O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of
thunder), BWV 60, is a church cantata written by Johann
Sebastian Bach in 1723 in his first year in Leipzig for
the 24th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Colossians,
a prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–14), and
from the Gospel of Matthew, the story of Jairus'
daughter (Matthew 9:18–26). The unknown poet sees her
rising as foreshadowing the resurrection, expected with
an attitud...(+)
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O eternity, you word of
thunder), BWV 60, is a church cantata written by Johann
Sebastian Bach in 1723 in his first year in Leipzig for
the 24th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Colossians,
a prayer for the Colossians (Colossians 1:9–14), and
from the Gospel of Matthew, the story of Jairus'
daughter (Matthew 9:18–26). The unknown poet sees her
rising as foreshadowing the resurrection, expected with
an attitude of fear and hope. Two allegorical figures,
Furcht (Fear) and Hoffnung (Hope) enter a dialogue. The
cantata is opened and closed by a hymn, verse 1 of
Johann Rist's "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort", expressing
fear, and verse 5 of Franz Joachim Burmeister's "Es ist
genug". Also in symmetry, two biblical words are
juxtaposed in movements 1 and 4. "Herr, ich warte auf
dein Heil" (Genesis 49:18), spoken by Jacob on his
deathbed, expresses hope against the fear of the
chorale. Selig sind die Toten (Blessed are the
dead)(Revelation 14:13) is the answer to a recitative
of Fear.
The cantata is sometimes called a solo cantata, because
solo voices perform all movements but the closing
chorale. Bach had composed a dialogue three weeks
before in Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem
Unglauben, BWV 109, as an inner dialogue, given to one
singer. In this cantata he assigned Fear to the alto,
Hope to the tenor, and has them sing three movements in
dialogue. In movement 4, Fear is answered instead by
the bass, the vox Christi (voice of Christ), with Selig
sind die Toten.
In the first duet, a chorale fantasia, the alto (Fear)
and the horn perform the chorale, accompanied by
strings in tremolo, which John Eliot Gardiner connects
to Monteverdi's agitated style (stile concitato). The
tenor (Hope) contrasts with the line spoken by
Jacob.
The second duet is a secco recitative, intensified to
an arioso twice: Fear sings the word martert (tortures)
as a chromatic melisma to short chords in the continuo,
Hope stresses in a long melisma the last word ertragen
(borne).
The third, central duet is dramatic and therefore not
in da capo form, but closer to a motet, unified by the
instrumental ritornellos. Three different sections are
developed in a similar way: Fear begins, Hope answers,
both argue, Hope has the last word. Even the
instruments contrast, sometimes at the same time: the
solo violin (with Hope) plays scales to dotted rhythms
of the oboes d'amore and the continuo (with Fear).
The last duet is no longer between Fear and Hope, but
Fear is met by the vox Christi quoting the consoling
words from Revelation three times as an arioso, each
time expanded.
The melody of the closing chorale, originally ascribed
to Johann Rudolph Ahle, begins with an unusual sequence
of four notes progressing by steps of major seconds
(whole tones), together spanning the interval of a
tritone. Alban Berg used Bach's chorale setting in his
Violin Concerto.
In 1724 Bach wrote a chorale cantata on the complete
chorale, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, for the
first Sunday after Trinity.
The cantata in five movements is scored for alto, tenor
and bass soloist, a four-part choir (only for the final
chorale), horn, two oboes d'amore, two violins, viola,
and basso continuo.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Ewigkeit,_du_Donnerwor
t,_BWV_60).
I created this arrangement of the Opening Aria: "O
Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" (O eternity, you word of
thunder) for Woodwind Ensemble (Flutes (2), Oboes (2),
Bb Clarinets (2), French Horn & Bassoon).
SHEET MUSIC