Cantata BWV 38 - Commentary

Thomas Braatz wrote (November 8, 2001):
BWV 38 - Commentaries:

Until the middle of the 20^th century, the commentaries by Bach scholars on this particular cantata were generally negative, if there were any commentaries at all. Voigt comments: This cantata is a very somber composition almost all the way through, and where Bach intended to insert material to provide a lighter contrast to the whole, it does not succeed.

Mvt. 1 has a very terse style with a tendency to becoming very austere. This is a style which befits the Luther chorale upon which it is based. The tenor aria is conspicuously dismal. The opening, dissonant chord (Sekundakkord) of the final chorale is remarkable. It is a clear example to prove how Bach expected almost no separation between the mvts. of the cantata. Voigt's suggestion: Cut as much of the tenor aria as you can to avoid repeating the entire 1^st section again.

Schweitzer goes even beyond Voigt's final statement: "It is as well to omit the solitary aria the cantata contains. The unendurably wretched declamation proves the music to have been borrowed from another work." [All subsequent research has turned up nothing that would support Schweitzer's supposition.] "The 1^st mvt. is in the form of a concise chorale motet. The final trio also has a motet character; it should, of course, be performed by a small chorus, not by the soloists. "

Smend notices that the somber mood of the 3^rd mvt.(tenor aria) is brightened up at the end of the middle section at the words, "Sein Trost wird niemals von dir scheiden." This tenor aria is based on the opening chorale melody. Smend is the first commentator to notice how unusual the 2^nd recitative (soprano) is: It is the only example in Bach of a recitative being 'carried' by the bc which plays the chorale melody. (Dürr uncovers another unusual aspect: this is a recitative written and performed 'a battuta' [Bach's own indication] which simply means that instead of the freer recitative style normally used, a strict rhythm is maintained throughout.) In this recitative Bach moves from the a minor of the preceding aria to the d minor of the terzetto.

The Esoteric Bach (Gematria):

Smend points out the following: The 1^st mvt. contains 140 measures. (10 X 14) . Unless the accompanying voices/parts are automatically forced to conform to the chorale, the number of melodic lines is significant. There are 29 melodic lines that appear in the contrapuntal voices, 7 are in the cantus firmus and 22 of these in the accompanying voices [in the final chorale line, the altos have a corrupted imitatory figure and the bass/bc enters one last time with the incipit melody of the chorale.] The total number of Bach's name [14] and his monogram (J.S.B. [9 plus 18 plus 2]) are represented in this figures. For those unfamiliar with gematria, allow me to explain some of the ground rules.

The creative number alphabet that Bach used looks like this:

A = 1 G = 7 N = 13 T = 19
B = 2 H = 8 O = 14 U/V = 20
C = 3 I/J=9 P = 15 W = 21
D = 4 K = 10 Q = 16 X = 22
E = 5 L = 11 R = 17 Y = 23
F = 6 M = 12 S = 18 Z = 24

Examine the name "BACH". Expressed in numbers, as you substitute numbers for the letters, it is: 2 1 3 8. This number can be 'read' in a number of different ways: as a sum [14], as a product [48 from 2 times 1 times 3 times 8] or even [798 from 21 times 38]. The sequence or the grouping of the numbers may vary as well: the sum [59 from 21 plus 38] or simply in a different arrangement: [3128]. The all important number 14 can be reversed in crab-like fashion to become 41 [which happens to be the total of "J.S.BACH"]. 158 is derived from "JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH". Adding a zero (a decimal increase) is also allowed, resulting in numbers such as 1580 from 158 plus the additional decimal, 1400 from 140, 384 from 3 times 128, 576 from 32 times 18, or even 1660 from 2 times 1 times 830.

The Libretto:

As a chorale cantata, BWV 38 follows the usual scheme: the first and last verses are maintained unchanged from the original chorale by Martin Luther based on the 130th Psalm. The unknown librettist then poetically transforms the inner verses while still retaining some of the important ideas. Only the text for the 4th mvt. has no direct connection with the chorale text. Dürr points out that the Leipzig churches had a longstanding tradition to link this chorale with the 21^st Sunday after Trinity, particularly since it reflects a key thought contained in the Gospel reading (Joh. 4: 46-54) [Jesus heals an official's son]: that the official "aus großer, tiefer Not" ("out of a great need") "Rufen/schrei ich zu dir" ("calls and cries out to Jesus for help" because his son is terminally ill. Important emphasis is placed upon the words, "Trost" ("comfort" or "consolation") and "Trostwort" ("a spoken word that consoles" = Jesus' statement "Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.") This is then expanded to include the listener who recognizes Jesus' power to do miracles, such as save a sinful individual from eternal damnation, if the individual has the power to believe in Jesus' word just as the official did.

The Music:

Just as Bach did in BWV 2, he applies here the stile antico, eliminating the orchestral, concertante ritornello in favor of the older motet style. The intended effect is to return to an earlier style of singing which was much more serious and strict. The instruments follow the vocal parts colla parte with only the bc deviating from the vocal lines at times. Each line of the chorale melody is presented in the fashion of a Pachelbel chorale prelude for organ: the accompanying vocal lines first present, each line separately and building upon the ones that went before, the chorale melody in a fugal style before the cantus firmus (soprano) enters in augmentation (the notes are given double length) while the accompanying parts attempt to interpret the text being sung. For instance, in the line with "erhör mein Rufen" ("hear my call"), Bach introduces an upward leaping interval that imitates such a call; in the line containing "neig her zu mir" ("incline your head (your hearing) toward me") there are motifs which move scale wise downwards; and the most obvious one on "Sünd und Unrecht" ("sin and injustice") contains a chromatic figure that needs further explanation. It appears first at the very beginning in the bc as it moves upward, then downward. At ms. 226, when "Sünd und Unrecht" is sung for the first time, this figure is reversed, beginning with the downward motion which is then followed by the upward motion. Did Bach have a theological connection in mind with this musical device? Is the instance beginning at ms. 226 an image of Christ coming down to us (chromatically through all the sin and injustice) and then rising victorious above all this dissonance, after we have called to him (ms.1 ff.)? In mvt. 4, which, based on the text, that is the farthest removed from the chorale text, Bach decides to 'reconnect' the missing link by introducing a unique feature: the a battuta recitative which has the entire chorale melody in the bc, thereby forcing the recitative to move forward in strict time.

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Last update: ýAugust 22, 2003 ý15:04:49