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Cantata BWV 216
Vergnügte Pleißenstadt [Fragment]
Cantata BWV 216a
Erwählte Pleißenstadt: Apollo et Mercurius
Discussions - Part 3 |
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Continue from Part 2 |
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Discussions in the Week of July 22, 2018 (4th round) |
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William L. Hoffman wrote (July 16, 2018):
Leipzig Chamber Cantatas 216, 210 Reconstructed
Bach in the later 1720s found himself in a transitional period between the weekly demands of the cantor's church music in three cantata cycles and the town music director's opportunity to provide occasional music of joy and sorrow. Meanwhile he addressed his personal desires to create instrumental music as well as the civic celebrations involving other civic institutions lead by the University of Leipzig, the governing progressive Absolutist Saxon adherents and professionals, and the merchants and economic interests focused on three notable annual trade fairs in January, the Easter season, and early October.
During his first years in Leipzig while creating three church-year cantata cycle (1723-9), various occasions arose for Bach to compose secular music as serenades or drammi per musica, observes Richard D. P. Jones.1 Bach continued to write for the courts at Weißenfels (BWV 249a), Cöthen (BWV 36a), and possibly Saxe-Gotha (BWV Anh. 20, https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001328?lang=en) while beginning to compose Leipzig secular wedding and homage cantatas (serenades BWV 210, 216, Anh. 196) for solo, duet and ensemble, homage works for nobles and prominent citizens (BWV 36a, 249b, and 210a), and festive music for university and student events (drammi peer musica BWV 205, 207 as well as Funeral Ode, BWV 198 and Anh.195).
Besides the five Cöthen mostly-dialogue serenades parodied as festive sacred works (BWV 66, 134, 173, 184, 194) in the first church-year cycle, Bach in Weimar had begun composing "this intimate species of chamber cantata [that] occupied a special place in Bach's output," says Jones (Ibid.: 112), most notably high-voice solo cantatas 54, 152, 199 and 202. Most notable in Leipzig was the mature, multi-faceted soprano solo Cantata 204, "Ich bin vergnügt" (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV204-D3.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUXnRkYHE1I). Despite its Hunold/Menantes strophic, "tiresome moralistic text (as it seems to our ears), Bach's setting achieving remarkable variety," says Jones (Ibid.), from dance rhythms in the three arias, no. 2, 3/ 8 passepied-menuett; no. 6, 12/8 pastorale-gigue; and no. 8, 2/4 bourée. Cantata 204 set the new standard in Leipzig for intimate solo secular cantatas which could have been performed in various venues of the home of its dedicatee to the Zimmerman concerts with the Collegium musicum. Here, the singers could have included women such as Anna Magdalena, suggests Peter Williams,2 particularly in Cantatas 204 and 211, the Coffee Cantata, composed c1734. Also, Bach's sons and pupils could have taken part in these 100 hours of concerts, with Bach's association perhaps dating to 1724.
Suzuki Final Recordings: Cantatas 204, 30
Cantatas BWV 204 and 30 are Suzuki's last secular cantata recording, based on performances in Japan a year ago (July 15, 17) with soprano Carolyn Sampson, completing a 22-year odyssey to record all the Bach cantatas on BIS (https://japan-forward.com/masaaki-suzuki-bach-collegium-japan-to-perform-bach-in-kobe-and-tokyo/, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Suzuki-Rec5.htm#S3, ?S-10). “The intent for the mysterious cantata BWV 204 is unknown—an extremely exceptional work. The scriptures and Christian values were not exclusively incorporated in the lyrics; however, universal human morals and ethics were written within the music,” Suzuki said. “BWV30a showcases a dramatic contrasting world. Not only inside the church, but it is impressive to show every scene of human life is equally important.” The closing dance-style aria (no. 8) was reused two times, in the wedding Cantata BWV 216, "Vergnügte Pleißen-Stadt (or Die Pleiße und Neiße), in Leipzig homage cantata Erwäblte Pleißen-Stadt (or Apollo et Mercurius), BWV 216a, a parody of BWV 216, which has been reconstructed. It also may have been parodied as the aria, "Angenehmes Mordgeschrei" (Pleasing Murder-Cry) in the St. Mark Passion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtwA2NPPQX8).
Many of these works involved parody from one occasion to another using the same music with new texts. In addition, Bach began experimenting with multiple parodies for various occasions, most notably Cantata 120, for a wedding, town council installation and Augsburg confession festival. Increasingly the occasional works for the annual council service (BWV Anh. 3, 4, and and Leipzig notables with connections to the Saxon Court may be viewed as possible seeds of joyous music that found its way into the B-Minor Mass, joining their established sacred counterparts composed almost entirely from 1725 to 1731. Three works in particular whose entire music has virtually disappeared are BWV Anh. 9, 14 and 18, which Bach may have cannibalized.
Following his composition of two extended, symbolic drammi per musica in 1725 and 1726 (BWV 205 and 207), Bach in 1727 vocally focused on the creation of his great Passion music drama setting of St. Matthew while looking for opportunities to utilize the community's musical, political, and financial resources. He increasingly looked to the university, political support, and secular opportunities. They converged with the assistance of Picander when the Leipzig governor, Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming celebrated his birthday during the month when Augustus the Strong celebrated his nameday. Bach parodied his favored multiple use occasional serenade, BWV 249a, Shepherds' Cantata, and with Picander's assistance modified the text so that the four drammi per musica mythological characters — Genius, Mercurius, Melpomene, and Minerva — could provide civic entertainment on 25 August 1726, "Verjaget, zerstreuet, zerrüttet, ihr Sterne" (Dispel them, disperse them, destroy them, ye heavens), probably at Flemming's residence at the Pleissenburg Castle. The following day heard the Town Council installation sacred cantata, possibly a reperformance of 1726 Trinityfest pure-hymn Cantata 126, "Gelobet sei der Herr" (Praised be the Lord), or a reperformance of 1725 Ratswahl Cantata BWV Anh. 4, "Wünschet Jerusalem Glück" (Wished-for Jerusalem's Fortune).
Bach Successes 1725-27
It was a striking and successful profane-sacred, joyous doubleheader on two civic occasions. Although the Picander BWV 249b texted-music is lost, the libretto gives a sense of the plot (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV249b.html), alongside the earlier, virtual parody, BWV 249a version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztuiHFB3NdI). "It remains uncertain," says Alfred Dürr,3 "to what extent the movements were borrowed without alteration." A comparison of the recitative text to the original (https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~wfb/cantatas/249a.html) shows the same format and use of similar words with few adjustments needed in the recitative dialogues. Here is a description of the four characters in the Fleming parody serenade, BWV 249b, by Z. Philipp Ambrose: "Latin genius is the male spirit of the head of a Roman gens 'clan' and was thought to dwell in every individual of the family. It was especially worshipped on birthdays. Mercury is in this cantata seen in his role as a god of youth. Melpomene is the muse of tragic or high drama, while Minerva is the goof wisdom."
Bach had considerable success in 1727 with varied works, first through Flemming with the commissioning of two drammi per musica homage cantatas for August the Strong: birthday visit, 12 May 1727, Cantata BWV Anh. 9, "Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne" (Disperse yourselves, ye stars, serenely!, most music lost), and his Nameday, 3 August, BWV 193a, "Ihr Häuser des Himmels, ihr scheinenden Lichter (Ye houses of heaven, ye radiant lights, (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV193-D4.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyqzO3gT_n8). Bach also composed Funeral Ode, BWV 198 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV198-D6.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOEbPrjuKXA, on a university commission for the memorial service on 17 October in the University Paulinerkirche. Meanwhile, Bach also turned to personal home music in the Anna Magdalena Notebook, begin in 1725, and used a Hunold-Menantes text to write a soprano solo cantata, BWV 204, Increasingly, Bach sought to meld instrumental (concerto) music and sacred duets into his intimate vocal chamber music as he had done in his third cycle Trinity Time cantatas of 1726.
But 1728 was a fallow time with no vocal compositions recorded. Vocally, Bach worked on his double-chorus version of the St. Matthew, much of which he would parody in the Cöthen Funeral Music, BWV 244a in March 1729, but began exploring other opportunities while battling the Leipzig conservative cantor faction on the Town Council. The major opportunity would happen in March 1729 when Bach took over the direction of the Collegium musicum, full-time at the end of the Thomas School year at Pentecost. As a warm-up, Bach could have used the group in his Good Friday performance of the double-ensemble St, Matthew Passion as well as in Cantata 174 on Pentecost Monday, with its opening sinfonia adapted from the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto, adding horns and winds (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vym2jSr4UU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj_gMBqHX8). Bach moved from the church to Zimmermann's coffee house and garden, doing weekly concerts and doubling these during the three-week fairs, presenting both instrumental and vocal music to the profane audiences.
Leipzig Homage Cantata BWV 216a
During this transition about 1728, Bach returned to intimate solo works established in Cantata 204 with two chamber cantatas whose origins are obscured but one recently have been constructed by Alexander Grychtolik: Cantata 216a, "Erwählte Pleißenstadt" (O Contented Pleisse town) http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV216a.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mIDSGKoTys). The other is the mutiple-use BWV 210a, "O angenehme Melodie" (O charming melody), and its parody, BWV 210, (O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit" (O fair day, longed for time). The original scores are lost (possibly ?Friedemann) and "their precise recipients are unknown," possibly "affluent burghers," "that were heard in this form in the 1730s and 1740," suggests Grychtolik (liner notes, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Grychtolik-A.htm#C3).
Cantata BWV 216a is an intimate homage work for Leipzig, probably performed at Zimmermann's and part of the Collegium Musicum repertory, with two arias borrowed from Cantatas 204/8 and 205/13: "Himmlische Vergnügsamkeit (Heavenly contentment) becoming BWV 216a/3, "Angenehme Pleiß-Athen" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RirYC1Vqgk), and "Zweig und Äste" becoming 216a/7, "Heil und Segen" (Heil und Segen). Cantata BWV 216a originated as a 1728 wedding Cantata, VWV 216, "Vergnügte Pleißenstadt" http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV216.html).
Parody Cantata 216a,4 is a dialogue with characters Apollo (tenor) and Mercurius (alto), dates to about 1728 and could have been performed by the Bach Collegium musicum at Zimmerman's Coffeehouse [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV216-D2.htm). Only the written text survives as a Picander text adaptation by Bach student and copyist Christian Gottlob Meißner, with Bach’s handwritten corrections (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001681). Its four arias were parodied from a secular wedding cantata, BWV 216,5 "Vergnügte Pleißenstadt" (Pleasant Pleisse-Town), 5 February 1728. Cantata 216a is "an allegory of the mercantile capital of Leipzig produced with minimal effort" from wedding Cantata 216 where the two river nymphs, Neisse and Pleisee, become Apollo and Mercury, says Grychtolik (Ibid.: 14; translation Bradford Robinson). "The reference to Leipzig as 'Geliebter Handelsplatz' (beloved trading center) and the indirect addresss of the town's administrators as 'die an dem Ruuder sitzen" (who sits at the helm) suggests that the cantata may have been intended for well-to-do Leipzig merchants or members of the town council," he suggests. In contrast to the full-scoring of the annual town council cantatas, Cantata 216a "was apparently perfromed in private surroundings,: says Grychtolik, and "thus bears witness to a personal appreciation of Bach's music among these civic circles." The recitatives (nos. 2, 4, and 6) are newly composed, and Grychtolik scores the work for two oboes and strings with transverse flute doubling.
Grychtolik's reconstruction comes from the draft libretto and fragments of notation (n=canto and alto) rediscovered in 2003 among the posthumous papers of a Japanese pianist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwählte_Pleißenstadt,_BWV_216a). The copyist is Meißner (BWV 216), and the Provenance: C. G. Meißner/J. S. Bach – ?Friedemann – G. Poelchau – A. Fuchs – S. Thalberg – Versteigerung London 1872 – (?) – Gilhofer & Ranschburg, Wien – R. von Mendelssohn, Berlin (1901) – G. Gordigiani – G. Cassadó – Chieko Hara – Tokyo, Kunitachi Musikhochschule (2004). Cantata BWV 216a libretto draft, Provenance: J. S. Bach – ?Friedemann – G. Poelchau – A. Fuchs – F. A. Grasnick – BB (now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz) (1879). The music initially was reconstructed as Cantata 216 by Joshua Rifkin and recorded (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIkzoHqNF8k, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Rifkin.htm#C11).
Multi-Use Soprano Solo Cantata 210a
The origins, genesis, and applications of homage Cantata 210a, "O! angenehme Melodei" (O sweet and charming melody!), are obscured but it equals in length the 30 minutes of Cantata 204 which served as its model and a transitional work between the old Cöthen courtly text set to French dances and the new style of classical-oriented operatic texts set to new musical styles and favored at the Saxon Court. Both works are scored for soprano solo with alternating arias and recitatives in the manner of an Italian moralistic chamber opera, also composed by Telemann and Handel. There are five presumed versions of Cantata BWV 210a homage and BWV 210 wedding cantatas, dating from before 1729 to 1742 for various Leipzig civic celebrations. The original homage material is assumed to be from a secular proto-cantata. “The existence of the first version, from the period before 1729, cannot be proved from documentary or other sources, but is a hypothetical deduction as a common starting pofor the later arrangements,” says scholar Klaus Hoffmann in his liner notes to the Masaaki Suzuki 2004 BIS recording of BWV 210. The music may also be found in the lost cantata, BWV deest, “Des Zephyrs Atem rauscht und fliegt“ (The Zephyrs’ Breath Rushes and Flies; text Conrad Benedict Hulse; tribute for Prince August Ludwig of Anhalt- Köthen (brother and heir of Prince Leopold), dated to 21 July 1729, but with no text extant and no date confirmed (see Jones, Ibid.: 114).
Klaus Hoffmann Liner notes, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Rec-BIG/Suzuki-S01c[BIS-CD1411].pdf , BCW Recording Details, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Suzuki-Rec5.htm.
Bach's first performed documented performance of BWV 210a was on 12 January 1729, paying homage to Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, on the occasion of his visit to Leipzig, with Anna Magdalena singing the soprano role. The extant soprano part of the original work, BWV 210a, has three apparent versions of the parodied text with alterations and obliterations (https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003860). The third performance appears to be the birthday of Governor “Graf” Count von Flemming, at his Pleissenburg Castle, August 25, now dated to 1735-40; and later for unidentified patrons, “Gönner.” “Further amendments, and the removal of all salutations to people of noble rank, indicate a later performance paying tribute to unidentified but evidently bourgeois musical benefactors,” says Klaus Hoffmann. Finally, the music was parodied with new, extended recitatives for the extant secular wedding cantata a voce solo, “O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit” (O glorious day, longed-for time), 19 September 1741. No librettist has been identified in either extant version and it is possible Friedemann inherited both. Cantata 210 first appeared in the Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt 1850 biography under "Occasional Cantatas."
Cantata 210a Details and Discography, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV210a.htm. References: BGA XXIX (secular cantatas, Paul Graf Waldersee, 1881), NBA NBA I/39 (Leipzig secular music, Werner Neumann 1977), Bach Compendium BC G 29, no ZwaNG; Cantata 210 Bach Digital, https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001.03%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+210a%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25.
It is assumed that Anna Magdalena sang all three extant versions of Cantata 210a and its parody, says Grychtolik, "bearing witness to her great vocal skills" (Ibid.: 17). Grychtolik reconstructed the final, undated version for patrons with new recitatives differing from BWV 210/3, 5, and 7 with continuo only, with the other music virtually identical, as well as the orchestration in BWV 210, which is similar to BWV 204: transverse flute, oboe d’amore, strings, harpsichord continuo. Three of the five arias are in dance form: No. 2, a 3/8 menuett; No. 4, a 12/8 pastoral-sarabande; and No. 8, a ¾ polonaise. The last is a parody of the tenor aria, No. 11, “So, wie ich die Tropfen zolle” (Just as I pay tribute with my drops of water, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrS4lHqDBmo), in the 1737 dramma per musica, Cantata BWV 30a, “Angehnemes Wiederau, freu dich sehr in deinen Auen” (Charming Wiederau, take pleasure in your meadows!). The 2017 reconstruction is recorded as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSssmrUCoxM with the text and notes of Z. Philipp Ambrose (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV210a.html).
The first two numbers of both parody Cantatas 210 are compared (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaXWccSTZ9U), as well as the aria (no. 6, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2NH1CYVtO0), the polonaise-style aria (no. 8) in both versions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlw5USA9R7s), and the final two numbers (9 and 10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqLs1ERzOs).
Although identical in type to Cantata 204, Cantata 210a "outstrips the earlier work in virtually every respect," says Jones (Ibid.: 114f). "The quite exceptional quality of the music seems to be connected to the subject matter, Bach was always susceptible to aural imagery, but normally only isolated movements are affected. Here, however, the entire text is devoted to the power music," and Bach sets the arias to various dances. The opening words in recitative "call forth an exquisite A major aria in minuet rhythm (no. 2), says Jones. A song sung makes bitter griefs sweet is portrayed in the next aria (no. 4), a beautiful lullaby in pastorale [praising harmony that brings rest], remarkably similar to 1727 Funeral Ode 198 no. 5" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bms1IPOwRf0), also parodied in the 1729 Cöthen Funeral Music and the 1731 St. Mark Passion. The music is contemporaneous with the aria "Schlummert ein" (Rest in sleep) in the 1727 Purification Cantata 82, "Ich habe genung" (I have enough), which originated in the Anna Magdalena Notebook." Recitative (no. 5) is distressed at those who do not value music, "no doubt a veiled reference to Bach's Leipzig enemies," alluded to in aria (no. 6). The various dedicatees of Cantata 210a value music and enjoy a polonaise aria (no. 8). In the closing accompagnato and Vivace-finale, "Bach calls upon his patrons to contonue their support for 'noble harmony'," says Jones.
"There can be no doubt that Bach's word-setting in this composition, carried out with supreme artistry, was heartfelt in view of its subject matter, 'Beloved Musica' herself," says Jones. "Nor is it likely to be mere change that not long after the composition of this exquisite work, Bach, newly, appointed as director of the Leipzig Collegium musicum in the spring of 1729, took up the cause of Musica again in his artistic credo, Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan (The dispute between Phoebus and Pan)," drammi oper musica, BWV 201.
FOOTNOTES
1 Richard D. P. Jones, "Secular Cantatas," in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 2, 1717-1750, Music to Delight the Spirit (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2013, 194, 108f).
2 Peter Williams, "Leipzig, the middle years," in Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016: 339), in "The Collegium musicum," sub chapter and "Collegium repertory - concertos, sonatas, songs?", 336-347.
3 Alfred Dürr, Cantatas of J. S. Bach, rev. & trans. Richard D. P. Jones (Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2005: 876).
4 Cantata 216a is catalogued in BGA XXXIV Forward (secular cantatas, Paul Graf Waldersee, 1887), and NBA KB I/39 (Leipzig secular music, Werner Neumann 1977), and as Bach Compendium BC G 47, no Zwang; details, https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001.03%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+216a%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25.
5 Cantata 216 is cataloged in BGA XXXIV, NBA KB I/40 (wedding/secular, Werner Neumann, 1977), BC B43; details, https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?sort=worksort01+asc&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&q=%2BobjectType%3A%22work%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000005%5C%3A0001.03%22+%2Bwork01%3A%22BWV+216%22&mask=search_form_work.xed&version=4.5&start=0&fl=id&rows=1&XSL.Style=browse&origrows=25.
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To Come: Cantata 201, Bach's artistic credo, and new Thomas School Rector Johann Mathias Gessner. |
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