Other cantatas of this period were written for special occasions such as the 200th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in June 1730, funerals and weddings. Some of the information and compositions of this period of writing and performing of cantatas are missing, leading to different ways of presenting and connecting what is known about them by Bach-scholars. For instance, in the 19th century Spitta considered almost all of Bach's chorale cantatas as late cantatas,[1] while later research connected the large majority of them to the composer's second year in Leipzig (1724–25).[2]
Occasions of the liturgical year
Several groups can be discerned in Bach's cantata production after the Picander cycle:[2]
Cantatas for unknown occasions, probably for a wedding at first, possibly later reused for an occasion in the liturgical year, uncertain to which cycle they may have ultimately belonged:
Bach's three extant oratorios also date from this period: the Christmas Oratorio (a set of six cantatas presented in the Christmas season of 1734–35), the Ascension Oratorio (1738?, with the dimensions of a single cantata) and the Easter Oratorio (an Easter cantata of 1725 with slight alterations reworked into an Oratorio c.1738).[2]
Several earlier church cantatas were restaged after the period of the Picander cycle, some of them in a new version.
Bach had several students who produced church cantatas during their Leipzig formation years:
In Bach's Leipzig there was no concerted church music in the period between the first Sunday of Advent and Christmas (tempus clausum). The final version of Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36 was first presented on the first Sunday of Advent 2 December 1731, with an earlier version of the cantata dated between 1725 and 1730.[11]
A new version of Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 58, was performed on the Sunday after New Year 4 January 1733 or 3 January 1734.[14] This cantata was however added to chorale cantata cycle,[15] even while not completely conforming to the chorale cantata format and in its first version performed on 5 January 1727, a year after the bulk of that cycle had been composed.[16]
Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14, first performed on the fourth Sunday after Epiphany 30 January 1735, latest of Bach's extant chorale cantatas, was added to the chorale cantata cycle.[15]
There are no extant cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach for the fifth and sixth Sunday after Epiphany.
The first version of Ich habe genug, BWV 82, had been performed on the Feast of Purification 2 February 1727.[17] This version for soprano, flute, strings and continuo in E minor is associated with Bach's third cantata cycle, or alternatively the period "between the third and the fourth cycles".[3] After 1729 Bach produced three further versions of this cantata: a version in C Minor for bass, oboe, strings and continuo, for performance in 1731, a third version for Bass or mezzo and a fourth version with an additional oboe da caccia.[18]Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161 is a Weimar cantata for the 16th Sunday after Trinity.[19] In the mid-1730s Bach had its score copied, adding "item Festo Purific Mariae" (also for the Feast of Purification) to the header of the manuscript.[20] Also Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, the chorale cantata from 1725, was probably restaged after c.1735.[21]Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn, BWV 157 was a funeral cantata in 1727: later it was transformed into a cantata for Purification, a feast that always fell between Epiphany and Lent.[22]
For Septuagesima (third Sunday before Lent) 1727 Bach had composed Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke, BWV 84, a cantata on a libretto that two years later appeared in a very different form in a libretto cycle published by Picander. The 1727 cantata is however rather associated with Bach's third cantata cycle than with his fourth cantata cycle, which were settings of the librettos Picander had published for church services in 1728–29.[23] However, a few years later Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, still living with his father in Leipzig, set the three first movements of the 1729 version of Picander's libretto for Septuagesima, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande.[5]
In Lent only two occasions allowed for concerted music:
Annunciation (25 March, moved forward to Palm Sunday if that date fell in Good Week) – no known performance of an Annunciation cantata by Bach after 1728.
Good Friday, on which day a Passion was performed. The only new Passion Bach appears to have composed after 1729 is his (lost) St Mark Passion, BWV 247, staged on Good Friday 1731 and 1744. Bach's Passion settings are however not seen as cantatas.
Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31 was an Easter cantata Bach had composed in Weimar. He had already restaged it during his first year in Leipzig, and did so again on Easter 25 March 1731. Apart from that he expanded his Easter cantata from 1725, Kommt, eilet und laufet, BWV 249 into an oratorio (several versions), and restaged it multiple times in the last 20 years of his office as Thomaskantor.
Der Friede sei mit dir, BWV 158 is a possibly incomplete Easter Tuesday cantata. Its second and third movement (from a total of only four movements) seem to be derived from an earlier Purification cantata.[26] It may have been performed as Easter Tuesday cantata of the second cycle (no other cantata for that occasion in 1725 extant) and/or shortly after the 4th cycle. Another Easter Tuesday cantata, Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134, belonging to the first cycle, was restaged 27 March 1731, and probably also 12 April 1735.
Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, BWV 112, premiered on the second Sunday after Easter (Misericordias Domini) 8 April 1731, is a late addition to the chorale cantata cycle.
Ihr werdet weinen und heulen, BWV 103, a cantata for the third Sunday after Easter (Jubilate) on a von Ziegler libretto, was probably restaged 15 April 1731.[27] For the next two Sundays (Cantate and Rogate) it is not known which cantatas Bach may have performed in the last 20 years of his life.
The Ascension Oratorio, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, was first performed on 19 May 1735.[28] For the Sunday after Ascension (Exaudi) it is not known which cantatas Bach may have performed after the second cycle (1725).
The third version of Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172, a Weimar cantata, was first performed on Pentecost 13 May 1731 (second Leipzig version). The libretto for the Pentecost cantata of the 1728–29 Picander cycle, Raset und brauset ihr hefftigen Winde was set by Johann Friedrich Doles, then a student of Bach, in 1740. The cantata was possibly performed in Leipzig at the time.[6]
The incomplete cantata Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 192, possibly a Trinity Sunday chorale cantata premiered 4 June 1730, was probably not composed for Leipzig.[29] Whether it can be associated with any cycle is unclear.[2] An earlier Trinity Sunday cantata, Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest, BWV 192, had already seen three different versions before its second version (1724) was given a repeat performance on 20 May 1731.[30]
Between Trinity and Advent
It is not known which cantatas Bach may have performed on the first, second and third Sundays after Trinity in the last 20 years of his life.
Freue dich, erlöste Schar, BWV 30 was first performed on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 24 June 1738. It was a parody of the secular cantata BWV 30a, premiered in 1737. Picander probably wrote the librettos, as well for the original composition as for the parody.[31]Durch die herzliche Barmherzigkeit is a cantata for St. John's Day composed by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg for which Bach helped copy out performance parts around 1745–46.[7][32]Lobt ihn mit Herz und Munde, BWV 220 is a St. John's Day cantata by an unknown composer.[33] Its oldest manuscript went lost but existed before 1761.[34]
Meine Seele rühmt und preist, BWV 189 is a cantata for Visitation (2 July), using a German paraphrase of the Magnificat as text. It is dated to before 1761, based on what remains from its 18th-century sources. Likely it was however composed by Melchior Hoffmann, in 1715 at the latest.[35] Around 1733 Bach produced the D Major version of his Magnificat, which he possibly performed on Visitation 2 July 1733.[36]
Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, BWV 93 is a chorale cantata for the fifth Sunday after Trinity, first presented in Bach's second year in Leipzig. Around 1732–33 he restaged it in a modified version.[39]
Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161, a cantata for the 16th Sunday after Trinity or Purification, also exists in a later (Leipzig?) version, which was however probably not produced by the composer.[45] For the 16th Sunday after trinity 17 September 1747 Bach produced a second version in D major of the chorale cantata Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben? BWV 8. Its first version, in E major, had been premiered in 1724.[46]
No performances of a cantata for the 17th Sunday after Trinity have been identified in Bach's last 20 years in Leipzig.
Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn, BWV 96, a chorale cantata for the 18th Sunday after Trinity, first performed in 1724, was given a repeat performance with a modified orchestration on 24 October 1734. The cantata was further restaged around 1746–47.[51]
Bach's final version of the Reformation Day cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80 may have originated around 1735.[52] An earlier Leipzig version of the cantata, BWV 80b, was written 1727–31.[53]
For the 19th to 22nd Sundays after Trinity no performed cantatas have been identified in Bach's last 20 years in Leipzig.
No further cantatas performed on Sundays after Trinity are known for the period 1730–49, until the 27th and last possible Sunday after Trinity: on that Sunday in 1731 Bach premiered Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, a late addition to the chorale cantata cycle.[55]
Other occasions
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2016)
New council
The election or inauguration of a new town council was celebrated with a service. Normally this was an annual event. The cantata written for such celebrations were indicated with the term "Ratswechsel" (changing of the council) or "Ratswahl" (election of the council). In Leipzig the service was held at the Nikolaikirche on the Monday following Bartholomew (Bartholomäus), 24 August.
(BWV 137, chorale cantata for Trinity XII: "A performance on 25.8.1732 (Spitta II, p. 286f. and others) on the occasion of inauguration of the new city council is not proved.")[58]
25 June 1730 was 200 years after the Augsburg Confession. In Leipzig the occasion was remembered by a three-day festival. Picander wrote three cantata librettos (later published in Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte, Vol. III, 1732), one for each day of the celebration. Johann Sebastian Bach set these librettos. The music of these settings is however largely lost:[2][59][60]
Part II: Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich, BWV Anh. 209, a lost cantata, composed on a 1711 libretto for the seventh Sunday after Trinity by G. C. Lehms. The cantata may have been composed in the Weimar period, or in the period between the second and the fourth cycle (possibly even as a Trinity XV cantata).[62][63][64]
Most of the cantatas of Bach's last 20 years in Leipzig probably went to Halle with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, where many of them became lost.[10] Extant parts of Bach's late cantata production include:
Late additions to the chorale cantata cycle: this cycle remained in Leipzig.[15] Considering almost all chorale cantatas as late compositions, Spitta discussed them extensively in his 19th-century Bach-biography.[1]
(Cantatas transformed into) oratorios: these were conserved in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's legacy.
Revised versions of cantatas composed for earlier cantata cycles.
Cantatas composed for occasions outside the liturgical calendar (e.g. sacred cantatas for weddings), cantatas largely consisting of re-used material originally not composed for occasions of the liturgical calendar (e.g. BWV 191), and arrangements of compositions by others (e.g. BWV 200).
Cantatas composed by students in the period they were tutored by Bach.
Whether there ever was a consistent fifth cycle of cantatas composed by Bach in the last twenty years of his life remains a matter of speculation: evidence of such a cycle is remote and circumstantial, but it is a returning topic in scholarly literature.[10]
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