Some of the cantatas composed by Bach in his second year were chorale cantatas, a format he chose for services between the first Sunday after Trinity and Palm Sunday. For Easter he had returned to cantatas on more varied texts. Nine of the cantatas for the period between Easter and Pentecost are based on texts of Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, including this cantata. Bach later assigned it to his third annual cycle. Ziegler begins the cantata with the same quotation from the gospel as an unknown poet one year earlier in Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44, the prediction of persecution of Christians. "They will put you under banishment, but the time will come, when, whoever kills you will think that he does God a service by it" (John 16:2). She continues stressing the lack of fear possible for a follower who relies on "Jesu Schutzarm" (the protective arm of Jesus).[1] In movements 3 and 4 she refers to the beginning of the gospel, the spirit who will assist. The closing chorale is the fifth stanza of Paul Gerhardt's "Zeuch ein zu deinen Toren".
Bach first performed the cantata on 13 May 1725.[2][3][4]
Publication
The autograph score was inherited by C.P.E. Bach.
The music was not published until 1891 when it appeared as part of the first complete edition of the composer´s work, the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe. The editor of the volume in question was Alfred Dörffel.[5]
Ziegler published the text in a collection of her work, along with the other ones set by Bach.[6] These printed versions are slightly different from the texts used in the cantatas, and this is believed to be the result of the composer modifying the libretti with which he was presented.[7] In the case of Sie werden euch in den Bann tun the differences between the printed version and that set by Bach are less than in the preceding cantatas such as Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, BWV 128.[2]
In the first movement the words of Jesus are given to the bass, the voice type which by convention was the vox Christi (voice of Christ). A year earlier (in Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44), Bach rendered the announcement of Jesus in a two-part movement, a duet for bass and tenor followed by an agitated chorus. In this cantata, he sets it as a recitative of only five measures.[2] The instrumentation is novel, having long chords of the four oboes, two oboes da caccia and two oboes d'amore, accompany the voice above a pedal point held by the continuo. This creates a "sepulchral" sound.[9] The Bach scholar Christoph Wolff notes that this "opulent oboe scoring" with all four oboes playing together is used only in the two recitatives (1 and 3).[10]
The second movement, the first aria, is the longest of the work. It is sung by the tenor with an obbligato part for violoncello piccolo, an instrument with a tenor-bass range.[11] The "dark and shaded" timbre of the movement has been seen as representing the protection provided by Christ.[9] Denying the fear of the threatening death, the violoncello piccolo plays continuous runs.[1]
Movement 3 is again a recitativo accompagnato, even more complex than the first one; the strings play long chords, whereas all the oboes repeat the same four-note motif throughout the movement, sung by the alto on the words "Ich bin bereit" (I am ready).[1]
The second aria is accompanied by the strings and the two oboes da caccia in unison as obbligato instruments, thus both arias are dominated by instruments with a relatively low range (oboes de caccia having a pitch below that of a normal oboe).[2]
The cantata is closed by a four-part chorale on the tune of "Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen".[12]
Recordings
The selection is taken from the listing on the Bach Cantatas Website.[13] Choirs with one voice per part (OVPP) and orchestras playing period instruments in historically informed performances are marked green.
^Among the authors who assume that Bach modified the libretti himself are Nele Anders in the introduction (1988) to volume 10 of the Teldec complete set, and John Eliot Gardiner in his 2013 book Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. Allen Lane.
^Gardiner, John Eliot (2013). Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. Allen Lane.