Bach Cantata BWV 4, Christus lag in Todes Banden
Program Notes and Analysis
By Peter Matcalf (March 2008)

This cantata was probably written by Bach when he was 22-23 years old, in 1707-1708.ⁱ It may well have served as an example to St. Blasius, the principal parish in Mühlhausen, of his capabilities as a musician were he to be hired as organist. Bach was not offered every position for which he applied, nor did he accept every offer, however, after his 1707 Easter audition and with some negotiation of salary, he accepted the offer of employment with St. Blasius.^{ii iii}

Each movement, including the Sinfonia, utilizes either the chorale tune or the text written by Martin Luther, who, 100 years earlier, having escaped the long arm of the Roman Catholic Church authority’s custody, hid for ten weeks in the castle of Eisenach wherein he wrote the first German translation^iv of the New Testament, hitherto accessible only to those privileged to be literate in Greek – namely, the clergy. This translation, perceived by the church as an act of revolutionary religious conviction, was key to Luther’s initiation of the Reformation which transformed European political, cultural, and social relations.

Eisenach was Bach’s home town…

Luther wrote a number of chorales, or hymns, one of which apparently based on the Catholic chant Victimae paschali laudes; the original music (transcribed to modern notation) may be seen at the “Bach 101” page of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) website.^v The chorale Christ lag in Todes Banden is one of those used by at least 11 other composers of Bach’s era and earlier.^vi

The first Versus of this cantata is scored for violins I and II, violas I and II, continuo, coronet doubling of the sopranos and trombone doubling of the alto, tenor, bass voices. Bach knew the musical worth of his creativity, and often rewrote or re-orchestrated previous compositions for new performances as it suited him. Cantata BWV 4, written prior to his second professional position, may have been written with not only the somber (i.e., deeper tones) characteristic of the trombone, but as well, in awareness of the need for ease of production and assurance of capable performers. The earliest manuscript of this cantata is dated 1724, by which time trombones were “a rarity”^xii, ¹ or, commonly used to double voice parts – there apparently is scholarly disagreement. A perusal of religious scores from his time will show the basis for the use of trombones up through the Romantic period in sacred music, especially in requiems. Regardless of Bach’s intentions, musical and otherwise, it is one of his most frequently played cantatas, having undeniable appeal to the listener, each according to his or her musical perceptions and associations.

Peter B. Metcalf
Music 128 DM
‎Saturday, October 01, 2011

Introduction

In this paper, “chorale” refers to the solo soprano part singing the tune without appreciable modifications from the hymnal version. My source of the hymn as written by Luther is www.bach-cantatas.com.

Looking at the chart, studying the score, and listening to the music, what are the impacts of non-structural elements on the success or efficacy of Versus I of Bach’s Cantata BWV 4? The answer to this is subjective, since all musical perception is in the ear of the listener, physiologically, mentally, emotionally, and in the end, spiritually. Musical perception and resulting experience is thus utterly dependent on a number of factors unique to the listener. Bach’s sacred cantatas are vocal works based on and in his personal religion, and are sung in language (as opposed to nonsense sounds, in jazz called “scat”). Therefore, among these factors of perception are a listener’s language as well as personality. Personality includes beliefs as well as an openness of heart and/or fearlessness in embracing (if only temporarily) another’s beliefs and experience of him/herself and the world.

Two other factors which contribute to or undermine the fulfillment of every composer’s intentions (100% fulfillment being in this context successful or effective composition) are memory of patterns, and even pitches. Fulfillment also requires that a listener understand the language of music, from its evolution to the stage of development which the composer utilized and in which s/he was comfortable or conversant during composition. In the category of language I include the expression of tension and relaxation in microcosm, macrocosm, and every scale between. Of course, there are obvious and often deciding factors of performance: character, quality, including “energy” and other usually undefined or indefinable qualities, and accuracy in any number of musical parameters.

The first thing to decide is what constitutes a structural element? The piece is through composed, having no repeats and only one change of tempo (that of the Alla Breve). Not only are all the movements of the cantata in e minor, but the entire Versus I does not demonstrate the striking harmonic changes in many of the Bach chorales and other of his music with which I am familiar.

Measure 87

The most radical harmonic moment occurs seven bars before the end of the movement when Bach writes a German augmented 6^th in which “e” (in the soprano, alto, viola I, violin I – four of six parts) resolves to vii in the 3^rd inversion (alternatively, consider it an appoggiatura). Bach departs from common practice by resolving the “e” in another voice. In a good and clear performance this writing is dramatic and heightens the tension a bar before the dominant pedal.

One definition of “structural” implies just such drama. I cannot think of any extremely dramatic moment in music that I would not term “structural”; this definition appears to me to coincide with my music theory training (albeit some years ago). Perhaps this is the very question at hand – “what are the impacts of non-structural elements on the success or efficacy of Versus I of Bach’s Cantata BWV 4?” when viewed from the perspective of the question “what causes of extreme drama or unusual or strikingly original musical interest are not structural?”

Thus in one measure (as opposed to the entire preceding music of this movement) Bach brings to highest tension the spiritual/psychological/mental/emotional experience of the listener – in short, every factor involved in a musical experience – so that the pedal point achieves its maximum effect: that of resolving all the experience that has come before, and fulfilling his intentions. The fact that this measure is immediately followed by the dominant pedal, hitherto unused, is an intellectual basis for considering it a structural feature of the piece. Perhaps the question of this measure being structural is not one of semantics, but of what remains when it is removed or its drama mitigated? The pedal would be the obvious feature a listener would then point to, based on the observation that in music, if not in all circumstances and contexts, memory is ultimately an expression of emotional imperatives. The most easily remembered events, protocols, processes, experience, and even data, are those which are linked to intense emotional experience – past or anticipated – either through the mechanism of fear or the truth of love. Exploration of this topic however is not within the purview of this paper.

If in measure 87 a listener is able to discern the individual words sufficiently to recognize an interrupted word (spoken at the height of passion – agai, a subjective assessment), has memory and hearing sufficient to remember the pattern of rhythm and pitch established beforehand with the words “Allelujah”, and knows the musical language that Bach uses, and if in addition the performance generally brings out the implied or expressed intention of Bach – first and foremost his spiritual intention, served by and linked to the listener’s emotional response – if all these parameters are met, then I would say, these features, not shown on my chart or revealed in my harmonic analysis, are crucial to the success of the piece. If the listener is Lutheran or surrenders in every way to the fulfillment of Bach’s intentions, and furthermore, not only knows the specific chorale (and Hallelujah) which he uses, but has also personal sincere experience singing “Hallelujah” with genuine joy in a personal Lutheran context – then I have no doubt such a listener would be more greatly moved by the music in every way which Bach intended. The piece would have greater impact, be more successful, according to my definition of “successful or effective composition”.

Alla Breve

The Alla Breve tempo change can be subtle or awkwardly fast. Here is one example of performance parameters alluded to above that completely determines the outcome. For me, the success of the movement – the very reason for Bach’s composing the movement (would he bother to write or improvise something he hoped would be a musical success? (the answer is yes!)² – is manifestly destroyed when taken at a high tempo. What the chart indicates by visual intuition (spacing of vocal motif entries) is the time between one entry and another, and where they coincide. If one uses the foreground of words, then the stretto effect can only be heightened, assuming of course the words are intelligible. Considering the text and its intention, this creates in me (desiring to surrender to Bach’s intention) increasing elation. Without the words, the effect would still be there – a stretto is hard to ignore – but the effect would be less.

I consider this section formal, not structural, because the effect upon a listener’s experience of the movement is not accomplished via the short passage (short with respect to the movement) of a few bars or chords, but over a longer passage in which no single harmony has a decisive impact. In essence, Alla Breve is Bach’s interpretive mandate which gives additional impetus to the stretto initiated at that point. It is important to remember (no pun intended) that a stretto depends upon the audience remembering the music prior to the stretto.

The harmonies here travel in a partial circle of fifths but remain within e minor. It is a new section, and in that sense, it delineates form. However, the piece would go on quite well without a change in tempo. It is a build up of music/audience participation, not a shift of harmonic center or home, or the creation of a new vista formally or experientially. It is a matter of interpretation, not structure.

However…there is much about the movement that enhances or intensifies a listener’s experience that is not contrapuntal, formal, or structural. Examples follow:

Bar 88

The pedal has been applied, so to speak, to the metal. The violins respond by leaping in repeated octaves of “b”. This certainly adds to the impact of the section. How could it not? Would the movement succeed without it? Yes. In contrast, the pedal effect is far more significant (as is the buildup of tension in bar 87). There has been nothing like it in the entire piece to that point.

Versus I

With Bach’s music, as with the Bible, it is intellectually possible to rationalize almost any viewpoint regarding his intentions if we assume he was infallible. Bach is Bach – his later works are unmistakable masterpieces. However, his early works must certainly reflect or express that same spirit, the deeper part of which is perhaps simply less apparent. Nonetheless it cannot help but manifest, and is increasingly experienced through his music over the course of his life – now as then. With such a master, there may always be effects experienced out of ordinary listener’s awareness and that are likewise composed without deliberation. If we listen with that part of ourselves that experiences kinship with him – or more than that, recognition of ourselves in him, then we are bound to let questions such as his fallibility fall by the wayside. What he did, he did, and it was good.

Bach doubled the vocal parts with trombones. Aside from strengthening a chorus, the aural association of trombones mentioned in the program notes is significant for reasons similar to those of the chorale melody discussed below. The position of Stadtpfeifer or town piper, (municipal musician), was created in the 14^th century.^viii Johann Zedler’s encyclopedia, apparently enormous and well researched, was published during the years 1732-1754 and states that trombones were used by the Stadtpfeifer of Thuringia.^ix Thuringia being Bach’s home town state or province for four generations, he must have grown up with the sound very much in his ears. Trombones had been in use for both secular and sacred music since the 14^th century. The association with sacred music may be the corollary to Zedler’s comment that trombones had become a “rarity” if he was referring to secular music. Whatever the case, there evolved by the time of Mozart an association (strengthened by him no doubt) of prominent trombone use in sacred music.^x This association may be stronger today than in Bach’s time. Certainly the association by modern listeners of trombones with death has or can have a significant impact on the experience of a requiem or other piece concerning death.

Changes of orchestration are not used for structural purposes (the work being brief and through composed), but for me, a live performance without trombones would certainly lack a vital element of expression. While the trombones add a heavy (antithetical to ethereal) aspect to the movement, the violins and violas move about with alacrity. This contrast with the trombones may either ameliorate for a listener the sense of heaviness, or enhance the sense of the circumstance described in the text – Christ’s Death. No doubt there are for many Lutherans and non-Lutherans mixed feelings concerning this; the music may well express both grief and joy, assuming that the listener understands German or at the least has read a translation. The trombones remain through the resurrection…

Throughout the sections where the chorus has been admonishing us to rejoice at the knowledge of the Resurrection (singing of the “rising of Christ, that he has brought us life”), the harmonies vacillate between major and minor; every measure seems to end in minor, even as the chorus sings melismas (prepared in the preceding measures by the strings) on the German word for joy, fröhlich. Not until that singing is concluded does the piece actually dwell in a major key (G major). The lightness is welcome. The piece then gets back to e minor. Well, the German temperament is nothing if not strong, strong, strong! Strong and confident, with a certain innate and unquestioned joy as well. Discipline is not noticed, it is so common. The melismas on the word frölich express strength in the face of human spiritual challenges to be joyful for the forgiveness of sin via the sacrifice. In my view, the orchestra and melismatic singing of a joyful text do not express success with that particular challenge, but rather spiritual intention or effort.

Later on at measure 53, the music launches into a section of dominant on top of dominant on top of dominant – a circle of fifths that resolve to major chords with not one resolution in the key of e minor, expressing the admonition to “Praise God and give thanks to Him”. Bach takes the music to F sharp and falls down the dominants across bar 55, to e minor in bar 56, just prior to the Hallelujah, which commences with vigor.

This background is indeed the back-ground, the earth against which the genius of Bach, his innate mus, deep feeling, and spirituality, manifests, for through the text and mixed or turbulent musical expression, he brings us to the deepest appreciation of the text, and deepest experience of our spirituality if we are willing, as I am sure were a vast majority of Lutherans –not only willing, but unable to resist the call during performance of this piece in Bach’s lifetime.

The strings are lively from a rhythmic and melodic (leaping, I should say) perspective, and this is significant for reasons of contrast other than with trombones. The continuo part is energetic as are the vocal lines. The voice leading of the chorus and orchestra often, without apparent musical cause, is not smooth. But the chorale tune as sung by the sopranos is completely different. What this feature does for the listener is sublime. For me, perhaps for many or most audiences, a chorale appearance evokes a feeling unlike any other musical effect. Offering something for everyone, it takes the listener to a different experience of him or herself, and fast. Why?

In this cantata, the chorale is in…it is not in anything, rhythmically speaking. It commences with a long held note absent of rhythmic reference other than it started on beat one, and changes notes on the half note as eighths and sixteenths abound above and below. The chorale is sung at, or feels like it is sung at about 1/8^th the (felt) tempo of the music as a whole. This I write of in purely subjective terms, for this is the effect I notice in myself; I suppose this or some special effect must occur in many others, else composers would not bother writing it into their music in a tempo that is slow with respect to the background³ (recall my definition of successful music). Upon hearing the tune, a listener is catapulted into a different experience of time. Everything slows when a person hears clearly, and more especially, over other voices, and most particularly, in the uppermost soprano, a chorale tune.

I believe that in addition to this musical effect there is a spiritual aspect to the phenomenon: as many of us have strong emotional associations with images from ancient Egypt (consider the unconscious suggestion of fear, awe, or sense of power which impacts viewers of Star Wars upon seeing Darth Vader’s helmet, distinctly Egyptian in style); as many of us have a sense of awe and familiarity upon first seeing ancient geography such as the great rivers; as so many of us have experienced deep connection for no apparent reason, to people, places, philosophies, art, lands…so have many of us known an unmistakable sense of sanctity upon hearing chorale tunes in a Bach or other musical setting despite it being within a religious context we may not embrace, or even agree with.

The chorale tune in this cantata grabs attention because it is so different from the rest of the musical foreground and emotional background, both – seemingly out of touch with life’s joys, fears, griefs, etc. as described above. Indeed, looking at the foreground, this is the composer’s intention. From a purely analytical point of view, it is the fact. As most chorale tunes, this one moves stepwise, with few leaps larger than a third. Luther’s intention when he was composing or adapting tunes, whether from popular songs or liturgical chant, was to make the music easily sung by his congregations.^xi This lack of vertical movement also contributes to an experience of serenity and otherworldliness when hearing a chorale in this setting.

Typically, chorale melody is so devoid of rhythmic impetus or even interest,^xii when compared with rhythms below or elsewhere, (which in this case are lively, and expressive of life – even unto death), that the ear (of an experienced listener, at any rate) is unable to ignore the tune if it is not hidden by counterpoint in registers above and below, or by sheer volume or other physiological/mental means and composition techniques. Once a listener’s attention is grabbed, the effect takes place in spite of attention-grabbing by the more active aspects of the piece. The ear retains its hold either consciously or unconsciously, much as in chamber music or music where polyphony is central to the composition: an emphasized entrance of a melody or voice which then drops in dynamic level is all that is necessary to change aural perception from one of harmonic texture to that of polyphonic texture.

Bach not only starts this cantata with the chorale, but it is always heard, due to its high register. It surely must have given his first audience a strong handle on the music, regardless of their sophistication. This aspect of the polyphony thus is likely to have had a deeper significance for the Lutherans listening at St. Blasius, and whenever it was performed. It was their religious music, familiar to them for generations. The impact of this on early listeners cannot be overemphasized. And coming then to the Hallelujah stretto, Lutherans must just as surely have experienced the truth of their faith – which for the inviting listeners of today who are able to listen as if for the first time, transcends centuries of musical sensibility and development, not to mention a more sophisticated worldly view.

Footnotes

[1] Johann Heinrich Zedler. Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste ("Great Complete Encyclopaedia of all Sciences and Arts"). Leipzig, 1732-1754.
[2] Bach’s music making and composition were not always appreciated by his audience. He appears to have had little patience with those who failed to grasp or appreciate the deeper spiritual roots of his music, whose personalities embraced a path of limitation of the heart, hence of music that intends, as Bach’s, to open the heart and facilitate spiritual awakening and growth.
At times, he was accused of playing too long, and at other times, of playing too short. It is easy to imagine him playing with the intention of fulfilling to the highest his spiritual imperative expressed musically, while at the same time, expressing something that might be considered costly to him by virtue of its length being displeasing to employers or audiences significantly less appreciative than he would otherwise tolerate. (David et al. The New Bach Reader, p. 47). In fact, Bach was willing, if need be, to accept the risk of substantially less income in exchange for an appreciative audience. (Jonathan Rhodes Lee, Graduate Student Instructor/Davitt Moroney, Professor of Music. University of California, Berkeley. Lecture, 2008) For Bach, this was a musical necessity. See the first three paragraphs of this paper.
[3] Mendelssohn in his trio for piano, violin, cello, opus 66 uses the chorale Gelobet seist Du, Jesu Christ which upo hearing, immediately evokes a feeling of something more noble, spiritually higher, or elevated above the earthly emotions and passions expressed prior to the chorale entry.

Bibliography/Endnotes

i. Carol Traupman-Carr. Bach 101, for the website of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem: http://www.bach.org/bach101/cantatas/cantata4.html
Although resumes don’t say it all, a glance at hers is fairly reassuring
ii. Davitt Moroney. Bach – an extraordinary life. London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Limited, 2000, p.25.
iii. Hans T. David, Arthur Mendel, Christoph Wolff. The New Bach Reader. New York: Norton & Co., 1972, p. 82. Highest recommendation.
iv. Moroney, p. 1
v. Traupman-Carr. http://www.bach.org/bach101/cantatas/cantata4.html
vi. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Christ-lag-in-Todesbanden.htm#ScoSourceLuther
Scholarship appears good, judging by my limited background and complementary research; writing and attitude are reassurinof honesty with a high value placed on accurate and complete knowledge.
vii. D. M Guion. Trombone – Its History and Music1697-1811. New York: Routledge, 1988, p. 151
Scholarship appears excellent. Same interest in getting the facts straight. His book is a major work – i.e., shortcuts would be uncharacteristic and not too useful as I see it. Too much intelligence and effort to waste on assumptions.
viii. Virginia Tech Multimedia Online Dictionary. http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/ accessed 3/4/2008 12:03 AM
The name speaks for it, as does the effort.
ix. Guion
x. Carol Traupman-Carr
xi. Albert Schweitzer. J S Bach, Volume II. Macmillan Co., 1950
Reputation, a real interest, and apparently thorough research.
xii. Schweitzer

Contributed by Peter Matcalf (March 2008)

BWV 4 Commentaries: English: Crouch | All Music | Bethlehem | Emmanuel Music | Koster | Mincham | Bachipedia
Nielsen [Danish] | AL [Dutch] | BK [Dutch] | EvH [Dutch] | HT [Dutch] | Role [French] | Kantate [Japanese] | B!52, Odcinek 16 [Polish] | Reyes [Spanish]