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Cantatas for New Year’s DayGethsemanekirche, BerlinAfter the stirring start to the Pilgrimage, with threeChristmas concerts in Weimar, came a brief turnaround in London, a belated exchange of familygifts, a partial change of team and two immenselydemanding programmes to prepare for twoconsecutive feast days: New Year’s Day, whichthis year fell on a Saturday, and the Sunday afterNew Year. Arriving in Berlin we headed straight forthe Gethsemanekirche in Prenzlauer Berg, to thenorth-east of the city and centre of the cultural east.In October 1989 this church became the focus ofprotests by artists and intellectuals against the DDRthat led to a prolonged siege. It retains a strongatmosphere, this big neo-Gothic theatre of a churchscarcely a hundred years old, with its impressive8jutting ‘dress circle’ gallery and a long reverberativeacoustic, difficult to manage. We were here to usherin the new millennium, and what better way than withthe music of Bach on the two hundred and fiftiethanniversary of his death? Everyone in the groupseemed enthused and ready for this huge adventure.On paper, however, the New Year’s Dayprogramme of cantatas risked being a damp squib.How could the trite year-end exordiums and prayersfor ‘Stadt und Land’, ‘Kirche und Schule’ of Bach’sanonymous librettists measure up to the momentoustime-switch from the second to the third millennium?As it turned out, easily, aptly and – thanks to Bach’smusic – triumphantly. Even if the horrors ofseventeenth- or eighteenth-century warfare could notcompare in scale with those of the outgoing century,surely the bloodiest ever in human history, there isenough substance in some of these cantata textsto mull over, such as the ‘thousandfold misfortune,terror, sadness, fear and sudden death, enemieslittering the land, cares and even more distress’which ‘other countries see – we, instead, a year ofgrace’ (BWV 143 No.4). 1999 had been the year ofKosovo, Chechnya and East Timor, whilst westernEurope, in contrast, wallowed in a consumeristmudbath, to all intents and purposes unharmed andat peace. But with Bach’s cantatas one is dealingwith so much more than just ‘settings’ of religioustexts. His music opens the door to all-encompassingmoods which, in their way, are far more powerfuland evocative than mere words, particularly as histextures are typically multi-layered and thus ableto convey parallel, complementary and evencontradictory Affekte. Words, as Mendelssohn put

it, can be equivocal, slippery and ‘so ambiguous,so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison togenuine music, which fills the soul with a thousandthings better than words. The thoughts which areexpressed to me by music that I love are not tooindefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary,too definite’. With Bach comes music that seems tovault over all sectarian obstacles and provide bothperformer and listener with experiences that aresalutary and deeply purifying, simultaneously specificand universal, and ones that seem to fit a particularneed at this momentous time-switch.It is all the more fascinating, therefore, toencounter and compare Bach’s responses to thesame liturgical occasion and the same biblical textsin different works composed at separate stages ofhis life and development. This will be the pattern forthe whole year: a slice-wise comparison of cantataswritten for successive feast-days. Superficially thefour New Year’s Day cantatas that we performedin Berlin could hardly be more different from oneanother. BWV 143 Lobe den Herrn, meine Seelehas come down to us only in a manuscript copy of1762. There are doubts aplenty about the authenticityof this little cantata and several problematicalfeatures. The first of these is the scoring, its unusualcombination of three corni da caccia with timpani,bassoon and strings; then there is the key of B flat(is this Kammerton or Chorton?), the simplicity(naïveté even) of its construction and textures, andthe mixture of biblical words, chorales and free verse,which suggests a stylistic affinity with Bach’s earliestcantatas, the ones composed during his year inMühlhausen (BWV 106, 4, 71 and 131), albeit ona far humbler level of musical craftsmanship andinvention. On the surface it most resembles the 1708Council election cantata Gott ist mein König, BWV 71.The interjections by the brass in the bass aria (No.5)recall a similar procedure used in the alto aria ofBWV 71, and even the arpeggiated melodic outlineis identical to the latter’s opening chorus. Then thereis a passing similarity of mood in its best movement,the pastoral tenor aria (No.6) with its felicitousweaving of bassoon and cello continuo, with thatof the enchanting ‘turtledove’ chorus (BWV 71 No.6).All this has tempted some scholars to see Lobe denHerrn as the lost version of the cantata Bach wassupposed to have written for the following year’sCouncil election in Mühlhausen, though to me itseems, if anything, like an earlier, more primitive shotat the same target. Plausible, too, is the idea that thiswas, at least in part, an apprentice piece written inWeimar under Bach’s direct tutelage. If so, a certainexuberance and use of instrumental colour is eithergenuinely Bachian or else extremely good studentpastiche, like the arabesques of the solo violinpunctuated by a staccato ‘death-knell’ in the lowerstrings (No.4), which make partial amends for theoften conventional melodic shapes and rhythmicpatterns that typify the rest of the musical material.With BWV 41 Jesu, nun sei gepreiset we areon much safer ground. This is a mature second-yearLeipzig cantata of the highest quality. It is the type ofcantata that reminds us how, in our increasingly urbansociety, we have lost close contact with the rhythmsand patterns of the liturgical year, and perhaps evenwith perceptions of the basic cyclic round of life anddeath. Already one of the features that has begun to9

register with us as we set off through this year ofcantatas is the idea of cyclic return, of a journeyfrom a beginning to an ending, from Alpha to Omega.This will be the essential background against whichto measure the various events of the coming year, inaddition to its changing seasons and turning points.One does not need to be a theologian or a numbersymbolist to discern Bach’s ways of conveying thesimple idea of a progression from beginning to end tonew beginning. He makes his strategies wonderfullyaudible, as in the opening chorus of this cantata: ahuge movement, in effect a chorale fantasia. Facedwith the problem of structuring the fourteen lines ofJohannes Herman’s exceptionally long hymn stanza(evidently popular in Leipzig, as he uses it in three ofhis New Year cantatas) and the way its melody endsa step higher than it started out, Bach decides torepeat the last two lines to the music of lines one andtwo, so effecting a delayed reiteration of C major in amajestic concluding sweep. Beyond this, he braceshis opening and closing cantata movements together,partly by setting the first and last strophes in theiroriginal form, partly by using the first two bars of hisopening ritornello (themselves forming a miniatureABA pattern) as an interlude between the choralphrases of his final movement. In this way theminiaturised pattern and the entire cantata bothend as they began – a satisfying closing of the circle.But it is the epic scope of Bach’s vision for thisopening movement which takes one’s breath away.Besides these exultant brass fanfares, its 213 barscomprise stretches of dense vocal counterpoint,angelic dance-like gestures, and a moment of magicwhen the forward momentum comes to a sudden10halt for the words ‘dass wir in guter Stille das alt’Jahr hab’n erfüllet’ (‘that we in prosperous peacehave completed the old year’). Out of this erupts amotet-like fugue marked ‘presto’, an enthusiasticrededication to spiritual values (‘Wir woll’n uns dirergeben itzund und immerdar’ – ‘We would giveourselves to Thee now and evermore’) that mergesalmost imperceptibly into a reprise of the initialfanfare music.Praying that the year may end as it began, thesoprano now adopts the swaying pastoral gesturesof the three accompanying oboes (No.2), irregularlyphrased as 3 4 and then, more conventionally, as2 2 2 2, patterns that Bach continues to vary andextend as though intoxicated by their beauty andloath to move on. In the ensuing recitative the alto,beginning in A minor, swerves off course to establish‘A und O’ on a C octave in the listener’s mind,resonating with a passage in Revelation where Jesusdescribes himself as ‘the first and the last. alive forevermore. [having] the keys of hell and of death’(Revelation 1:17-18).The jewel in this particular cantata, however, isthe tenor aria ‘Woferne du den edlen Frieden’ (No.4).This is one of only nine cantata movements in whichBach calls for the beguiling, wide-ranging sonority ofthe violoncello piccolo, an instrument that seems tobe linked in Bach’s usage to the presence and personof Jesus, and in particular to his protective role as‘good shepherd’. Here it is the five-string model hecalls for, with a range extending from its lowest string,C, right up to B natural three octaves above in thetreble clef, as though to encompass the duality ofearth and heaven, of body and soul, and to mirror

God’s control of human affairs both physical andspiritual. Another striking moment is the abruptclamorous choral intervention in the ensuingrecitative, voicing the whole congregation’s NewYear resolution, ‘Den Satan unter unsre Füsse [zu]treten’ – ‘to trample Satan beneath our feet’.Outwardly Bach’s New Year offering for 1726is like Cantata 41 of the previous year in that itsentire focus is on praise and thanksgiving, with noreference to the Gospel or Epistle readings. But therethe similarity ends. Where Cantata 41 is expansiveand majestic, BWV 16 Herr Gott, dich loben wir isconcise and pithy, summed up in its opening chorusof just thirty-four bars. This is an ebullient setting ofthe first four lines of Luther’s German Te Deum, withthe melody assigned to the sopranos doubled by acorno da caccia. A lively counterpoint provided by thethree other voices encompasses a fourth voice (firstviolin and oboe combined). Were it not for the fact thatit lies a little too high for the human voice, this wouldform the upper line of a five-voiced chorale motet withindependent continuo. A secco recitative for bassjustifies all this jubilation: ‘Thy Zion beholds perfectpeace. the temple rings with the sound of psalteryand harp’; hearts swell and a new song is called for(‘Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!’ was the refrain forBach’s New Year cantata for 1724 – see SDG Vol 16).The soloist tees up for an explosive, rumbustiouschoral dialogue ‘Let us rejoice, let us be glad’ (No.3).Compared with the grand hymns of thanks thathabitually open his more festive cantatas or partsof the Christmas Oratorio this is really no more thana miniature. But what a punch it packs in its seventybars! No need here for an instrumental prelude;instead the combined basses lead off with a fanfare.Their whoops of delight are immediately answeredby the other voices and a tantivy for the horn. In themiddle section of this so-called ‘aria’ (in free da capostructure) the solo bass now steps forward like someCantor exhorting the people in the Temple (the sceneof Jesus’ circumcision, which is also celebrated onthis day) with a brilliant little figure for ‘krönt’. To theeye on the page it is shaped exactly like a ‘crown’,while to the ear it gleams like a diadem. Then comesa preposterous, raucous trill on the horn, and backcome the chorus with their arpeggiated jubilationsand a return to the ‘A’ music before it burgeons intoa short fugue.Sobriety and order return with a solo for the alto(No.4) who calls for the protection of church andschool (Bach’s twin spheres of activity in Leipzig),the destruction of Satan’s ‘wicked guile’, and then awhole wish-list of agricultural improvements: betterirrigation, land reclamation and (divine) help withtillages. The penultimate movement is a heartfeltaria for tenor with oboe da caccia obbligato, with anintimate and particularly affecting conclusion to its‘B’ section at the words, ‘Yea, when the thread of lifebreaks, our spirit shall, content in God, still sing withfervent lips’, and then a smooth transition back tothe ‘A’ section – ‘Beloved Jesu, Thou alone shalt bemy soul’s wealth’ – and finally a solemn, communalplea for a peaceful forthcoming year.Probably the last of the five (or six if we takeBWV 143 as ‘echt’) surviving New Year cantatas byBach is BWV 171 Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auchdein Ruhm, written for 1729 or perhaps a year ortwo later. Its first movement sets a line from the11

forty-eighth Psalm: ‘According to Thy name, O God,so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth’. With noinstrumental prelude the tenors launch themselvesinto this choral fugue, the main feature of its themea spirited upward leap of a fourth on ‘So!’ (Whittakercompletely misses Bach’s rhetorical point when hecalls this ‘a bad mis-accentuation’) followed by acrotchet rest and then the jagged completion of thesubject. Yet for all its exuberance, there is somethingold-fashioned and motet-like about the way the fugueunfolds with colla parte strings and oboes doubling.But then after twenty-three bars Bach brings in hisfirst trumpet for a glittering restatement of the themeand the music suddenly acquires a new lustre andseems propelled forwards to a different era for thisassertion of God’s all-encompassing dominion andpower. Neumann tells us that this music is probablynot new – a longer and instrumentally conceivedmovement formed the common source of this chorusand of the later well-known adaptation of the samemusic to the words ‘Patrem omnipotentem’ in theCredo of the B minor Mass. Picander, Bach’s mostreliable supplier of cantata and Passion texts, is theauthor of the next four movements. The first aria,for tenor with two interlocking treble instruments(unspecified, but most probably violins), is structuredlike a quartet and conjures up a delightful image of‘white strips of cloud trailing across the heavens’(Schweitzer). Bach is not beyond setting a sterntest of his singer’s breath control, for the apt line‘everything that still draws breath’.If the sermon originally came at this point thealto recitative now provides a link to the second aria,this time for soprano and solo violin (No.4), music12‘parodied’ a tone lower from one of Bach’s secularcantatas (Zerreißet, zersprenget, zertrümmert dieGruft, BWV 205). The graceful, airborne gesturesof the violin obbligato first used to describe the‘refreshing coolness’ of Zephyr’s ‘musk-rich kiss’are now adapted to the praise of Jesus’ name.Dürr approves: ‘It is a bold transference which isnonetheless a convincing success’. But can the samereally be said for the way the vocal line fits the newtext? The long-held notes originally assigned to‘Kühlen’ (‘coolness’) have much less expressive pointnow as ‘Jahre’ (‘year’); then the soaring ascent to‘Höhen’ (‘heights’) seems slightly contrived for thename of ‘Jesus’; while the fancy isolated figure for‘Grosser König’ (addressed to Aeolus) makes lesssense as ‘fort und fort’ (‘for ever and ever’). But onesees Bach’s point: purely as music it was far toogood to use just the once, and he was surely justifiedin adapting it, even if (no doubt pressed for time)the transfer was not altogether seamless.Truly original, however, is the bass recitative whichfollows (No.5). Moving swiftly into triple time ariosofor the words of Jesus (‘Ask in my name, and Amen,it shall be given you!’) it reverts to recitative for theprayers that follow, but this time accompanied bytwo oboes as well as continuo before a final returnto arioso, ‘We ask this, Lord, in Thy name; say yes!say Amen! Amen!’. For his closing chorale, Bach callson all his instrumental forces – oboes and strings tobolster the choir, trumpets and drums to interjecttheir own fanfares, just as they did in the first movement – in yet another example of ‘Anfang und Ende’,beginning and end. There is a further link here tothe final chorale of BWV 41, only now a tone higher,

Cantatas for the Sundayafter New Yeara winning formula that cried out to be repeated,as well as a reminder to the congregation of what aprofusion of the finest music Bach had laid at theirfeet back in 1724.I found it not just rousing but its aspirationgermane to our whole project: ‘Let us completethis year in praise of Thy name’. Poignant, too, wasthe plea in the preceding movement, ‘Behüt unsdieses Jahr für. Kriegsgefahr!’ (‘Protect us throughthis year from. the danger of war’). Coming after asleepless New Year’s night of riotous noise causedby the perpetual hubbub of Berliners lobbingfireworks at each other (which in one’s semiconscious state translated as the thunder of theRussian army entering the city in 1945!), it seemedlike an auspicious and much-needed prayer. Theaudience was full and gave the music rapt attentionand us generous applause.Gethsemanekirche, BerlinEven allowing for the fact that in this millennial yearthese two feasts follow one another on consecutivedays, the change of prevailing mood is palpable,and comes as quite a jolt. Where the New Year’s Daycantatas are festive, grateful and stock-taking, thetexts for the year’s first Sunday are pained and urgent.What could have happened in so short a time? Do westand accused of breaking our New Year resolutionsthe day after making them? BWV 153 Schau, lieberGott, wie meine Feind opens with an innocuouslooking four-part chorale (the first verse of a hymnby David Denicke of 1640) but one which suggeststhat it should be delivered as a collective shout orclamorous plea, upbraiding God: ‘Behold, dear God,how my enemies with whom I must always battle, are13

so cunning and powerful that they can with easesubdue me. Lord, if Thy grace does not sustain me,the devil, flesh and world

Recitativo: Bass e Coro Doch weil der Feind bei Tag und Nacht 6. Choral Dein ist allein die Ehre Herr Gott, dich loben wir BWV 16 1. Coro (Choral) Herr Gott, dich loben wir 2. Recitativo: Bass So stimmen wir 3. Aria: Bass e Coro Lasst uns jauchzen, lasst uns freuen 4. Recitativo: Alt Ac