Bach at the keyboard

In Leipzig Bach was perpetually overworked, so it’s no surprise that he borrowed the French overture of his fourth orchestral suite to open the cantata he composed for the first feast day of Christmas in 1725. (I wonder how many of his church listeners would also have been regulars at Zimmermann’s Coffee House, where his collegium performed such instrumental works as the suites.) He could hardly have made a better choice to begin this festive, celebratory cantata (Schmieder catalog number 110).

I can’t take credit for the following notes; they’re from a lecture which the director of today’s performance, Helmut Rilling, gave at concerts in the late 1990s, when the recording was made. They’re reprinted by kind permission of the publisher.

This cantata was written for the first day of Christmas 1725. Bach calls for a large orchestra to match the festive nature of the holiday: two oboes, two flutes, three trumpets and timpani. Appropriately, the work also begins on a festive note. However, the cantata has a theme related to the miracle of the Son of God coming into the world.

Movement 1: The musical construction (long-held notes in the bass, rhythmically active middle voices, ascending melodic lines in the melody instruments) gives occasion to consider this verity. It is divided into three parts and marked by dotted rhythms. Here Bach chose the form of the French overture. This kind of music was intended to be played in Versailles, when the king entered the theater – for does not a king enter the world on Christmas, as well? At the same time, Bach falls back on an older piece, an orchestral suite (BWV 1069), to whose middle section Bach adds a choral setting. The voices enter one after the other and signify the “laughter” mentioned in the title. The inventive alternation of wind and string instruments which serves the purpose of differentiation in the orchestral suite is overlaid in the cantata by the choir (“Der Herr hat Großes an uns getan”). Even though this may conceal the architecture somewhat, it gives the movement additional intensity and luster.

Movement 2: This tenor aria specifies the time of the celebration, which is “today” (“anitzt”). Musically, thoughts and the senses are also set in motion toward heaven, “himmelan.” Bach gives emphasis to the contemplation of God’s deeds, the image of Christ as man and man as the child of heaven by contrasting the “earthly” bassoon with the high “heavenly” tenor voice.

Movement 3: In the course of a recitative expressing affirmation, Bach illustrates the majesty of God while the strings tell us that the Lord’s magnificence is thus and shall ever remain so.

Movement 4: Together with the oboe d’amore, the alto voice protests against this certainty. Bach interprets “Daß du sein Heil so schmerzlich suchst” (“That you seek his salvation so painfully”) as indicating the way to the cross. The text, and thus Bach, as well, finds two answers to the related question of the essence of humankind: worm, hell and Satan are presented in dissonances and difficult rhythms, the Son and Heir born of love in playful, cheerful sounds. The canon between the oboe and the alto suggests that the way taken by the Son of God should also be a model for humans, the children of God, to follow.

Movement 5: Here for the first time there appears a passage from the Christmas Gospel, the “gloria in excelsis Deo” sung by the angels on the fields. Bach puts this to a dance setting in which the oboes provide the pastoral ambiance while the voices sing a dialogue in the form of a canon. For the words “peace on Earth,” Bach finds quite a different kind of music, one that expresses collective beseeching and apprehension. Finally, Bach draws a parallel to the first movement by having the laughter marking the day of the joyful celebration stand for good will to men.

Movement 6: Now is the time to wake up! – as signaled by the trumpet, followed by the instruments and voices. In the orchestra, the trumpet, violin and oboe play each other “Freudenlieder.” Here too, though, there are “andachtsvolle Saiten,” where the wind instruments are silent, and a shadow in B minor falls upon the D major harmonies. Virtuoso passages in the strings strike up the “Freudenlieder” once more at the end. At the command “singt!”, the response turns out to be a simple chorale – Bach wants the entire congregation, including the less sophisticated, to join in singing the concluding “Halleluiah.”

SUNG TEXTS

Further reading:

Cantata 110 at Bach Cantatas website

The Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu

What would you do if the tools you use to do your job cost you a half-million dollars?

This is the quandry that working musicians face. Responsive, sweet-toned instruments have never been cheap. Even 20 or 30 years ago, a good midrange historical violin would easily have cost an orchestra player a year or two’s worth of salary.

Since then, prices have soared. In 2006, a Stradivarius violin sold at auction for over US$3.5 million. This year (2010) a Chicago dealer is offering a Guarneri del Gesu once owned by composer Henri Vieuxtemps. The asking price: an eye-popping US$18 million.

Even for soloists of international stature, these instruments are simply out of reach.

The problem is that fine musical instruments are increasingly seen not as vehicles for musical expression, but as investments. They are slipping away from musicians and falling into private investors’ collections.

Thoughtful musicians treasure the living art from history’s great instrument workshops. They play them daily. They become one with these instruments. They share their art with us.

But increasingly, these artists are shut out. Many of those who didn’t or couldn’t buy – maybe I should say "invest" – in the 1980s or before may now never own an historical instrument.

What to do? For many, a modern instrument is the only answer. Fortunately, outstanding instruments are made in 21st century workshops all over the world, including right here in the US. And increasingly, students and those just beginning a career are turning to the world’s low-cost manufacturing center for help. Look inside the instrument, and the words “made in China” are on the label.

WKSU’s arts reporter Vivian Goodman recently spoke with musicians and instrument makers about the situation. Here’s her take on the story.

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Further reading:

The Mona Lisa of Violins in The Guardian

A Modern Strad in WKSU Classical

A Nation of Pianos and Pianists in WKSU Classical

A good friend of mine sent me this just the other day, and I liked it so much, I wanted to share it with you. It’ll help you get in the mood for the season.

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