Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten
I alluded the other day in connection with our Friday motet by Johann Bach to the infamous 'non cappella' section of one of our performances of Bach's Cantata 21: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis. This was in a fugal passage where an instrumental interlude is followed by a restatement of the fugue, this time leading off with the basses...only there were no basses. (There was also no cue from the conductor, by the way, he being caught up in the beauty of the music and somehow omitting to provide that bit of encouragement to the hardworking basses.)
The passage was very peculiar, as each voice part came in very tentatively and never fully recovered. But we finally arrived at a full stop in the music, which is followed by a big chordal passage; this was sung with an immense amount of fervor and relief.
So, anyway: In an ensuing choral movement in that great cantata, the tenors and then the sopranos sing today's chorale, 'Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten', accompanied by a falling line in the other voices on the words 'Sei nun wieder zufrieden'. To get to know our chorale, listen to the cantata movement at this link, following along and (preferably) singing with the aid of the attached score. Notice how noble and 'etched out' the chorale seems against the background of those moving lines in the other parts.
The tune, by Georg Neumark (1621-1681), is interesting. Its A section consists of two phrases, one ending on the dominant by way of the leading tone, the other cancelling the leading tone and moving back to the (minor) tonic. The B section consists of but two phrases. The first of these modulates optimistically to the relative major; the second settles back, somewhat abashed, to the tonic of the home key.
Bach must have loved this chorale, for he featured it in many works, including the eponymous Cantata 93, in which each movement is based closely or more loosely upon the chorale and its successive verses. A nice project, akin to an Easter egg hunt, would be to find the tune (or fragments of same) as it appears in each movement. The full score for the entire cantata is attached.
Bach featured the tune, with various texts, in eight other cantatas, in an independent chorale (probably from a lost cantata or oratorio), and in no fewer than four organ works.
Out of this wealth of materials, I'd like to highlight the chorale setting BWV 642 from the Orgelbüchlein, also (as with Cantata 21) a product of Bach's years in Weimar, when he was in his late 20's or early 30's. Here is a link to a very nice little presentation by the Dutch organist Dorien Schouten about the piece. And here is her performance of the entire prelude.
Finally, if you're not already sated, take a listen to BWV 647, one of the six 'Schübler Chorales' based upon preëxisting cantata movements. (The famous organ chorale 'Wachet auf' is from this set.) The present piece is based upon a vocal duet, the 4th movement of Cantata 93 (see above), where the cantus firmus appears played by the three upper string parts.
If you want to go still further, you could do no better than to explore bachcantatas.com, where the home page gives you the tabs 'Chorale Texts' and 'Chorale Melodies' along the left side. The specific page for today's chorale is found here, where you'll find all the info about the tune and its settings which your heart could desire!
I alluded the other day in connection with our Friday motet by Johann Bach to the infamous 'non cappella' section of one of our performances of Bach's Cantata 21: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis. This was in a fugal passage where an instrumental interlude is followed by a restatement of the fugue, this time leading off with the basses...only there were no basses. (There was also no cue from the conductor, by the way, he being caught up in the beauty of the music and somehow omitting to provide that bit of encouragement to the hardworking basses.)
The passage was very peculiar, as each voice part came in very tentatively and never fully recovered. But we finally arrived at a full stop in the music, which is followed by a big chordal passage; this was sung with an immense amount of fervor and relief.
So, anyway: In an ensuing choral movement in that great cantata, the tenors and then the sopranos sing today's chorale, 'Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten', accompanied by a falling line in the other voices on the words 'Sei nun wieder zufrieden'. To get to know our chorale, listen to the cantata movement at this link, following along and (preferably) singing with the aid of the attached score. Notice how noble and 'etched out' the chorale seems against the background of those moving lines in the other parts.
The tune, by Georg Neumark (1621-1681), is interesting. Its A section consists of two phrases, one ending on the dominant by way of the leading tone, the other cancelling the leading tone and moving back to the (minor) tonic. The B section consists of but two phrases. The first of these modulates optimistically to the relative major; the second settles back, somewhat abashed, to the tonic of the home key.
Bach must have loved this chorale, for he featured it in many works, including the eponymous Cantata 93, in which each movement is based closely or more loosely upon the chorale and its successive verses. A nice project, akin to an Easter egg hunt, would be to find the tune (or fragments of same) as it appears in each movement. The full score for the entire cantata is attached.
Bach featured the tune, with various texts, in eight other cantatas, in an independent chorale (probably from a lost cantata or oratorio), and in no fewer than four organ works.
Out of this wealth of materials, I'd like to highlight the chorale setting BWV 642 from the Orgelbüchlein, also (as with Cantata 21) a product of Bach's years in Weimar, when he was in his late 20's or early 30's. Here is a link to a very nice little presentation by the Dutch organist Dorien Schouten about the piece. And here is her performance of the entire prelude.
Finally, if you're not already sated, take a listen to BWV 647, one of the six 'Schübler Chorales' based upon preëxisting cantata movements. (The famous organ chorale 'Wachet auf' is from this set.) The present piece is based upon a vocal duet, the 4th movement of Cantata 93 (see above), where the cantus firmus appears played by the three upper string parts.
If you want to go still further, you could do no better than to explore bachcantatas.com, where the home page gives you the tabs 'Chorale Texts' and 'Chorale Melodies' along the left side. The specific page for today's chorale is found here, where you'll find all the info about the tune and its settings which your heart could desire!