Thomas Braatz wrote (January 1, 2003):
BWV 28 - Provenance:
The Autograph Score:
The autograph score went to C. P. E. Bach after Bach’s death and it was still listed among the items in C. P. E. Bach’s estate in 1790. The next owner was Georg Poelchau, who, in turn, gave it as a present to Carl Friedrich Zelter. The latter presented it (sold it?) to the Berliner Singakademie, which, in 1854, sold it to the BB.
The cover page was written by Johann Andreas Kuhnau, but Bach did insert :
1 Cornetto è Tromboni
At the top of the 1st page Bach wrote:
JJ. Doica post Xsti Nativit: Concerto
Above Mvt. 2: Choral. Allabreve
The time signature of mvt. 5 Bach originally had indicated as 6/4
Above the final chorale: Choral
At the very end: Fine SDGl
The Original Parts:
These also went to C. P. E. Bach as part of his inheritance.
A set of parts was auctioned off to a Berlin musician by the name of Hering (or Heering,) after whose death it went to the collection of von Voß, a family also residing in Berlin. In 1851 this set of parts, along with the entire collection of manuscripts was given to the BB where the doublets which had been separated from the main set were once again added to complete the set of original parts.
Most of the parts (copied by Johann Andreas Kuhnau, Christian Gottlob Meißner, Anonymous IIe, IIf, IIIa, IIIb, and Johann Heinrich Bach. J.S. Bach copied the Cornetto part alone and completed the text in various place, then revised the parts adding dynamics, embellishments and articulation marks.
The 1st Performance:
The cantata was composed for the Sunday after Christmas, December 30, 1725 as part of the 3rd yearly cycle of cantatas in Leipzig. (Alfred Dürr) Later performances during Bach's lifetime may have taken place, but have not been documented.
Text Sources:
The text by Erdmann Neumeister was printed in the following books:
Geistliche Poesien mit untermischten Biblischen Sprüchen und Choralen auf alle Sonn- und Fest-Tage durchs gantze Jahr (Frankfurt am Main, 1714 and later printing Eisenach, 1717)
Tit. Herrn Erdmann Neumeisters Fünfffache Kirchen-Andachten (Leipzig, 1716)
Other Connections:
Mvt. 2 occurs again in the motet „Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt“ (BWV Anh. 160) with the text, „Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren.“
The basis of Mvt. 2 is the 1st vs. of the chorale, “Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren” by Johann Gramann (1487-1541) sung to the fairly well-known melody “Weiß mir ein Blümlein blaue.”
Mvt. 6 is based on the chorale, “Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen,” by Paul Eber (1511-1569) and is sung to the melody by Wolfgang Figulus (1575.)
The text, “Es soll mir eine Lust sein” is a quote from Jeremiah 32:41.
Robert Marshall is of the opinion that the 2nd mvt. is based on an earlier composition, (a parody,) since the score shows a fairly clean ‘picture’ or ‘fair copy’ of an original. It is very likely that the original had been associated with a different vs. of the chorale. The NBA editors disagree with Marshall’s contention. They see the ‘cleanness’ of the score as being caused by the duplication of the vocal parts. Once the voices had been composed, the other instruments, which play colla parte, could easily be copied with few, if any, errors. Also Bach may have made sketches which he then used as a basis for the score. |