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Gott ist mein König, BWV 71

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Gott ist mein König ("God is My King"), BWV 71, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Mühlhausen for a special church service to mark the inauguration of the new city council on 4 February 1708.

History and words

In 1707/1708, Bach was the organist of one of Mühlhausen's principal churches, Divi Blasii church (dedicated to St Blaise or "Blaise the Divine"), and was composing some of his earliest surviving cantatas. Much of Bach's later cantata output was written for the requirements of the liturgical calendar, but Gott ist mein Konig is typical of the cantatas composed at Mühlhausen in being written for a special occasion. In other respects, such as its instrumentation, it is an atypical work.

The librettist is unknown. There has been speculation, but no evidence, that it was written by Georg Christian Eilmar, minister of the Marienkirche (de), the city's largest church. The cantata was first performed at the Marienkirche, where, the score indicates, Bach deployed his musicians in different locations in the building.

Theme

Fittingly for the occasion, the texts can be interpreted as a meditation on the transition from old to new, together with freely-composed congratulations for the "new regiment" of office bearers.

The text mostly consists of Bible passages: the text of the first and fourth movements is taken from Psalm 74, the rest from 2 Samuel, Genesis, and Deuteronomy.

The second movement, Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr ("I am now eighty years old"), probably refers to Adolf Strecker, the former mayor who had just left office aged 83 years. In this movement, a duet, the biblical quotations are complemented by the sixth verse of Johann Heermann's hymn O Gott, du frommer Gott.

In the final chorus, there is a reference to the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany, Joseph I (1705–1711), as Mühlhausen was an imperial free city, and thus subject immediately to the emperor.

Scoring and structure

With its lack of recitatives, its arias and the short movements that flow into each other, it shows typical characteristics of traditional 17th-century cantatas. Bach uses a chorale melody in the second movement.

  1. (Choir): Gott ist mein König
  2. Aria: Ich bin nun achtzig Jahr
  3. Fuga: Dein Alter sei wie deine Jugend
  4. Arioso: Tag und Nacht ist dein
  5. Aria: Durch mächtige Kraft
  6. (Choir): Du wollest dem Feinde nicht geben
  7. (Choir): Das neue Regiment auf jeglichen Wegen

The cantata is scored for four soloists: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The choral writing is in four parts, and the work can be sung with just four singers, although some performances deploy more singers in the choral sections. The use of a larger choir is partly a question of balance with the instrumental forces, but there is also supporting evidence in the score, where a marking implies that Bach envisaged the option of a vocal ensemble that is separate from the four soloists.

This was Bach's first cantata for festive orchestra, including trumpets and timpani. The instruments are divided into four spatially separated "choirs", placing the work in the polychoral tradition associated with composers such as Heinrich Schutz. The instruments required are three trumpets, timpani, two recorders, two oboes, bassoon, organ obbligato, two violins, viola, viola da gamba and basso continuo.

Importance

Title page of first edition

Gott ist mein König is a significant early work of Bach. It differs from the other extant cantatas from Bach's time in Mühlhausen by its elaborate instrumentation. Bach went on to compose other cantatas for the "Ratswechsel" for the town council at Leipzig, which also had a "festive" scoring, but Gott ist mein König differs from them too: very few of the formal characteristics of Bach's Leipzig cantatas (still some fifteen years in the future) are found in this early work.

It was so positively received that it was the first of Bach's works to be printed (paid for by the city council); it is the only cantata to have been printed in his lifetime, at least in a version which has survived to this day. (Bach was commissioned to compose another cantata for the following year's council inauguration; there is evidence that the piece was composed and even printed, but no copies are known to survive). The printing is all the more remarkable as the council changed every year, and Gott ist mein König appears to have been intended for not more than one repeat performance.

Recordings

References

  1. Melamed, Daniel R. "The Text of" Gott ist mein König" BWV 71." Bach 32.1 (2001): 1-16
  2. One or two cantatas, for example Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150 may have been written at Arnstadt, his previous residence, for performance at Mühlhausen.
  3. For example,
    • Actus Tragicus (which may have written for the funeral of prominent local politician Adolf Strecker, which also took place in 1708);
    • Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196 (not much is known about the background of this work, but it appears to be an early wedding cantata).
  4. ^ Chapter 82 BWV 71 Gott ist mein König
  5. Johnstone, Andrew (2006). "Reviews". The Irish Times accessed via HighBeam Research. (subscription required). Retrieved October 11, 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. The marking in question is "ripieno", implying that there was also a "tutti" section.
  7. "Muhlhausen". Retrieved October 14, 2012.

Sources

The first source is the score.

Several databases provide additional information on each cantata:

Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach by BWV number
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