This is possibly my favorite cantata, one of the first ones Bach ever wrote. The chaconne movement at 3:22 always gets me. Artwork: The cedars of Lebanon, Edward Lear, 1812-1888
I love the way you voiced this and the choice of this work :) It’s gorgeously done 🙏🏼 So during the pandemic year (2020) with nothing better to do, I set up a project for myself where I would write an analysis of one movement from every Bach cantata (and listen to the whole cantata to choose the most appropriate movement and read several analyses of the work) every single day … it was a daunting task inspired by the industry of Bach. I called it the ‘Cantata of the Day’. Here’s my entry for BWV 150, focusing on the 5th movement: “It is sometimes impossible for scholars to be entirely sure of the exact order of composition for many of the works, as some (like the cantata for today) come to us only through copies that were made by Bach’s students, but I will use the latest in Bach scholarship to guide me. Cantata 150 is thought to be the very first cantata Bach composed. He likely wrote it in Arnstadt in 1707, when he was only 22 years old. A remarkable acrostic spelling DOKTOR CONRAD MECKBACH, formed by the first letters of each line of the poetic movements 3, 5 and 7, amazingly only discovered in 2010, has brought forth the theory that the work was composed in April 1707 to celebrate the 70th birthday of this early supporter of Bach. This cantata is unusual among Bach’s other works in the genre for several reasons. The movements are sparsely orchestrated and rely heavily on the choir, which appears in four of the seven movements. The choral movements are episodic, changing tempo and character at the drop of a hat to suit the next idea in the text. And the fifth movement, posted below, is one of the few vocal trios in the whole of the Bach cantata oeuvre. This short but brilliant movement calls for a virtuosic viola da gamba and bassoon player. The difficult bassoon part may, in fact, have led to a famous early quarrel between Bach and one of his bassoon players, which became physical and resulted in Bach being reprimanded for being too demanding of his instrumentalists. This music is the first of many thrilling works by Bach that mention the power of the wind, expressed in the breathlessly driving force of the viola da gamba and bassoon against the gorgeous trio of the bass, tenor and alto vocalists. Another movement that is sure to delight
Very nice work, as per usual. I had not heard Cantata 150 before but this video made me go and listen to it. Also, I am almost certain that the melody and the chords at the start of the the 5th movement were inspired by Pachelbel's D major Chaconne. The wikipedia page for this Cantata does not mention this but it does say that the 7th probably borrowed the ground bass from Pachelbel, so my theory seems very plausible.
@ojfeh fascinating, I've never heard that piece myself, gonna have to give it a listen I could tell this piece was influenced by earlier baroque stuff, but I had assumed buxtehude or something
