Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (English: The
heavens are telling the glory of God), BWV 76, is a
church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed
the church cantata in Leipzig for the second Sunday
after Trinity within the liturgical year and first
performed it on 6 June 1723.
Bach composed the cantata at a decisive turning point
in his career. Moving from posts in the service of
churches and courts to the town of Leipzig on the first
Sunday after Trinity, 30 May 1723, he bega...(+)
Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (English: The
heavens are telling the glory of God), BWV 76, is a
church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed
the church cantata in Leipzig for the second Sunday
after Trinity within the liturgical year and first
performed it on 6 June 1723.
Bach composed the cantata at a decisive turning point
in his career. Moving from posts in the service of
churches and courts to the town of Leipzig on the first
Sunday after Trinity, 30 May 1723, he began the project
of composing a new cantata for every occasion of the
liturgical year. He began his first annual cycle of
cantatas ambitiously with Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV
75, in an unusual layout of 14 movements in two
symmetrical parts, to be performed before and after the
sermon. Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes has the
same structure.
Similar to the opening chorus of BWV 75, Bach sets the
psalm in two sections, comparable to a prelude and
fugue on a large scale. An instrumental concerto unites
the complete "prelude", the trumpet "calls" to tell the
glory of God. The fugue in C major is a permutation
fugue, which develops the subject twice, starting with
the voices, up to a triumphal entrance of the trumpet,
similar in development to the first chorus of Wir
danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29, composed much
later and used twice in the Mass in B minor. Joseph
Haydn later set the same words, also in C major, in his
oratorio The Creation.
Part II starts on an intimate chamber music scale with
oboe d'amore and viola da gamba, concentrating on
"brotherly devotion" (brüderliche Treue). A sinfonia
in E minor for these two instruments is reminiscent
both of Bach's compositions for the court in Köthen
and of a French overture, marked "adagio", then
"vivace". Bach used the music of this movement later in
his organ trio, BWV 528. Gardiner calls the movement
"in effect a sonata da chiesa".
Source: Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Himmel_erz%C3%A4hlen_
die_Ehre_Gottes,_BWV_76)
Although originally scored for oboe, viola da gamba and
continuo, I created this arrangement for Oboe & Strings
(Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC