Cantata BWV 114
Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost
Provenance

Thomas Braatz wrote (September 29, 2002):
BWV 114 - Provenance:

The Autograph Score:

The autograph score very likely was inherited by W. F. Bach along with the scores to most of the chorale cantatas composed by J. S. Bach. After that, the first identifiable owner was Carl Pistor, Privy Postal Councilor, who had acquired it in Berlin in 1827 at an auction along with numerous other Bach manuscripts. It then went to his son-in-law, Adolf Rudorff, who then gave it to his grandson, Ernst Rudorff. It was at this time that the BGA editor Alfred Dörffel, used it for the publication of Vol 24 of the BGA in Leipzig in 1876. Ernst Rudorff then attempted unsuccessfully to sell it between the years 1893 and 1895 through the auctioneer Stargardt, in whose catalog it appeared during those years. It went unsold and remained in his possession until his death in 1916. In 1917 the Music Library of the Peters Music Publishing Co. acquired it along with the greatest portion of his collection. In 1945 an unknown/unnamed American collector purchased it from the Peters Music Library. The NBA KB does not indicate whether they were able to inspect this score for its new printing. They may have relied upon all the notations given by Dörffel in 1876.

The cover title was written by Johann Andreas Kuhnau, but on top of the 1st page Bach wrote:

J. J. Doica 17 post Trinitat. Ach lieben Xsten seyd getrost

At the end of the manuscript Bach wrote :
Fine
SDG.

The Original Set of Parts:

These were given to the St. Thomas School in Leipzig, but arrived there under special circumstances described by Bernhard Friedrich Richter in the BJ in 1906. The doublets which were at one time together with the original score were lost at some point during the 20th century.

Kuhnau copied almost all the parts with the exception of the Corno part in mvt. 1 (Bach did this himself); Anonymous IIc was the copyist for the transposed continuo part. Bach then inserted the numbers for the figured bass. Bach also checked through all the parts, correcting errors, making changes to the positioning of the text under the notes, putting in all the phrasing marks and dynamics.

The Date of Composition:

1^st performance took place in Leipzig on October 1, 1724. (Dürr) It appears that there may have been another, later performance during Bach’s lifetime.

Cantata BWV 114: Complete Recordings | Recordings of Individual Movements | Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2