JS Bach's Sacred Cantatas

Bach produced the majority of his cantatas for use in church services. There may have even been two in any one service with a long Lutheran sermon in between them - or a longer two part cantata split for the sermon. Anyway, one way of deciding which cantata to listen to is to see what he wrote for the corresponding Sunday.

30 November 2008 is the 1st Sunday of Advent. It's the beginning of the church year - and the beginning of the time in eighteenth century Leipzig which saw no 'concertante' music (ie. music with instruments) until Christmas Day.

There are three quite brilliant cantatas which have survived for this Sunday. They're well worth listening to at any point during Advent:

BWV 61 - Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, 1714
pick of the music: the opening chorus in the style of a French ouverture - or the soprano aria 'Öffne dich, mein ganzes Herzen'.

my favourite recording: Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe

BWV 62 - Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (2), 1724
pick of the music: the opening chorus is a mini-masterpiece that brilliantly conveys the excited anticipation of Advent.

my favourite recording: Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

BWV 36 - Schwingt freudig euch empor, 1731
pick of the music: the soprano aria 'Auch mit gedämpften, schwachen Stimmen' is beautiful and moving.

my favourite recording: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685. To call his family 'musical' would be rather an understatement. It's probably the most productive musical family the world has ever seen: just the right sort of environment to nurture and inspire the talents of perhaps the greatest musical genius... Here are some key dates and events from his lifetime.

1685 - 1700: Childhood, Eisenach
His father's cousin JC Bach was organist and harpsichordist at Eisenach.

1700: Ohrdruf
His eldest brother Johann Christoph was organist at the Michaelskirche

1700-1702: Lüneburg
Finished his training, acquiring expertise in violin and organ.
Learnt from the vast collection of organ music at the Johanniskirche archive

1703-1707: Arnstadt
Appointed organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt.

1705
Embarked upon his famous journey (by foot) to hear Dietrich Buxtehude play the organ in Lübeck

1707-1708: Mühlhausen
Appointed organist. Married his first wife, Maria Barbara.
Believed to have composed his first sacred cantatas, including BWV 106 'Actus Tragicus'

1708-1717: Weimar
He'd already briefly worked as a musician (probably a violinist) here in 1703. He returned as organist and 'chamber musician'.
He wrote 33 sacred cantatas, 16 of which survive. They're often called his 'early' cantatas.

1717-1723: Köthen
Appointed 'Kapellmeister', but church music was not required due to Calvinist influence.

1720: Maria Barbara died

Major works written during his time at Köthen were instrumental: Cello Suites; Brandenburg Concertos; Orchestra Suites (Ouvertüren); Violin Sonatas & Partitas; and for the keyboard the Well Tempered Clavier I and the French & English suites.

1723: married his second wife, Anna Magdalena

1723-1750: Leipzig
Appointed Cantor of the Thomasschule, he wrote the vast majority of his sacred cantatas during this period, as well as the following major works:
1724 - St John Passion
1727 or 1729 - St Matthew Passion
1723 & 1732 (revised) - Magnificat
1742 - Goldberg Variations
1733-1749 - Mass in B Minor
1734-5 - Christmas Oratorio
1740-50 - The Art of Fugue
1747 - The Musical Offering

He died in 1750, still apparently driven to compose while on his deathbed...

There are a bewildering number of recordings of this sublime music. To date there have been four complete cycles, incorporating all of the surviving sacred cantatas. Period instrument pioneers Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt recorded the lot during the 1970s and the 1980s. Helmuth Rilling led the Bach Collegium Stuttgart through a complete cycle, also in the 1970s and 1980s. During 1999 and 2000 Pieter Jan Leusink put together his cycle for the budget Dutch music label Brilliant Classics. And most recently Ton Koopman completed his series of recordings, which began in 1994 and ended in 2005.

As if this weren't enough (let's face it, it isn't!) there are a number of ongoing complete cycles as well as partial series.

Complete: Masaaki Suzuki (begun 1995); John Eliot Gardiner (live recordings from 2000); Eric Milnes and Montreal Baroque (begun 2004).

Partial: Karl Richter (1959-1978); Sigiswald Kuijken (one cantata for each feast day); Purcell Quartet (early cantatas).

Did you know that there was a musical fast during Advent in eighteenth century Leipzig? The church congregation was denied Bach's sublime orchestrated music during this time, making its return, at Christmas, all the more spectacular.

This is the reason there are so few Bach cantatas which survive for the period of Advent. BWV 61, 62 and 36 for the first Sunday in Advent and the pre-Leipzig piece BWV 132 are all we have.

Christmas, however, is a very different matter...

I've been struggling with putting links in here: sorry if they go all funny!

It can be confusing finding music online. Here are some pointers if you want to track down some Bach.

EClassical
A great place to pick up instalments in what might be the best cycle, the Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki. Seriously good value - his latest disc (40) is $9.87 (just under a fiver).

The BIS website does a handy list of what's on which volume.

Emusic
Emusic has a great range of cantata recordings. As well as Masaaki Suzuki's cycle, it includes complete collections by Helmuth Rilling and Ton Koopman. Add to this most of John Eliot Gardiner's live recordings, the 'One Voice Per Part' set of Eric Milnes and Montreal Baroque, Philippe Herreweghe's cantata collections, the Purcell Quartet (again 'One Voice Per Part'), you're spoilt for choice.

The only downside is that CDs of cantatas tend to run to a lot of tracks and Emusic's subscription service is based on an allotted number of tracks you can download each month. The best tip is to combine longer CDs like these with shorter ones (like collections of symphonies) to maximise value for money.

The Classical Shop (Chandos records)
Offers the Purcell Quartet's cantata recordings in various formats, including lossless audio. It can be a bit on the pricey side - the latest offering is £16 for downloads, compared to £11.75 for the CD at MDT and, even better, £9.95 at Europadisc.

Scroll down for more!

Here's a list of Bach's sacred cantatas written for the Christmas period. Recordings of this music are reviewed on my Christmas website.

Christmas Day
BWV 63 - Christen, ätzet diesen Tag
BWV 91 - Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ
BWV 110 - Unser Mund sei voll Lachens
BWV 191 - Gloria in excelsis Deo

Boxing Day (26 December)
BWV 40 - Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes
BWV 121 - Christum wir sollen loben schon
BWV 57 - Selig ist der Mann

27 December
BWV 64 - Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget
BWV 133 - Ich freue mich in dir
BWV 151 - Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt

The 1st Sunday after Christmas Day
BWV 152 - Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn
BWV 122 - Das neugeborne Kindelein
BWV 28 - Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende

New Year's Day
BWV 190 - Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied!
BWV 41 - Jesu, sei nun gepreiset
BWV 16 - Herr Gott, dich loben wir
BWV 171 - Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm
BWV 143 - Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele (2)

The Sunday after New Year
BWV 153 - Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind
BWV 58 - Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (2)

Epiphany (6 January)
BWV 65 - Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen - some versions reviewed here!
BWV 123 - Liebster Emmanuel, Herzog der Frommen

iTunes
I don't really like iTunes - it's probably different in the US, but for UK customers it always seems a bit steep. When you want the whole thing (I invariably do), it's not so different from the CD price.

Passionato
The marketing for this new website has been pretty full-on, in the UK at least. Whether it lives up to the hype is another matter. It has the advantage over some of the smaller sites in offering major label recordings. At a price! Look at Karl Richter's boxset of Advent and Christmas cantatas: it'll set you back £31.99 for MP3s at Passionato. Go to Europadisc - the 4 CDs for £21.95. Or, crumbs, try MDT - it's a snip at £18.25! Gardiner's Deutsche Grammophone partial cycle is £7.99 a CD at Passionato - £6.95 (current special offer) at MDT! Space saving does mean a lot to me, not least because my shelves are groaning and all that - but I do balk at paying more for a folder of MP3s than for an actual CD!

The cynical side of me does wonder if all this pounding of the press they're doing at the moment is trying to appeal to more gullible customers who don't realise they're paying a premium for something that must be way cheaper to distribute.

Have a look at my blog for an ongoing attempt to get to the bottom of the CD versus download thing!

That's it for now - more online download-y things to come soon. I'm exhausted after that and need a lie down before I go and spend too much money...