J.S. Bach - Cantata BWV 96 "Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn" (J.S. Bach Foundation) 

Not a piccolo, a sopranino recorder...

au contraire, mon frère. And it is NOT a piccolo !

Other versions have better, non-manic tempos for this beautiful chorus.

@@SentientsSave The composer's score specifies _flauto piccolo._ The instrument in this performance isn't a modern piccolo, but it still fits the historic definition of a piccolo: a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments.

@@petatap3737 The composer's score specifies _flauto piccolo._

Piccolo

🙏 🙏 🙏 Danke.

The tempo is supposed to be fast. The composer specified "vivace," which means "lively," not "calm." I have no idea how you could listen to the opening chorus and walk away with the notion the composer (or the conductor) meant to convey a "'calm mood." What does calmness or relaxation have to do with church music? You're confusing church music with mood music. The piccolo part, like most piccolo parts, is supposed to be fast. It repeats a certain patterns of notes but has no actual melody. It's meant to be sparkly and decorative, perhaps inspired by the text: Er ist der Morgensterne, He is the morning Star, Sein' Glanz streckt er so ferne his splendor he stretches so far Vor andern Sternen klar. beyond any other stars. Furthermore, the music is obviously composed in the manner of a gigue, not a siciliana or a dirge. Did you not even recognize that it's lively dance movement? Do you even know what a gigue was in the Late Baroque? Has you ever listened to the gigues in Bach's French and English Suites? In the Brandenburg Concertos? In the Orchestral Suites? In the Violin Concerto in A minor?

Probably not. In a later version of this cantata the sopranino is swapped with a violino piccolo. As far as I'm aware, the sopranino part is supposed to depict the twinkling of the morning star above the landscape where jesus was born.

@@arjenbij Yes, I agree about the "descriptive writing" depicting the "twinkling stars" in the text. And I'm sure that you're probably correct about everything else. Thanks for your interesting reply. 👍

The composer's score specifies _flauto piccolo._

Yes, he is.

Yes Maurice 'meth' Steger.

This was Ulrich Eichenberger.

It’s a gigue, so it must be fast.

I agree, listen this Cantata from Karl Richter

Thanks to the miracle of youtube, we can check out multiple versions of a piece to establish what different tempos sound like, even in a work as little-known as this. The short answer to your question is, yes.

Bach specifies "Vivace."

@@kaanasker4914 I'm sure you have quite a collection of recordings of historically uninformed Bach performances. But Bach specified "Vivace" for the 1st movement, and as Ton Koopman wrote in his essay "Aspects of Performance Practice," "Fortunately, Bach's works as performed by Mengelberg and Richter are a thing of the past."

I second this, and have chosen Karl Richter for my score-video of this cantata, will I will be releasing some what soon, with 30-40 other cantatas of Bach.

Bach specified _Vivace_ for the 1st movement, and as Ton Koopman wrote in his essay "Aspects of Performance Practice," "Fortunately, Bach's works as performed by Mengelberg and Richter are a thing of the past."