Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim (What shall I make
of you, Ephraim), BWV 89, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the 22nd
Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 24
October 1723.
Bach wrote the cantata in his first year in Leipzig for
the 22nd Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the
Philippians, thanks and prayer for the congregation in
Philippi (Philippians 1:3–11), and from the Gosp...(+)
Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim (What shall I make
of you, Ephraim), BWV 89, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the 22nd
Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 24
October 1723.
Bach wrote the cantata in his first year in Leipzig for
the 22nd Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings
for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the
Philippians, thanks and prayer for the congregation in
Philippi (Philippians 1:3–11), and from the Gospel of
Matthew, the parable of the unforgiving servant
(Matthew 18:23–35).
The unknown poet of the cantata text stressed the
opposites of the gospel, God's justice versus unjust
men. The text begins with a related quotation from the
prophet Hosea, Hosea 11:8. The next two movements,
recitative and aria, reflect the sinful condition of
man, another set of recitative and aria deals with
God's mercy. The closing chorale is stanza 7 of "Wo
soll ich fliehen hin" by Johann Heermann (1630), which
Bach would treat completely one year later in his
chorale cantata Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5.
The cantata is scored like chamber music. Only the
chorale is set for four parts; the alto voice sings of
man's sin, the soprano of God's grace, and the bass is
God's voice in the opening movement. On some copies of
the parts, the movement is marked aria but we don't
know if that marking is authorized by Bach. Formally it
has some characteristics of an aria, such as a
ritornello to open the movement and frame the text
sections, and some aspects of an arioso, for example
the free setting of the sections. The last section,
which speaks of God's "meine Barmherzigkeit ist zu
brünstig" (too fervent mercy) is embedded in the
ritornello, then the ritornello is repeated once more.
One motif in the ritornello is similar to one in the
chorus "Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen" from Bach's St
John Passion and may illustrate undecidedness in both
cases. The following three movements, two recitatives
and an expressive aria, are only accompanied by the
continuo, the last aria also by an obbligato oboe. The
closing chorale is set for four parts; the melody in
the soprano is doubled by the horn, the oboes, and
violin I.
Although originally scored for three vocal soloists
(soprano, alto and bass), a four-part choir only in the
chorale, horn, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso
continuo, I created this arrangement for Violin & Viola
Duet.
PARTITION