Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig years (1722-1750)
produced an amazing wealth of sacred music. In addition
to his chorale cantatas. During this period Bach
composed six motets, five masses (including the Mass in
B Minor), four passion settings (including the St. John
Passion and the St. Matthew Passion), the Christmas
Oratorio, and various pieces for keyboard and other
instruments, as well as secular cantatas.
In 1736, Bach edited the sacred songs published in
Georg Schemelli’s ‘Mus...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig years (1722-1750)
produced an amazing wealth of sacred music. In addition
to his chorale cantatas. During this period Bach
composed six motets, five masses (including the Mass in
B Minor), four passion settings (including the St. John
Passion and the St. Matthew Passion), the Christmas
Oratorio, and various pieces for keyboard and other
instruments, as well as secular cantatas.
In 1736, Bach edited the sacred songs published in
Georg Schemelli’s ‘Musikalisches Gesangbuch’. In
this collection, Bach improved the harmonies in works
by other composers while contributing at least sixteen
melodies of his own. The pieces in this collection were
originally meant to be sung in the home for private
devotion and in the family circle during the singing
period.
“Rise Up, My Heart, with Gladness” appears in
Schemelli’s collection. The melody is by Johann
Cruger and the text is by Paul Gerhardt. Cruger
published several German hymnals during his lifetime.
“Auf, auf! Mein Herz, mit Freuden” appears in his
‘Praxis Pietatis Melica’ of 1648, his major
contribution to hymnody.
To what extent Bach was involved in the composition and
publication of the so-called Schemelli's Songbook is
hard to know for certain. A collection of 950 selected
sacred Lieder and arias advertised in fair catalogues
from Frankfurt and Leipzig in 1736 comprehensive
panoply of tunes, from old Lutheran pot-boiling
chorales to effusive a la mode pietist 'arias' -
represented a cradle-to-grave project administered from
Zeitz Castle and edited by Georg Christian Schemelli,
the Music Director at the castle. Bach' s involvement
centres around 69 chorales (published in recent times
as an appendix to Riemenschneider's 371 harmonized
chorales) with figured bass, though how many he merely
revised and how many he actually composed is still open
to some debate. What can be ascertained, however, is
that Bach's stamp is often marked indelibly on the most
simple line. Even in pieces where his authorship is
uncertain, the sentiment of the text is quietly
irradiated by an unobtrusive and effortless poise:
gracious bass-lines (largely instrumental, as in the
rolling Gott lebet noch and Ich freue mich in dir)
provide the individual assurance of the texts, joined
by apt motivic and harmonic inflexions and well-timed
suspensions.
Although this piece was originally written for Chorus
and small Orchestra, I arranged it for Woodwind Quintet
(Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, French Horn & Bassoon).
PARTITION