Wow, this cantata is my new favorite. I just get lost in Meine Seele...the amazing suspensions, the slow pace is perfect. The 2 arias with the chorale is almost Ivesian. The final fugue with the rising chromatic line then adding the descending suspension line from Meine Seele is pure genius. Not to mention the word painting. Incredible work.
It's the first time I hear this cantata and it's amazing how Bach continues to surprise me. The section from 10:22-15:12 is probably one of the greatest sections ever written, the counterpoint is just sublime!
As many of the other top comments say, Harnoncourt's recordings are truly the benchmark to me, especially when it comes to these early cantatas where the sadness and deep emotion really is palpable. The boy sopranos with the slow tempi and marked strong style is so complimentary to this music. I've been listening/watching/singing along with this video for years now so I thought it was about time I left a comment. Thank you Geru (once again), for getting me into Bach, and not just Bach but these phenomenal early cantatas which are some of the most underrated highly emotional moving music. Bach's early cantatas and motets bring me closer to some form of God than any other music; their eclectic nature, contructed like patchwork quilts is something so unique to just these few works.
From what I read, BWV 4, Christ lag in todesbanden, is his earliest cantata, composed for Easter, 1707. This cantata, BWV 131, was also composed in 1707; so definitely one of his earliest cantatas.
@@linwoodbond4949 some scholats say BWV 150 was the earliest. either way, 131, 150 and 4 are definitely the three earliest. they all have a magic to them
@@bono894 Same here, feels like every week I'm discovering a new mind-blowing 10/10 passage from Bach. This one is absolutely special, I can already tell it will be with me through the decades, something to draw strength from, that is what his music is to me, an endless well of strength and beauty. So thankful Bach existed.
22:46 - 25:07 make up the vast majority of bwv 131a (written for organ, basically almost the entire piece is based in this time slot, on the organ, only the first chord and the final bars are different)
in fact BWV 131a is actually just a transcription of this fugue for organ. Whether or not bach wrote this transcription is unknown but it certainly came after the cantata!!
14:19 The last note of the repeated ones in sopranos theme. The chord that all the instruments and voices construct is out of this world, very dissonant. For just that moment that the chord lasts, my knees can't support my weight, like traditional harmony almost doesn't support this moment's existence.
I'm pretty sure at 12:38 there is the same extremely dissonant chord, but I think it might last for slightly longer, making the dissonance even easier to hear and appreciate. This comment of yours ^ is one of the best on youtube, and one I keep coming back to. I am not Christian, but Soli Deo Gloria.
@@Nooticus You are right, though it's in a minor context, and mine is in a major one, so that's why I probably noticed it there. Thanks for the kind words. I've never been able to believe in a higher Being, so I'm not Christian too. But listening to Bach is probably the closest I've been to any God intellectually. Thank you for reminding me this great musical moment by commenting!
@@Nooticus It's a great honor to hear that from you, a fellow musician and passionate commenter! I also come back to this moment for more reasons than I could put into words. Let's hold dear those moments since Geru has passed, and I will see you again on the threads of RU-vid I call home. I hope you and I progress in music and in happiness so that we may live and produce more moments like this. I truly thank you!
Bach must have really deep bass vocalists to have a part to descend down to C2, two ledger lines below the bass staff. C2 is not an easy note for me to sing as a bass.
Love the scrolling aspect but this is a terrible recording. Any way to redo this with a Herreweghe recording of Cantata 131? Infinitely better. Bach is not Bach when it's so slow and plodding.
Amy Jones Aus der Tiefe rufe ich Herr zu dir; no more questions :) Just one thing: Bach didn't wrote always the tempi. So, when he did most to have a special meaning. Adagio and Largo must to mean something!
Don't be silly. Metronomes weren't invented until the early 1800s-- during Bach's time, these markings referred to character (or sometimes, metrical inflection), and didn't get specific tempos attached to them until later. I performed this cantata during undergrad, and believe me, it works a lot better when it's a little faster-- especially the middle chorale, which was so slow I didn't even recognize it at first.
+Andrew Hudson actually this is not right. Indications had a sort of meaning related to tempo, as you can read in some treatise, like Quantz. If you phrase right, you don't need speed.
