Publick Musick: About the Music

Ever since Luther's publication of a Deutsche Messe in 1526 the Mass has assumed a place in the German Protestant service. By tradition the "Short Mass" -- the Credo, the Catholic creed being omitted -- was merely chanted in unison for the regular Sunday service at Bach's church. But on special occasions Bach set the text to music as a work for soloists, choir and orchestra. In total, Bach produced five of these short -- in the sense of truncated -- "Lutheran" masses, where the text of just the Kyrie and the Gloria was set, each work ending with the words Cum Sancto Spiritu. Amen. The five masses appear to date from the early 1730's -- around the time when Bach was concerned with recycling various other of his works in order to preserve them in a more permanent form. Apart from the masses, most notably three of the celebratory cantatas that Bach had previously written for one-time occasions, such as royal birthdays, were re-used to form what we know today as the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), which was completed and performed over six days at the end of 1734.

Bach's Cantatas BWV 62, 45, 192 & 140

These four cantatas are among Bach's finest creations from the years 1723-1731, the period when he was concerned with providing a "well-regulated church music" for his employers in Leipzig. Two of them: BWV 62, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, from 1724; and BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, from 1731, are closely associated with the Advent season and its message of promise in the coming of the Savior. BWV 45, Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist, for the 8th Sunday after Trinity is an extended two-part cantata, which features (in the arioso for bass that begins Part 2, to be presented after the sermon) the words of Christ himself, exhorting the faithful to follow the Divine Law, while the text generally warns against "false prophets." BWV 192, Nun danket alle Gott, is a general hymn of praise (with the three verses of the original hymn for the middle of the 1600s presented unaltered and without any addition), perhaps composed for a wedding (the gigue-like finale, which reflects the atmosphere of a wedding feast, underlines this probability). Bach's cantata has been handed down in a secondary source in incomplete form and consists of three numbers directly based on the hymn of the same title. The tenor vocal part is also missing, and has been re-constructed by the editors of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the edition that has been used for this recording.

Bach's A Major Mass: A Nativity Mass?

Gerhard Herz's study of the Lombard rhythm in Bach's work has drawn fresh attention to a particular phase in Bach's creative career: the years after the turning point marked by the famous letter to Georg Erdmann of October 28, 1730. This period had gained new significance in modern Bach scholarship through Christoph Wolff's work and its critical point of departure, i.e. "the suggestion that Bach's special concern with the phenomenon of the stile antico arose after 1730 thus showing a particular connection with the style of his later years." In adopting the term stile antico for an aspect of Bach's SpŠtstil style, Wolff pointed out "the juxtaposition of heterogeneous trends so typical of a composer's personal style in the Baroque era." Wolff 's choice of Bach works in the stile antico and Herz's listing of works im lombardischen Geschmack are indicative of the wide range of the aging Bach's stylistic spectrum.

Interested in learning more about Bach? Please visit these other sites and thank you for your interest in Publick Musick!

The American Bach Society

The American Bach Society was founded in 1972 to support the study, performance, and appreciation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in the United States and Canada.

The Global Bach Community

The Bach Cantatas Website

The Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) is a comprehensive site covering all aspects of J.S. Bach's cantatas and his other vocal works. The BCW contains discussions and detailed discographies of each cantata and other vocal works, performers and general topics. The BCW also contains texts and translations, scores, music examples, articles and interviews, and over 5,200 short biographies of performers of Bach's vocal works and players of his keyboard works, as well as of poets & composers associated with Bach. Visit the website to learn more:

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