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O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort by J.S. Bach
In 1723, Bach took up his new position as Thomascantor (chief musician of the principal churches in Leipzig). This was a big deal for the thirty-eighty year old composer, not least because it was a golden opportunity for him to finally realize his longstanding dream of creating a 'well-regulated church music to the glory of God', as he had put it in his resignation letter to the Mühlhausen town council 15 years earlier.

Bach (typically) did not let the grass grow under his feet. He began immediately to create cycles of cantatas for the church year--essentially a cantata per week for the entire annual cycle. His first cycle (Jahrgang) was a combination of reworkings of his earlier cantatas and some new compositions. But for the second Jahrgang (1724-1725), he designed and carried out a unified plan: Each cantata would be a so-called 'chorale cantata', based upon the words and melody of a single Lutheran chorale. This idea was inspired by the fact that 1724 was the centennial of the publication of the first Lutheran hymnbooks.

In the event, Bach produced within this year nearly 60 major works, including dozens of chorale cantatas as well as the St John Passion, the Easter Oratorio, and various occasional works. In pride of place at the beginning of this monumental cycle was Cantata 20: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, for the first Sunday after Trinity (June 11, 1724).

The chorale upon which Bach based his cantata is not for the faint of heart. Its point, made at the very outset, is that the idea of Eternity should be always in the mind of each Christian, with special reference to the fact that this his or her own eternity can be pleasant and joyful--or not so much. (A fair amount of ink is spilled over the details of the not so much.)

Here's a link to a good translation of the entire cantata, if you'd like to get the big picture.
(The bold-faced type indicates lines directly from the chorale; non-bold lines are paraphrases.)
And here's a link to a very good live recording of the cantata on YouTube.

For today's project, we're focusing upon the first and last movements. The opening of the piece is appropriate for the beginning of Bach's Jahrgang: It's in the form of a French overture, typically the first movement in such pieces as dance suites, also often for oratorios (such as Messiah). French overtures begin with a slow section featuring dotted rhythms; this texture is followed by a faster and lighter contrasting section, here in triple time as required by the chorale; and often ending (as here) by a brief recapitulation (or recall) of the opening section.

In Bach's first movement, all this is played by the orchestra, featuring three oboes; but these passages are seamlessly interlocked with the periodic statements of the chorale melody in long notes in the soprano, supported by moving lines in the other three voices. It's quite a wonderful structure, operating on several levels and indelibly printing on our memories the primacy of the chorale and its commanding message.

The final movement is, as we expect, a four-voice harmonization of the chorale. This is actually the second appearance of this harmonization; as in many of his two-part cantatas (such as Cantata 147, in which the chorale we know as 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' appears at the end of each of the two parts), Bach utilizes his music for the close of the first part (which preceded the sermon) to close the entire piece.

Attached you'll find scores and recordings for the first and last movements; a sheet with the chorale melody and its form as in Bach's first movement; and a text and translation sheet.

I hope you enjoy this incredible music--we'll explore more of Bach's second Jahrgang in future projects-
Click here to download learning materials
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