As Kapellmeister his chief concern was the running of Prince Leopold’s court orchestra among whose members from time to time was the musically gifted prince himself, a viola da gamba player. The great secular cantata of this period is a birthday tribute to the Duke of Sachsen-Weissenfels, War mir behagt, ist nur die muntre jagd! (BWV 208) with its celebrated aria ‘ Schafe Können sicher weiden’ (Sheep may safely graze).Īt Cöthen, Bach’s responsibilities were different from those at Weimar. Three sacred cantatas, in particular, claim our attention for their expression and originality: Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4), Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21), and Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (BWV 61) in which Bach brilliantly combines the French overture and Lutheran hymn in the opening chorus. The early fruits of his understanding and interpretation of the forms can be seen not only in the arrangements for solo harpsichord and organ of concertos by Vivaldi and others, which he made at Weimar, but also in the music of the cantatas which he wrote during the later years of his time there, between 1713 and his departure for Cöthen in 1717. It was in Weimar, too, that Bach seems first to have encountered Italian concertos, especially the Venetian solo type developed by Vivaldi. The evidence is found in such pieces as the Passacaglia in C minor and the Orgelbüchlein. The music possesses great expressive individuality at the same time revealing Bach’s awe-inspiring understanding of the instrument for which he was writing.
Here he wrote prolifically for the organ, drawing on all he had learned from Buxtehude and other north-Germany composers as well as Italian and French styles. In 1708 Bach retraced his footsteps toward the Weimar court to take up duties first as organist, then as Konzertmeister. Mühlhausen proved to be significant since it was here that he produced pieces in a form that we now recognise as being the kernel of his musical output – the sacred cantata. He survived Arnstadt for about three and a half years, however, before moving on to Mühlhausen as organist of St Blasius. When did Bach start writing his sacred cantatas? Bach had occupied his time well, though, travelling to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude’s organ playing and becoming acquainted with his music at first hand. By 1703, Bach was a court musician at Weimar, but in that year he accepted an organist’s post at Arnstadt where he disgraced himself with the town council by turning four weeks leave into three months.
0 kommentar(er)
