|
Thomas Braatz wrote (July 14, 2002):
BWV 187 - Provenance:
The Autograph Score:
The autograph score is first mentioned in the listing of items in the estate of C.P.E. Bach. The next owner that can be authenticated is the Berliner Singakademie. S.W. Dehn, who made a catalog of manuscripts that the Singakademie owned, noted this autograph score along with a copy thereof and some doublet parts. It was later offered for sale noting that the score consisted of 11 pages along with 8 voice parts and an additional 14 pages not in Bach’s handwriting. Somehow the copy of the score and some of the voice parts remained with the Berliner Singakademie when the autograph score came into the possession of the BB (Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin).
The outer page in Bach’s handwriting states:
Dominica 7. post Trinitatis | Es wartet alles auf dich, daß du ihnen etc. | a | 4 Voci. |
2 Hautbois. | 2 Violini | Viola | e | Continuo | di | Joh: Sebast: Bach.
On top of the actual 1st page of music Bach wrote:
J. J. Dominica [in abbreviated form] 7 post Trinitatis. Concerto.
At the very end, after the final chorale, Bach wrote:
Fine | SDG.
The Original Set of Parts:
The original set of parts were divided into two groups. Just when and why this happened is unknown. One of the groups of parts went to the BB as indicated above. The other group went to Carl Pistor at the beginning of the 19th century [Ernst Rudorff, his grandson, reported that they were acquired second hand from the estate of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. After Ernst Rudorff’s death, these were purchased in 1916 by the Peters Music Library of Leipzig (this is, of course, associated with the famous music publishing house, Peters [Edition]). Just how these parts came to be in the possession of a private (for that reason unknown) collector in the USA is a great mystery.
Presently the original parts are divided as follows:
BB: 1. Soprano
2. Alto
3. Tenore
4 Basso
USA: 5. Oboe I
6. Oboe II
7. Violino I
8. Violino I (doublet)
9. Violino II
10. Violino II (doublet)
11. Viola
12. Continuo
13. Continuo (doublet)
14. Organo (transposed, figured)
These parts were copied under Bach’s supervision by seven unknown individuals. Bach did not copy the Oboe II part himself as is reported elsewhere.
Text:
Structure of the cantata:
William H. Scheide was the first to point out that there is a series of 7 texts by the same anonymous librettist, texts, which were used by Bach’s cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach for his cantatas. These are cantatas, with which Bach, it appears, was acquainted. J.S. Bach used exactly the same texts for the following cantatas:
BWV 43 (Ascension)
BWV 39 (1st Sunday after Trinity)
BWV 88 (5th …)
BWV 187 (7th …)
BWV 45 (8th …)
BWV 102 (10th …)
BWV 17 (14th …)
Of these seven, six cantatas have exactly the same, uniform structure:
Old Testament quotation – Recitative – Aria – New Testament quotation – Aria – Recitative – Chorale.
The Bible quotations in mvts. 1 and 4 are from Psalm 104, 27-28 and Matthew 6, 31-32.
The final chorale uses verses 4 and 6 of the chorale by Hans Vogel (1563) “Singen wir aus Herzensgrund.”
Date of Composition:
According to Alfred Dürr, this cantata from the 3rd yearly cycle of cantatas was composed shortly before its 1st performance on August 4, 1726.
Other performances during Bach’s lifetime are highly likely in the 1740’s.
Parodies:
A number of mvts. from this cantata can be found as parodies in BWV 235, a G minor Mass according to the following listing:
BWV 187 BWV 235
1. Es wartet alles auf dich 6. Cum sancto spiritu
3. Du Herr, du krönst allein 4. Domine Fili unigenite
4. Darum sollt ihr nicht sorgen 3. Gratias agimus tibi
5. Gott versorget alles Leben 5. Qui tollis peccata mundi and
Quoniam tu solus sanctus
There is no doubt that BWV 187 is an original conception and that the mvts from BWV 235 given above have no other original, yet unknown sources from which they may have been derived. |
