Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 29, “Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir” – Maria Keohane, Damien Guillon, Valerio Contaldo, Lionel Meunier, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven (HD 1080p)

Under Jos van Veldhoven's baton, the Netherlands Bach Society, the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world, and the soloists Maria Keohane (soprano), Damien Guillon (alto), Valerio Contaldo (tenor) and Lionel Meunier (bass) perform the church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir", BWV 29. Recorded for the project All of Bach, at the St Martin's Church, Groningen, Netherlands, on March 15, 2014.

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BWV 29 ("We thank thee, O God, we thank thee") is one of a number of cantatas J.S. Bach composed for the ceremonies attending the installation of new members of the Leipzig city council (other examples are cantatas Nos. 119 and 120). An important part of these ceremonies, which traditionally took place at the end of August, was the church service held at St Nicholas'.

The present work was composed for the event in 1731, the service taking place on August 27 that year. In keeping with the festive and ceremonial pomp of the occasion, Bach's cantata is lavishly scored for an orchestra including three trumpets, timpani, two oboes, strings, and continuo bass, and vocal forces including the usual four-part chorus, and soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists. An unknown librettist provided the text glorifying the power of God and extolling him to protect "town and palaces".

This cantata opens with a sinfonia in the form of a remarkable arrangement of the Prelude from the Violin Partita in E major, BWV 1006. The violin part is given to obbligato organ, the material largely imitated in the orchestral parts to produce a concerto-like structure. Many listeners will recognize the fugal opening chorus, since it is a reworking of what would eventually become the "Gratias agimus tibi" and "Dona nobis pacem" sections of the monumental Mass in B minor, BWV 232. The text is drawn from Psalm 75:1. Three arias interspersed by recitatives follow. The first aria, for tenor, has a violin obbligato, and Bach returns to its A section, a setting of the words "Hallelujah, strength and might", for the alto aria that forms the penultimate number. In between comes a soprano aria in gentle siciliano rhythm with an obbligato part for oboe. The final number is a four-part setting of the fifth stanza of Johann Gramann's hymn "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" (1549), the trumpets and drums adding their magnificence and splendor to this jubilant work.

Source: Brian Robins (allmusic.com)



Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

♪ Cantata BWV 29, "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir" (1731, Leipzig)

i. Sinfonia [00:06]*
ii. Chorus: Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir [04:00]
iii. Aria (tenor): Hallelja, Stärk und Macht [07:06]
iv. Recitativo (bass): Gottlob! es geht uns wohl! [13:17]
v. Aria (soprano): Gedenk an uns mit deiner Liebe [14:32]
vi. Recitativo (alto, chorus): Vergiß es ferner nicht [20:25]
vii. Aria (alto): Hallelja, Stärk und Macht [20:53]
viii. Chorale: Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren [22:42]

Maria Keohane, soprano
Damien Guillon, alto
Valerio Contaldo, tenor
Lionel Meunier, bass

Leo van Doeselaar, organ

Netherlands Bach Society
Conductor: Jos van Veldhoven

Film directors: Lucas van Woerkum, Joost Honselaar

St Martin's Church, Groningen, Netherlands, March 15, 2014

(HD 1080p)

* Start time of each movement

Around a quarter of cantata BWV 29 consists of notes Bach had written earlier. The festive sinfonia comes from a wedding cantata presumed to have been written in 1729. The organ "tune", nowadays better known as the "Nokia tune", is much older. Bach composed this melody in Köthen in 1720, as a piece for solo violin.

The opening chorus "Wir danken dir, Gott" is also better known in another guise, namely as the "Gratias" and the "Dona nobis pacem" from the Mass in B minor. The version in this cantata is older, and because the melody does not really seem to be designed for the words of psalm 75, it is thought there was an even earlier version with different text. However, the old-style setting does make a perfect match for the message of the psalm text. More and more people lend their support, and the gratitude swells. At the end, three trumpets and drums join in with four choir voices, creating a seven-voice whole – the number of fullness.

There is a big contrast between the "Wir danken dir, Gott" in old style and the baroque, concertante opening piece. Yet Bach creates a strong unity with the parts he added. Around the soprano aria "Gedenk an uns in deiner Liebe" in the middle of the cantata, he put two recitatives and two arias. The arias have the same text, "Halleluja, Stärk und Macht", and the second one for alto is a sort of concentrated version of the first one for tenor. The cantata then ends with a solemn chorale setting that – partly through the trumpets and drums – links up again with the "Wir danken dir, Gott". 

Source: bachvereniging.nl

Jos van Veldhoven

Maria Keohane

Damien Guillon

Valerio Contaldo

Lionel Meunier

Leo van Doeselaar

More photos


See also

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 78, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” – Maria Keohane, Tim Mead, Daniel Johannsen, Matthew Brook, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven (HD 1080p)

Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 – Benjamin Hulett, Griet De Geyter, Lore Binon, Tim Mead, Alex Potter, Thomas Hobbs, Charles Daniels, Andreas Wolf, Sebastian Noack – Kampen Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven

Read More

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 78, “Jesu, der du meine Seele” – Maria Keohane, Tim Mead, Daniel Johannsen, Matthew Brook, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven (HD 1080p)

Under Jos van Veldhoven's baton, the Netherlands Bach Society, the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world, and the soloists Maria Keohane (soprano), Tim Mead (alto), Daniel Johannsen (tenor) and Matthew Brook (bass) perform the church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach "Jesu, der du meine Seele", BWV 78. Recorded for the project All of Bach, at the Walloon Church, Amsterdam, on February 10, 2018.

✻

"Jesu, der du meine Seele", BWV 78, belongs to a group of chorale cantatas composed during Bach's second year in Leipzig. Composed for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity in the Lutheran liturgical calendar, it probably received its first performance on September 10, 1724. The text is based upon a 1641 hymn by Johann Rist and also contains some material from the Gospel of St Luke. The author of the text in its present form is unknown.

As is the case in most of Bach's chorale cantatas, the first and last movements are choral and feature the hymn tune. The inner movements take a variety of different forms. The first movement is by far the most elaborate, and is in the form of a G minor passacaglia, a form defined by recurrence of a basic four-measure theme. The theme in this case is a chromatically descending lamento figure, so named because musical phrases of this ilk were often used in the Baroque era as bass lines to vocal laments. The inner movements of the cantata are strikingly different settings of text, with a duet for soprano and alto in B flat Major, a tenor recitative and aria in G minor, followed by a bass recitative and aria in C minor. Jesu, der du meine Seele concludes with a chorale setting of the hymn tune in G minor, ultimately cadencing in G Major with a Picardy third.

In this cantata, through his use of the chromatic lamento figure, Bach's concept of death comes with impassioned anticipation. This essence of spiritual reflection, central to all of Bach's church cantatas, is manifested throughout Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78.

Source: Sean Burton (bach-cantatas.com)



Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

♪ Cantata BWV 78, "Jesu, der du meine Seele" (1724, Leipzig)

i. Chorus: Jesu, der du meine Seele [0:08]*
ii. Aria (soprano, alto): Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten [6:41]
iii. Recitativo (tenor): Ach! ich bin ein Kind der Sünden [11:50]
iv. Aria (tenor): Das Blut, so meine Schuld durchstreicht [14:00]
v. Recitativo (bass): Die Wunden, Nägel, Kron und Grab [17:22]
vi. Aria (bass): Nur du wirst mein Gewissen stillen [20:04]
vii. Chorale: Herr, ich glaube, hilf mir Schwachen [22:57]

Maria Keohane, soprano
Tim Mead, alto
Daniel Johannsen, tenor
Matthew Brook, bass

Netherlands Bach Society
Conductor: Jos van Veldhoven

Walloon Church, Amsterdam, February 10, 2018

(HD 1080p)

* Start time of each movement

The opening chorus of this cantata resembles a chaconne. Actually, we should listen more often to the underside of Bach's music. In 1756, Johann Daube wrote in his tract on basso continuo (the constant bass in Baroque music) that Bach had mastered this art "to the highest degree", and that his accompaniment could bring life to an upper voice even if it had none of its own. The opening chorus of this cantata invites you to train your ear more towards the lower orchestral voices: the cello and double bass, and also the organ and harpsichord, as their part in this first movement is constructed on a single chromatically descending line. This means it resembles a chaconne; a musical form in which a short bass line is continually repeated, serving as a foundation for a string of new variations in the upper voices. In this case, Bach takes a slightly freer approach. The bass line recurs very often at various pitches, not only in the bass instruments, but also in the oboes, the singers, and subsequently in the violins. In fact, this whole movement is an ode to the bass.

Afterwards, the lower voices suddenly attract attention in all sorts of ways. In the duet for soprano and alto, Bach has separated the cello and keyboard instruments, for example, from the double bass. The first group is more active, while the double bass plays a calmer, plucked variation. This creates a many-hued bass sound. In the despairing recitative for the tenor, the basso continuo sounds like a harmonic labyrinth. After the tenor aria (once again with a plucked bass part!), Bach actually turns the whole string orchestra in the recitative for bass into a direct derivative of the basso continuo. After all this, our attention in the final aria and the chorale is probably more evenly distributed between the melody and the bass part. And for those who can't get enough of the bass – take a look at the background report, in which singer and bass soloist Matthew Brook talks about his part in this cantata.

Source: bachvereniging.nl

Jos van Veldhoven

Maria Keohane

Tim Mead

Daniel Johannsen

Matthew Brook

More photos


See also

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 29, “Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir” – Maria Keohane, Damien Guillon, Valerio Contaldo, Lionel Meunier, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven (HD 1080p)

Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 – Benjamin Hulett, Griet De Geyter, Lore Binon, Tim Mead, Alex Potter, Thomas Hobbs, Charles Daniels, Andreas Wolf, Sebastian Noack – Kampen Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven

Read More