Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben (You shall love
God, your Lord), BWV 77, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He wrote the cantata in 1723 in his
first year in Leipzig for the 13th Sunday after
Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were
from the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul's teaching on
law and promise (Galatians 3:15–22), and from the
Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke
10:23–37). According to Christoph Wolff, the cantata
text of Johann Oswald ...(+)
Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben (You shall love
God, your Lord), BWV 77, is a church cantata by Johann
Sebastian Bach. He wrote the cantata in 1723 in his
first year in Leipzig for the 13th Sunday after
Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were
from the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul's teaching on
law and promise (Galatians 3:15–22), and from the
Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke
10:23–37). According to Christoph Wolff, the cantata
text of Johann Oswald Knauer appeared in Gotha in 1720
in Gott-geheiligtes Singen und Spielen (Holy singing
and playing to God). The text relates closely to the
readings, even to the situation in which the parable
was told, referring to the question of a lawyer what
needs to be done to achieve eternal life. The answer,
which the lawyer had to give himself, was the
commandment to love God and your neighbour. This, the
Great Commandment, is the text of the first movement.
Accordingly, the following text is divided in two
parts, one recitative and aria dealing with the love of
God, and a symmetrical part handling the love of the
neighbour.
The text of the closing chorale is lost. Karl Friedrich
Zelter suggested the eighth stanza of David Denicke's
hymn "Wenn einer alle Ding verstünd" (1657) with the
first line "Du stellst, Herr Jesu, selber dich", which
appears in the edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft. Werner
Neumann suggested the eighth stanza of Denicke's "O
Gottes Sohn, Herr Jesu Christ" (1657) with the first
line "Herr, durch den Glauben wohn in mir", which
appears in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.
In this, the last aria for alto "Ach, es bleibt in
meiner Liebe" (Ah, in my love there is still ), taking
the form of a sarabande, Bach conveys the
"Unvollkommenheit" (imperfection) of human attempt to
live by the law of love, by choosing an obbligato
trumpet and composing "awkward intervals" and "wildly
unstable notes" which would sound imperfect on the
period's valveless instruments. In contrast, Bach wrote
in the middle section a long trumpet solo of "ineffable
beauty", as a "glorious glimpse of God's realm".
Source: Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_sollt_Gott,_deinen_Her
ren,_lieben,_BWV_77)
Although originally scored for Alto vocal soloist,
oboe, and basso continuo, I created this arrangement
for String Trio (Violin, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION