Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, BWV 197a

Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe
BWV 197.1 · 197a
Christmas cantata by J. S. Bach
Caspar Ziegler, the author of the chorale
Performed	25 December 1728/1729 (1728/1729-12-25): Leipzig

Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe (Glory be to God in the Highest), BWV 197a (197.1), is a Christmas cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the First Day of Christmas in 1728 or 1729.^[1]

History and text

Bach composed the work in Leipzig for Christmas Day in 1728 or 1729.^[1] The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Epistle of Titus, "God's mercy appeared" (Titus 2:11–14) or from Isaiah, "Unto us a child is born" (Isaiah 9:2–7), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Nativity, Annunciation to the shepherds and the angels' song (Luke 2:1–14). The text of the cantata is by Picander.^[2] The chorale is from the 1697 hymn "Ich freue mich in dir" by Caspar Ziegler.^[3] Bach later revised the piece into Gott ist unsre Zuversicht, BWV 197.2.^[4]

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for solo alto and bass voices, a four-part choir, two flutes, oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, bassoon, cello, and continuo.^[2]

The piece has seven movements (although there may also have been an opening sinfonia):^[2][5]

1. Chorus: Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe
2. Aria: Erzählet, ihr Himmel, die Ehre Gottes
3. Recitative: O! Liebe, der kein Lieben gleich
4. Aria: O du angenehmer Schatz
5. Recitative: Das Kind ist mein
6. Aria: Ich lasse dich nicht
7. Chorale: Wohlan! so will ich mich

Music

Only the last four movements of the piece are extant.^[5]

The nineteen surviving bars of the fourth movement, an alto aria, demonstrate a rare bassoon obbligati and assume a combined ritornello-ternary form.^[5]

The fifth movement is a bass recitative with only continuo accompaniment. It is a "harmonically adventurous", "forceful little movement marked by a robust melodic line".^[5]

The following bass aria is accompanied by oboe d'amore and continuo, and is a "jaunty, pastoral dance" in ⁶
₈ time and ritornello-ternary form. The movement is notable for a long rising melisma omitted from the reworked version in BWV 197/2.^[5]

Musicologist Julian Mincham suggests that the chorale is "one of the sturdiest in the repertoire".^[5]

Recordings

The recordings are taken from the listing on Bach-Cantatas:^[6]

• Gächinger Kantorei / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling. Edition Bachakademie Vol. 140. Hänssler, 1999.
• Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki. J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 54. BIS, 2012.

References

1. Work 00245 at Bach Digital website.
2. "BWV 197a". University of Alberta. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
3. Dürr, Alfred (2006). The cantatas of J.S. Bach: with their librettos in German-English parallel text. Jones, Richard (trans.). Oxford University Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-19-929776-4.
4. Work 00244 at Bach Digital website.
5. Mincham, Julian. "Chapter 38 BWV 197a". The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
6. Oron, Aryeh. "Cantata BWV 197a / Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe". Bach-Cantatas. Retrieved 26 December 2015.

External links

• Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe, BWV 197a: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe BWV 197a; BC A 11 / Sacred cantata (1st Christmas Day): Leipzig University
• BWV 197a Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe: English translation, University of Vermont
• Luke Dahn: BWV 197a.7 bach-chorales.com