| Baroque Era |  |
Helmut
Rilling interprets Bach Cantatas 79 | 110 | 4 | 67 | 56 | 140 | Interview |
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Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (Our mouth is full of laughter), BWV 110From the notes for Rilling's Lecture Concerts 4-CD set, Haenssler Classic catalog number 98.459. Haenssler Classic CDs are distributed in the USA by Collegium USA (800 367-9059), although this new release is not yet listed on the Collegium web site.
In the course of the concerts associated with these recordings (made in the mid to late 1990s), Helmut Rilling presented, in German, a series of lectures analyzing the cantatas. Haenssler recorded these lectures, complete with musical examples, and included them in the CD set. The following text is an English paraphrase of his presentation for Cantata 110. It's reprinted for WKSU listeners 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." | |||