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Weimar cantata (Bach)#Weimar cycle

{{Short description|1714-17 cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the ducal court in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The composition of cantatas for the {{lang|de|Schlosskirche}} (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to {{lang|de|Konzertmeister}} in March 1714.{{cite web | last = Koster | first = Jan | url = http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/weimar2.html | title = Weimar 1708–1717 | publisher = let.rug.nl | access-date = 16 December 2011 }}

Church cantatas

From 1714 to 1717 Bach was commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the liturgical year.{{cite book | last = Dürr | first = Alfred | author-link = Alfred Dürr | others = Translated by Richard D. P. Jones | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=m9JuwslMcq4C&pg=PA262 | title = The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-19-929776-4 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=m9JuwslMcq4C&pg=PA13 pp. 13–20]

The first version of Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich, BWV 1136 (formerly {{nowrap|BWV Anh. 209}}), a lost cantata the libretto of which was written by Georg Christian Lehms and published in 1711 for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, may have been composed in Weimar.{{BDh|1520|0|2020-07-21|Work|Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich BWV 1136; BWV Anh. I 209}}

=Before 1714=

{{see also|Lost council election cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach#Mühlhausen|Bach's early cantatas}}

Apart from some Weimar cycle cantatas which may have been composed before they were adopted into that cycle (BWV 18, 21, 54 and 199):

  • Lost council election cantatas for Mühlhausen:
  • 1709: second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192){{BDh|1503|0|2018-08-07|Work|Zweite Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.1; BWV Anh. 192}}
  • 1710: third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2 (formerly BWV deest){{BDh|11382||2018-07-31|Work|Dritte Mühlhäuser Ratswahlkantate BWV 1138.2}}
  • Doubtful work:
  • New Year: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 143 (likely 1709–1711){{BDh|175|00|2019-05-14|Work|Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 143}}

=Weimar cycle=

The expression "Weimar cycle" has been used for the cantatas composed in Weimar from 1714 (which form the bulk of extant cantatas composed before Bach's Leipzig time).Joshua Rifkin (2001). Liner notes to Three Weimar Cantatas, Dorian 93231Richard D. P. Jones (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=zV-8tnO2ca8C The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach, Volume I: 1695-1717: Music to Delight the Spirit.] Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780191513244}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zV-8tnO2ca8C&pg=PA212 p. 212]

Cantatas 54 and 199 were performed within the cycle but possibly composed earlier. BWV 18 and 21Work {{BDW|0024}} at Bach Digital may also have been composed before 1714.

Other sacred music and cantatas of Bach's Weimar period

In the Bach-Jahrbuch of 2015, Peter Wollny wrote that Bach likely encountered several of the old-school contrapuntal sacred compositions, which were going to play a seminal role in the composer's output of the 1740s, for the first time in Weimar.{{cite book

|last1 = Wollny

|first1 = Peter

|author-link1 = Peter Wollny

|date = 2015

|chapter = Vom "apparat der auserleßensten kirchen Stücke" zum "Vorrath an Musicalien, von J. S. Bach und andern berühmten Musicis": Quellenkundliche Ermittlungen zur frühen Thüringer Bach-Überlieferung und zu einigen Weimarer Schülern und Kollegen Bachs

|chapter-url = https://doi.org/10.13141/bjb.v20152375

|title = Bach-Jahrbuch 2015

|url = https://journals.qucosa.de/bjb/issue/view/176

|series = Bach-Jahrbuch

|language = de

|volume = 101

|others = Neue Bachgesellschaft

|location = Leipzig

|publisher = Evangelische Verlagsanstalt

|pages = 99–154

|doi = 10.13141/bjb.v2015

|isbn = 978-3-374-04320-0

|via = {{ill|Qucosa|de}}

|issn = 0084-7682

}} Among these compositions are,

=Passions=

{{see|Passions (Bach)}}

Passions performed in the Weimar period, however not considered to be passion cantatas, thus not generally listed in the Weimar (cantata) cycle:

=Strophic aria, BWV 1127=

{{see|Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn, BWV 1127}}

In 1713 Bach composed a sacred aria, "Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn", for a secular occasion, the birthday of William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.{{BDh|1307|0|30 March 2020|Work|Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn (aria) BWV 1127}}{{cite book

|last1 = Maul

|first1 = Michael

|author-link1 = Michael Maul

|date = 2005

|chapter = 'Alles mit Gott und nicht ohn' ihn' – Eine neu aufgefundene Aria von Johann Sebastian Bach

|trans-chapter =

|chapter-url = https://doi.org/10.13141/bjb.v20051759

|editor1-last = Wollny

|editor1-first = Peter

|editor1-link = Peter Wollny

|title = Bach-Jahrbuch 2005

|trans-title = Bach Yearbook 2005

|url = https://journals.qucosa.de/bjb/issue/view/166

|series = Bach-Jahrbuch

|language = de

|volume = 91

|others = Neue Bachgesellschaft

|location = Leipzig

|publisher = Evangelische Verlagsanstalt

|publication-date = 2006

|pages = 7–34

|doi = 10.13141/bjb.v2005

|isbn = 3-374-02301-0

|issn = 0084-7682

}}

=Secular cantatas=

{{see also|List of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach#History}}

Bach composed the first version of his secular cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208 (Hunting Cantata) for performance on {{nowrap|23 February 1713}}.BDW {{BDW|0261}} at Bach Digital

References

{{s-start}}

{{s-lit|Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach by chronology}}

{{s-bef|before=Bach's early cantatas}}

{{s-ttl|title=Weimar cantatas|years=1708–17}}

{{s-aft|after=Köthen: Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen, BWV Anh. 5}}

{{s-end}}

{{Church cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Category:Bach cantatas by period of composition

Category:1710s in music