Christus, der ist mein Leben (Christ, he is my life),
BWV 95, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.
He composed it in Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after
Trinity and first performed it on 12 September
1723.
Bach wrote the cantata in his first year Bach in
Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after Trinity and first
performed it on 12 September 1723. The prescribed
readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the
Ephesians, praying for the strengthening of faith in
the congregation of Ephesus (Ephesians 3:13–21), and
from the Gospel of Luke, the raising from the dead of
the Young man from Nain (Luke 7:11–17). In Bach's time
the story pointed immediately at the resurrection of
the dead, expressed as a desire to die soon. As Salomon
Franck expressed in his text for cantata Komm, du süße
Todesstunde, BWV 161, composed in Weimar in 1715, the
unknown poet concentrates on a desire to die, in hope
to be raised like the young man from Nain. The poet
includes four stanzas from four different chorales. Two
stanzas from chorales are already presented in the
first movement, "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (Jena
1609) and Martin Luther's "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr
dahin" (1524), a paraphrase of the canticle Nunc
dimittis. Movement 3 is Valerius Herberger's "Valet
will ich dir geben", and the closing chorale is the
fourth stanza of Nikolaus Herman's "Wenn mein Stündlein
vorhanden ist".
A week before, Bach had included three stanzas from a
chorale in Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, BWV 138.
In this cantata he includes four stanzas from four
different funeral hymns. The first three movements
combine three of them, first stanzas throughout. The
first chorale on a melody by Melchior Vulpius is
embedded in a concerto of oboes and strings in
syncopated motifs in parallels of thirds and sixths.
The melody in the soprano is enforced by the horn. The
line "Sterben ist mein Gewinn" (Death is my reward) is
slower than the others, in a tradition observed already
by Johann Hermann Schein. The recitative alternates
between secco and accompagnato, with the same
accompanying motifs as in the chorale. The second
chorale on Luther's melody is graced by an independent
violin part, and every line is preceded by an entry of
the horn. A secco recitative leads to the third
chorale, which is sung by the soprano alone like an
aria, accompanied for the first line only by the
continuo, but for the rest of the text by the oboes,
playing an obbligato melody in unison.
The only aria of the cantata is dominated by the oboes
and accompanied by pizzicato in the strings which
symbolizes funerary bells. The closing chorale is again
enriched by a soaring additional violin part.
Although originally scored for three vocal soloists
(soprano, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, horn, two
oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, violoncello piccolo
and basso continuo, I created this arrangement for
Concert (Pedal) Harp. |
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PARTITION