Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting,
worrying, fearing), BWV 12,[a] is a church cantata by
Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for
Jubilate, the third Sunday after Easter, and led the
first performance on 22 April 1714 in the
Schlosskirche, the court chapel of the Schloss in
Weimar.
Bach was appointed Konzertmeister in Weimar in the
spring of 1714, a position that called for the
performance of a church cantata each month. He composed
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zag...(+)
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting,
worrying, fearing), BWV 12,[a] is a church cantata by
Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for
Jubilate, the third Sunday after Easter, and led the
first performance on 22 April 1714 in the
Schlosskirche, the court chapel of the Schloss in
Weimar.
Bach was appointed Konzertmeister in Weimar in the
spring of 1714, a position that called for the
performance of a church cantata each month. He composed
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen as the second cantata in
the series, on a text probably written by court poet
Salomon Franck. The work is structured in seven
movements, an instrumental Sinfonia, a choral
passacaglia, a recitative on a Bible quotation, three
arias and, as the closing chorale, the last stanza from
Samuel Rodigast's hymn "Was Gott tut, das ist
wohlgetan" (1674). The cantata is scored for three
vocal soloists, a four-part choir, trumpet, oboe,
bassoon, two violins, two violas, and basso
continuo.
Bach performed the cantata again in his first year as
Thomaskantor – director of church music – in
Leipzig, on 30 April 1724. He reworked the first
section of the first chorus to form the Crucifixus
movement of the Credo in his Mass in B minor. Franz
Liszt based extended keyboard compositions on the same
material.
The cantata in seven movements is scored for three
vocal soloists (alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), a
four-part choir SATB, trumpet (Tr), oboe (Ob), bassoon
(Fg), two violins (Vl), two violas (Va) and basso
continuo (Bc).
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weinen,_Klagen,_Sorgen,_
Zagen,_BWV_12).
The first choral movement, "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen,
Zagen" (Weeping, lamentation, worry, despair), is in da
capo form. The first section is built on a basso
ostinato as an old-style passacaglia in 3/2 time. The
lamento, a chromatic fourth ostinato, is repeated
twelve times. Musicologist Julian Mincham notes that
Henry Purcell arrived at a similar motif in Dido's
Lament in the opera Dido and Aeneas, which Bach
probably did not know. The first four words are each
sung by a different vocal part, each overlapping the
next. Beginning with the highest voice, each part sings
an extended sigh. The setting is intensified, until in
the seventh repeat all voices continue the text
simultaneously: "Angst und Not" ("dread and need" or
"anguish and trouble"). The ninth repeat is similar to
the first, but in more extreme harmonies. The twelfth
repeat is instrumental. The middle section of the line
about the Christians "die das Zeichen Jesu tragen"
(that bear the marks of Jesus), first marked "un poco
allegro", is in a contrasting mood. Its last section is
marked andante, the voices enter one after the other,
beginning with the lowest and rising. Throughout the
middle section, the instruments play colla parte with
the voices. John Eliot Gardiner describes the first
section as a "tombeau, one of the most impressive and
deeply affecting cantata movements Bach can have
composed to that point".
I created this arrangement of the first Chorus:
"Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" (Weeping, lamenting,
worrying, fearing) for Brass (2 Bb Trumpets & 2 French
Horns) & Strings (2 Violins, 2 Violas & Cello). |
SHEET MUSIC