowledge with some review questions! © 2002 Carol Traupman-Carr |
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