The Overlooked Richness of the Recitatives of Bach's Cantata 78

Bach’s polyphonic music is full of counterpoint, the combining of two or more melodic lines into a meaningful whole. He perfected the art of the fugue, a complex composition usually written for four musical lines. “Bach’s fugues involved incredibly complex melodies that, even though they started at different times, wound up sounding good together.” The one I chose to describe is the first prelude and fugue from Bach’s second book, in the key of C major.

Handel had started to experiment with oratorios in 1732, after the success of a ballad opera called the Beggars Opera by Johann Pepusch and John Gay. His own operas had declined in popularity, and operas were expensive and difficult to produce (Barber, and Donald). An oratorio was basically the same thing as an opera, except there were no expensive sets and costumes (Bonds). Handel composed Messiah from August 22 to September 14, 1741, a space of only 3 weeks. After finishing the oratorio, he put it away and started to work on another oratorio, Saul. It sat collecting dust for months, until Handel was invited to Ireland to visit the Duke of Devonshire in early November of 1741. After a rather disappointing opera season in 1740 and 1741, Handel was eager to get to Dublin. The libretto for Messiah was written by Charles Jennens (who also wrote the libretto for Saul) in the summer of 1741. It contained a compilation of verses from the bible; it didn’t tell a story, but reflected on the life of Christ and the Christian message, which is why it is a popular performance with churches today (Barber, and Donald). Messiah contains a recitative, “He that dwelleth in heaven”, and an aria, “Thou shalt not break them”. A recitativeis a style of singing that is between a lyrical song and speech, and makes the words clearer and easier to understand. An aria is the lyrical movement or piece for solo voice with some kind

Many musical scholars believe that J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel are the two most important, influential composers of the Baroque period. Both of these men were born in Germany in 1685, and since they came into existence around the same time, they share some similarities. As an introductory statement, Bach and Handel were born into two very different families. Handel did not come from a musical family; his father wanted him to study law. By age nine, his talent was too obvious for his father to ignore and Handel began to study with a local organist and composer. On the contrary, Bach came from a long line of musicians. Bach also had four sons which became gifted composers, in their own right. Bach, like Handel, also started as an organist

Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, is a two-part musical composition for organ, written by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750), a German composer, and musician of Baroque period, is known for its magnificent sound, classic, state-of-the-art rhythm having methodological command, with artistic splendor and intellectual gravity. Bach's abilities as an organist were respected throughout Europe during his lifetime but at that time he was not recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19thcentury. Nowadays he’s regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. (Blanning, 2008)

In Bach’s Cantata No. 140, Wachet auf No. 1 triple meter was created with the singers whenever there was a cycle of a downbeat and then two weaker beats. The pattern of the stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables gave the perception of a triple meter. Moreover, the instruments in the background, notably the violins and the oboes, also contributed to the triple meter as they produced the effect of stressed sounds followed by two unstressed sounds repeatedly.

The cantata was typically sung in a church service, and could be a single movement or multiple movements. Cantatas were sung by a soloist orchestra, like the Italian opera: “Cantatas were used to denote small and large scale works, ranging from a solo singer with basso continuo to a large ensemble of soloists, chorus, and instruments.”2 Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a composer who published a group of sacred cantatas, one titled Judith: “Judith is performed largely by one singer with basso continuo. A violin joins in for instrumental sections called symphonies and as part of an accompanied recitative.”2 The cantatas of the Lutheran church were much more sacred than Italian cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most cantatas for the Lutheran church. The texts of Bach’s cantatas included biblical passages, a chorale text, and poetic interpretation. Bach explored a variety of instrumental and vocal elements in his cantatas: “Bach’s cantatas embody many different forms and traditions, including motet-like movements for chorus, chorale harmonization, virtuosic solos and duets, with additional solo

Bach’s complex compositional style incorporates religious and numerological symbols that fit perfectly together in a puzzle of musical code. Demanding unfaltering facility in dexterity, precise pitch, particularly in the multiple stoppings, as well as sensitivity to implied polyphonic and harmonic textures. These exceptional works may be the closest thing we have to a “perfect” composition, so why is it that musicians have drastically different alterations and interpretations of his works? It is as if quality, intensity, duration, and even pitch are subject to the performer’s adaptation. By mapping out these alterations performers make to Bach’s music, it becomes possible to map out their respective musical personalities.

S. Bach, G. F. Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, Couperin, Jean-Phillippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully are other popular names in the Baroque era. Each composer specialises in different instrument compositions and techniques. Out of all the names mentioned, J. S. Bach remains to this day, one the greatest composers of both the Baroque era and all-time. Each of these composers specialise in different areas or compositions and instruments. Working extensively with keyboard instruments such as the organ and harpsichord, a few of J. S. Bach’s well-known compositions include his Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, and St. Matthew’s Passion. G. F. Handel himself composed Italian operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. His most popular work of all-time is the “Hallelujah” chorus from the oratorio Messiah, which went on to become the most popular Baroque work and considered as a choice of piece often performed in Christmas time. Domenico Scarlatti on the other hand composed in a number of musical forms, but is best known for composing 555 keyboard sonatas.

Bach used all of these skills in his concertos, cantatas, and fugues. A concerto is a musical composition for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra. Of all of Bach’s concertos, the “Brandenburg Concertos” are the most famous. These concertos were written for the Margrave of Brandenburg, they were written to be performed with a chamber orchestra. When writing these, Bach was the music director in Cothen under Prince Leopold, and he called the pieces “Six Concerts Avec plusieurs Instruments ("Six Concertos With several Instruments")”, but the biographer Philipp Spitta renamed it to “Brandenburg Concertos.” There are six different concertos in the collection; they showed off the musical talent in the province of Cothen as a result because each concerto required a talented soloist. The “Brandenburg Concertos” were also similar to the concertos of Vivaldi, with the three structures of fast, slow, fast, and a returning theme. Cantatas are pieces of music for vocal parts with instrumental accompaniment of an orchestra, and the cantatas of Bach are some of the best known ones in the world. Bach wrote cantatas throughout his life, but it was not until he moved to Leipzig and worked in the St. Thomas Church, did he meet his challenge of producing cantatas for the church throughout the year. Bach had to create a cantata for every Sunday and feast day in the religious calendar, which was five annually. All of these cantatas were the principal music piece used during service to highlight the passage from the sermon and to help people further comprehend the lesson being taught. There are over 200 different cantatas written by Bach, but his most famous cantata is BWV 147, “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben.” In addition to cantatas, the fugues of Bach are by far his most famous works. A fugue is a

Handel and Bach are considered two of the greatest composers of all time. However, when comparing the output of these two musicians, the diversity manifest in music in the era when they wrote immediately becomes apparent. Handel, although he used religious subject matter, is usually characterized as fundamentally a 'secular' composer. He composed for the concert hall, not the church, and primarily as a result of royal commissions. His music is strident, powerful, and large in scope. It is designed to entertain, rather than to spur contemplation (The pure power of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', NPR, 2008). Bach, in contrast, often created music designed to be performed in sacred spaces. His music is more fluid and nuanced in style and designed more to spur contemplation and devotion rather than excite people's interest as a piece of entertainment.

Oratorio and cantata were two genres that re-emerged in the first half of the eighteenth century. They were already important musical alternatives to opera by the mid-seventeenth century, but differed in nearly every respect from the genres of the same names found in the early eighteenth century. As genres late in the period, they both bespoke the traditions from which they originally sprang and permitted new recombination of the musical elements of these same traditions.

He began to write preludes for organs but did not cover large- scale organization, when two melodies interact at the same time. A few years after playing for the church, Bach made a visit to Dieterich Buxtehude in Lubeck. This visit reinforced Bach’s style in music with the works he has made.

During the later years of his life Bach gradually withdrew inwards, producing some of the most profound statements of the baroque musical form. Bach’s creative energy was conserved for the highest flights of musical expression: the Mass in b

In the type titled recitatif simple or ordinaire, the vocal line is accompanied only by continuo and contains frequent meter changes. When the second type of recitatif accompagne with both its variations solennel and pathetique appears, a listener might notice some intense dramatic moments like scenes of confusion, madness, or magic going on the stage. Agitated rhythmic accompaniments of this recitative type also exhibit

The next movement discussed stands out as being one of the longest works of the cantata. “In taberna quando sumus” opens with stringed instruments followed by percussion, and then a variety of other instruments join with the chorus. “When we are in the tavern”, the title sets this piece up for what I think would have a been a popular movement when it originated. Orff tells of drinking and gambling at the tavern, then goes on to list thirty names such as “the rich man” and “the poor man” that all drink. This stood out to me because I didn’t see this coming at all! It is also my least my favorite piece of the work. With the setting what it is, I didn’t particularly like the minor tone heard on and off in this