Vocal soloists for Venetian Vespers

Victoria Fraser, soprano, was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, soprano Victoria Fraser holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Notre Dame, and University of Limerick in Ireland. Victoria has performed as a soloist and chorister in Europe and North America, notably with Il Coro del Duomo in Florence, Italy; the Vocalensemble Frankfurt Dom, in Frankfurt, Germany; Vox Humana in Texas; True Concord in Arizona; the Berwick Chamber Chorus at the Oregon Bach Festival; and the Bachkantaten-Akademie in Thuringia, Germany.  She has sung under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, Helmut Rilling, Matthew Halls, John Nelson, and Jeffrey Thomas. Passionate about interdisciplinary performance, Victoria produces and performs concerts which re-contextualize classical music through visual art, dance, and technology. Also a composer, Victoria’s compositions were featured at last year’s Hot Air Music Festival, at the San Francisco Conservatory. Born to a mountaineer father, Victoria loves to ski, rock climb, mountain bike, hike, SCUBA dive, and row. 

Proud CBS chorister from 2011-2017, soprano Caroline Jou Armitage is known to Bay Area audiences for her “absolutely beautiful” performances sung with “pitch-perfect clarity and affecting intensity” (San Francisco Classical Voice). As a frequent soloist with the California Bach Society, she has performed Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Cantatas BWV 21 and 198, Bach’s Mass in G Major, Bach’s Mass in A Major, and Schütz’s Weihnachtshistorie (role of Angel). At the Amherst Early Music Festival, Caroline has been a featured soloist in Carissimi’s Historia di Jephte (under the tutelage of soprano Julianne Baird), Caldara’s Il giuoco del quadriglio (coached by harpsichordist Arthur Haas), and excerpts from the Roman de Fauvel, directed by Sequentia’s Benjamin Bagby. She presented a concert of Handel opera arias and duets with contralto Karen Clark, as well as a solo harpsichord recital, at the 2018 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition. Caroline has participated in early keyboard masterclasses with Arthur Haas, Peter Sykes, and Catalina Vicens, and currently studies harpsichord with Tamara Loring Greene. On March 26, 2022, in a departure from early music, she will be singing Webern’s Dehmel lieder with pianist Janis Mercer at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. Caroline studies voice with Karen Clark.

Pablo Corá, tenor, holds music degrees from Ithaca College and Indiana University. Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mr. Corá has sung both as a soloist and chamber musician in a wide variety of repertory ranging from early music and oratorio to twentieth-century opera.  He has performed at the Argentine Colón Theatre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Disney Concert Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella.  He is also a founding member of the award-winning Concord Ensemble. He has collaborated with historically informed ensembles such as the Folger Consort, Piffaro, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra and the Catacoustic Ensemble in works ranging from Renaissance Florentine and English music to operas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

His recording credits include works for the label Harmonia Mundi with Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices and The Pro Arte Singers, Dorian Recordings with The Concord Ensemble and Piffaro, Rubis Canis Mundi (RCM) with the L.A. Master Chorale and Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella, Gothic Records. He has also recorded contemporary works, including Steve Reich’s You Are Variations and Daniel Variations for Nonesuch and J.A.C. Redford’s music for the Clarion label.  He was featured in Los Angeles Chamber Singers & Cappella’s GRAMMY© winning recording Padilla: Sun of Justice. He also has a few movie soundtracks to his credit, including License to Wed, Lady in the Water, and most recently Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

As an early music singer and a composer, N. Lincoln Hanks, tenor, thrives at both ends of the music spectrum. Lincoln studied early music performance practice with Thomas Binkley at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. While at Indiana University he co-founded the Concord Ensemble, an a cappella group that won Grand Prize in the first Early Music America/Dorian Records Competition.  Lincoln currently performs often as a singer with the baroque ensemble Tesserae, and with several other vocal groups in the Los Angeles area.

Lincoln’s accolades include winning the Contemporary Choral Composition Competition from the Roger Wagner Center for Choral Studies and an ASCAP Foundation/Morton Gould Young Composer Award. His work has been commissioned and performed by many distinguished artists and groups, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cyprus String Quartet, The Dale Warland Singers, San Francisco’s Volti vocal ensemble, and pianist Paul Barnes. Lincoln directs the composition program at Pepperdine University in Malibu and co-directed The Ascending Voice, an international symposium of sacred a cappella music. 

Praised for his purity of tone and expressive musicianship, bass/baritone Scott Graff has appeared as a soloist with the California Bach Society, the Carmel Bach Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Musica Angelica, Catacoustic Consort, and Synchromy. Now in his 22nd season with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Scott is part of their touring company presenting Orlando di Lasso’s monumental Lagrime di San Pietro (directed by Peter Sellars); over 30 performances have taken place from Berkeley to Auckland. In addition to live performance, Scott has participated in soundtrack recordings for more than 60 feature films (Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Jumanji, Frozen, Minions, Smallfoot, and Sing, to name a few) and television projects (The Book of Boba Fett, Outlander, various Mickey Mouse short cartoons, House of Cards, and Family Guy).

Program Notes for Venetian Vespers

PROGRAM NOTES

Italy in the time of Monteverdi

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the concept of "Italy" existed only as a geographical entity. Although the inhabitants of the peninsula shared much in common in terms of history, culture, and language, in political terms, there were various layers of authority and jurisdiction, primarily city-states ruled by powerful families. 

In music history, the Venetian School was the body and work of composers working in Venice from about 1550 to 1610, many working in the Venetian polychoral style. The Venetian polychoral compositions of the late sixteenth century were among the most famous musical works in Europe, and their influence on musical practice in other countries was enormous. The innovations introduced by the Venetian School, along with the contemporary development of monody and opera in Florence, together define the end of the musical Renaissance and the beginning of the musical Baroque.

Several major factors came together to create the Venetian School. The first was political: after the death of Pope Leo X in 1521 and the Sack of Rome in 1527, the long dominant musical establishment in Rome was eclipsed. Many musicians either moved elsewhere or chose not to go to Rome, and Venice was one of several places to have an environment conducive to creativity.

Another factor, possibly the most important, was the existence of the splendid St. Mark's Basilica, with its unique interior with opposing choir lofts. Because of the spacious architecture of this basilica, it was necessary to develop a musical style which exploited the sound-delay to advantage, rather than fought against it.  Thus, the Venetian polychoral style was developed, the grand antiphonal style in which groups of singers and instruments played—sometimes in opposition and sometimes together—united by the sound of the organ. 

Yet another factor which promoted the rich period of musical creativity was printing. In the early 16th century, Venice, prosperous and stable, had become an important center of music publishing; composers came from all parts of Europe to benefit from the new technology, which then was only a few decades old. Composers from northern Europe—especially Flanders and France—were already renowned as the most skilled composers in Europe, and many of them came to Venice. The international flavor of musical society in the city was to linger into the 17th century.

In the 1560s, two distinct groups developed within the Venetian School: a progressive group and a conservative group.  Members of the conservative branch tended to follow the style of Franco-Flemish polyphony, including Rore, Zarlino, and Merulo; members of the progressive group included Donato, Croce, and later Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. An additional point of contention between the two groups was whether Venetians—or at least Italians—should be given the top job of maestro di cappella at St. Mark's. Eventually the group favoring local talent prevailed, ending the dominance of foreign musicians in Venice. In 1603, Giovanni Croce was appointed to the job, followed by Giulio Cesare Martinengo in 1609

The peak of development of the Venetian School was in the 1580s, when Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli composed enormous works for multiple choirs, groups of brass and string instruments, and organ. These works are the first to include dynamics and are among the first to include specific instructions for ensemble instrumentation. Organists working at the same time included Claudio Merulo and Girolamo Diruta. They began to define an instrumental style and technique which moved to northern Europe in the succeeding generations, culminating in the works of Sweelinck, Buxtehude, and eventually J.S. Bach.  

Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Christian liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Greek ἑσπέρα and the Latin vesper, meaning "evening.”

Vespers typically follows a set order that focuses on the performance of psalms and other biblical canticles.  Our concert features settings of psalms and a canticle that are commonly used in the Vespers order of service.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (1567–1643) 

Beatus vir (psalm)

Monteverdi was an Italian composer, string player, choirmaster, and priest. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history.

Born in Cremona, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua (c. 1590–1613) and then until his death in the Republic of Venice, where he was maestro di cappella at the St. Mark’s Basilica. 

He defended his sometimes novel techniques as elements of a seconda pratica, contrasting with the more orthodox earlier style, which he termed the prima pratica. Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the twentieth century. 

Giovanni Rovetta (c. 1595/97–1668) 

Dixit Dominus (psalm)

Laudate pueri (psalm)

Lauda Jerusalem (psalm)

Confitebor tibi (psalm) 

Rovetta was an Italian Baroque composer and maestro di capella at St. Mark's Basilica between Monteverdi and Cavalli. He may have been a choirboy at St. Mark's, where his father played. He was a chorister, instrumentalist, and assistant maestro di capella under Monteverdi, and finally served as Monteverdi's successor from 1664 until his death. His style reflects Monteverdi's influence, but also displays a distinct and individual talent for melody. 

Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, 1602–1676) 

Magnificat (canticle)

Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. He took the name "Cavalli" from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli. Cavalli, the composer, was born in Crema, Lombardy. He became a singer at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 maestro di cappella after Rovetta. He is chiefly remembered for his operas. 

Sources: Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque ;Robert Hugill, Music Web International; Wikipedia

—Patricia Jennerjohn

Soloists and Instrumentalists for our Holiday Concerts

Artistic Director Paul Flight leads the 30-voice choir with vocal soloists and an orchestra of period instruments, featuring some of the finest early music specialists in the Bay Area.

Vocal soloists Caroline Jou Armitage, soprano, and Sepp Hammer, baritone, will join the chorus for Schutz’s Weihnachtshistorie, with our own Paul Flight as The Narrator.

Caroline Jou Armitage, Soprano

Proud CBS chorister from 2011-2017, soprano Caroline Jou Armitage is known to Bay Area audiences for her “absolutely beautiful” solo performances sung with “pitch-perfect clarity and affecting intensity” (San Francisco Classical Voice). A frequent soloist with the California Bach Society, she has performed Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Cantatas BWV 21 and 198, Bach’s Mass in G Major, Bach’s Mass in A Major, and Respighi’s Lauda per la Nativita (role of Angel). Caroline sang Handel opera arias and duets with contralto Karen Clark at the 2018 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition and appeared as a soloist with the Amherst Early Music Festival. Her operatic roles include Laetitia in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Lucy in Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, the First Lady and Papagena from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Norina in scenes from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. She was the featured soloist in a concert of opera arias and choruses with Chora Nova where she sang arias from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Weber’s Der Freichütz, and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. In March 2022, she will be performing Webern’s Dehmel lieder with pianist Janis Mercer. Caroline currently studies voice with Karen Clark and harpsichord with Tamara Loring Greene.

Sepp Hammer, Baritone

Sepp Hammer’s voice has been described as showing “warm baritone gravity” (The Boston Globe). His concert engagements in recent seasons include the role of Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with California Bach Society, Eupolemus in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with Philharmonia Baroque, Bach's Schwingt freudig euch empor with Cantata Collective, Zelenka’s Gloria with Chora Nova, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with Contra Costa Chorale, and, with various ensembles, Charpentier Messe des Morts, Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae, Bach Magnificat, Bach B Minor Mass, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Schubert Mass in G Major, Brahms Requiem, Fauré Requiem, and Duruflé Requiem. On the opera stage, Sepp’s roles include Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, the title role in Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, the Speaker in The Magic Flute, and John Proctor in The Crucible. Sepp holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from New England Conservatory and is a member of the Philharmonia Baroque Chorale.

Orchestra

Lars Johannesson and Alissa Roedig, recorder

John Thomas, alto sackbut

Becca Burrington, tenor sackbut

David Deitch, bassoon 

Christine Meals and Rachel Hurwitz, violin

Elizabeth Reed, treble viol   

Daniel Deitch, treble viol

Farley Pearce, cello

Cheryl Ann Fulton, harp

Yuko Tanaka, organ

Program Notes for our December concert, Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz (1585–1772) is generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of the 17th century. 

Heinrich Schütz

Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi is a setting of the Gospel that is intended to be performed during a service instead of the Gospel reading. It is a late work, composed when Schütz was 75 years old, and it features the more austere musical style that Schutz adopted late in life. Schütz had travelled a lot throughout his life and had lived through the Thirty Years' War; this contributed to the "serenity of the composer’s late works".

The music was probably first performed in a Christmas service at the court chapel of Johann Georg II, Elector of Saxony, in Dresden in 1660. The text is almost exclusively taken from the Bible in the translation by Martin Luther, quoting both Luke and Matthew. The work is framed by a choral Introduction and Beschluss (conclusion).

It is scored for soloists and choir in up to six parts (SSATTB) and orchestra.  The Evangelist is a tenor singing secco recitative (following the patterns of speech rather than a strict rhythm), a tradition which Bach continued.  Additionally, Schütz uses the “Italian dramatic recitative style” for these recitatives. Music historian Michael Zwiebach notes that this style “has unexpected twists that emphasize particular words, and it shifts tonal centers rapidly to reflect dramatic events." The angel is sung by a soprano with two violins (or treble viols), a trio of shepherds is accompanied by pastoral recorders, the words of the priests are set as a quartet.  Herod is accompanied by trumpets (or sackbuts), setting his worldly power apart from the "more potent, less showy, heavenly host".

Samuel Scheidt (1587 –1654) was a German composer, organist, and teacher of the early Baroque era. Scheidt composed in two principal categories: instrumental music, including a large amount of keyboard music, mostly for organ; and sacred vocal music, some of which is a cappella and some of which uses a basso continuo or other instrumental accompaniment.  

Nun komm der Heiden Heiland is a motet for double choir, which was written around 1635. The chorale tune is an Advent hymn, and it is handed off to different vocal parts as the music progresses.  

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) enjoyed early success in Germany; he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, notably with his performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. He was well received in his travels throughout Europe as a composer, conductor, and soloist; his ten visits to Britain—during which many of his major works were premiered—formed an important part of his adult career.  After a long period of relative neglect due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has been re-discovered. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. 

Weihnachten is an eight-part motet from Mendelssohn’s series of motets (Sechs Spruche, Op. 79) for the Christian liturgical year. Mendelssohn composed these motets during the mid-1840s for the Cathedral Choir of Berlin. This motet’s relative brevity, exuberance, lyricism, and rich uncomplicated harmonic style are typical of many of his sacred choral compositions.

Mikołaj Zieleński (1560–1620) was a Polish composer, organist, and Kapellmeister to the primate Baranowski, Archbishop of Gniezno. This motet is from the Offertoria/Communes totius anni, which contains his only surviving compositions. Lætentur cæli (The Heavens Rejoice) is written for two equal choirs in the Venetian Baroque style.  The text (from Psalm 95) is used for the offertory for Christmas Eve Midnight Mass.  

Maciej Małecki (b. 1940) is a Polish composer and pianist. He studied at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music (graduating 1965) and the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York 

Lulajże, Jezuniu (Lullaby Little Jesus) This is the best-known Polish Christmas carol.  A young and homesick Frederic Chopin incorporated this melody into the middle section of his B minor Scherzo.  Małecki’s arrangement was originally for voices, soprano soloist, and orchestra. We thank him for this special arrangement with piano accompaniment, which he graciously made for the California Bach Society.

Giovanni Croce (1557–1609) was an Italian composer of the Venetian School in the late Renaissance. He was particularly prominent as a madrigalist. Stylistically, Croce was more influenced by Andrea Gabrieli than his nephew Giovanni; Croce preferred the emotional coolness, the Palestrina clarity, and the generally lighter character of Andrea's music. Croce’s sacred music shows a development from the even-textured style of Palestrina to the more modern Venetian style of his day.  

Quaeramus cum pastoribus, a double choir motet for Christmastide, features the typical “call and response” writing, but it does not adhere fully to that Venetian style, as sometimes a question-and-answer alternates between the two choirs (the typical Venetian treatment), and at other times each choir asks and answers the questions by itself.  The two choirs separate and join, creating varied textures and sonorities. Sections of the motet are separated by the traditional “noe, noe” Christmas response.

Verbum caro factum est (The Word was Made Flesh) was arranged by the noted Waverly Consort founders and leaders, Mike and Kay Jaffee, and featured on their 1999 CD The Christmas Story.  The Consort was founded in 1964 to explore the sounds and styles of early musical repertoire. A review of this CD states: “One of the more interesting selections is the 14th century Italian lauda ‘Verbum caro factum est’. . .that shows just how able and artful this group is in preserving the music’s ancient-ness while making it alive and immediately appealing to modern listeners.” —David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The lauda was the most important form of vernacular sacred song in Italy in the late medieval era and Renaissance.  It was often associated with Christmas, and so is in part equivalent to the English carol, French noël, Spanish villancico, and like these genres occupies a middle ground between folk and learned lyrics. After 1480 the singing of laude was extremely popular in Florence since the monk Savonarola (and others) had prohibited the dissemination of any other style of sacred vernacular music.

Ivar Widéen (1871–1951) was a Swedish organist and composer. Widéen was greatly inspired by the music of Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg, and August Söderman. He had a prominent role in Swedish choral music. He was principal conductor of the Småland Sångarförbund and led that choir at annual national choir festivals.

På krubbans strå (In the Manger Straw) is a sweet and understated setting of a hymn from the Swedish Psalm Book, addressing Jesus in the manger.

Johannes Berckelaers (15?–16?) was a Flemish composer working in Antwerp.  The Cantiones natalitiae (Birth Songs) is a collection of settings of traditional Christmas carols by lesser-known church composers from Ghent, Antwerp, and Brussels. They are Flemish (and occasionally Latin) Christmas texts and tunes, most of which had existed since the Middle Ages and were widely popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries throughout the Low Countries.

Hoe leyt dit kindeken is a four-part song from this collection, arranged in a simple verse form with the tune set in the top voice.  It is believed that these songs were sung during the placing of the Christ Child figure in the manger during the Christmas service. Parents took their children into the church, with each child having a crib with a bell attached to it. When during the mass the priest began to rock the baby on the altar and sang Eia, eia, eia, all the children also rocked their cribs and sang Eia. This was accompanied by a lot of noise and bells ringing. The words Sus sus, na na na kindeken probably refers to this practice.

John Paynter (1931–2010). Raised in a working-class family in South London, Paynter was a passionate advocate for choral music and music education.

The Rose (1969), a setting of an anonymous text from the 15th century, was composed for a choir divided into two parts, with alto and baritone solos. “The gradual ‘unfolding’ of the music symbolizes the opening of the rose (and its closing during the final stanza)," writes Paynter.  “The music does try to suggest the suspension of time, such as one has with the opening of a flower: it grows yet it does not appear to move (hence the lack of harmonic movement). Such movement as there is emphasizes the change in vocal colors rather than changes of harmony.” Near the middle, Paynter has the main choir (Choir I) ad-lib the durations of the words they sing to a G major chord while Choir II adds on “fragmentary statements at the indication of the conductor” so as to create an effect of “bell-harmonics or the sympathetic reverberation of harmonics on strings.” —Los Angeles Master Choir program notes, December 2016. 

Peter Warlock (pseudonym of Philip Arnold Heseltine, 1894–1930) was a talented, troubled, and eccentric British composer and author.  Early on, he was strongly influenced by Frederick Delius. He was almost entirely self-taught, and admired the music of Debussy, Liszt, and Bartok.  His songs alternate between the lyricism of Delius and a roistering spirit reminiscent of the first Elizabethan age. His personality veered between extroverted, heavy-drinking joviality, and neurotic introspection.  And he has also been described as a supreme “carrolist” of the century, perhaps of all time. 

The First Mercy (1926) was originally a solo song and an early collaboration between the composer and Bruce Blunt, with whom he would soon after write perhaps his best-known choral work, Bethlehem Down. Warlock arranged the carol for upper voices (SSA) and piano in 1927. It is a simple carol with mostly homophonic textures and some of Warlock’s characteristic harmonic twists,

Where Riches is Everlastingly is set for four-part chorus and organ. The text is from the early 16th century. Rhythmic and graceful, it alternates between unison and part writing.   

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era.  Exceptionally prolific and versatile, Charpentier produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres. His mastery in writing sacred vocal music, above all, was recognized and hailed by his contemporaries.

Salve puerule (Hail, little boy) is the last movement of Charpentier’s Christmas cantata In Nativitem Domini nostril Jesu Christi.  Each verse of this five-part setting is set apart by a charming instrumental ritornello.

Sources

Wikipedia

Los Angeles Master Choir

ClassicsToday.com

The Peter Warlock Society

• Patricia Jennerjohn

Die Familie Bach: Texts and translations

Details about the October 10 performance, including text and translations, can be downloaded here.

If you missed our opening concert, or you chose not to attend in person, you can purchase a video ticket for access to the live recording. You’ll find more details on our Tickets page.

Click the image to download the PDF.

The Bachs were a remarkable family of musicians

The Bachs were a remarkable family of musicians who were proud of their achievements. About 1735 Johann Sebastian Bach (the most famous member in our times) drafted a genealogy, in which he traced his ancestry back to his great-great-grandfather Veit Bach, a Lutheran baker (or miller) who late in the 16th century was driven from Hungary to Wechmar in Thuringia, a historic region of Germany, by religious persecution; he died in 1619. There were Bachs in the area before then, and it may be that, when Veit moved to Wechmar, he was returning to his birthplace. He used to take his cittern (an ancestor of the lute) to the mill and play it while the mill was grinding. Johann Sebastian remarked, “A pretty noise they must have made together! . . .This apparently was the beginning of music in our family.”

 Many of the works of this Bach family were unknown to most musicians (or incorrectly attributed to others) until the rediscovery of the collection “Alt-Bachisches Archiv” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s music library.  After Bach’s death, this was passed on to his second-oldest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. The collection finally found its way into the possession of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, but was lost in the turmoil of the Second World War. After its spectacular rediscovery in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1999, the manuscript was returned to Berlin in 2001.  

J.S. Bach and sons

Johann Bach (1604-1673), great uncle

Born in Erfurt, Johannes was the eldest son of Johannes Hans Bach. He was the father of the so-called "Erfurt line" of Bach family musicians. The family was so numerous and so eminent that in Erfurt musicians were known as "Bachs", even when there were no longer any members of the family in the town. 

 Unser Leben is ein Schatten 

The motet is scored for eight parts, consisting of two choirs: the first choir is in five parts and the second, in three parts. In the opening, the composer uses musical gestures to underscore the text. The words “Unser Leben,” sung in a solemn low register, are effectively contrasted with “ist ein Schatten,” with rapid and fleeting rising lines on the word “Schatten.” Another instance of word painting is in the final chorale, where the last phrase “müssen alle davon” (must all vanish) is repeated several times and progressively accelerates, while at the end, all other voices hush and the sopranos sing “davon” one last time, before they, too, fall silent.

“For me there is hardly another musical work that conveys the ‘spirit’ of the Baroque–especially the era of the Thirty Years War, which was characterized by a sense of both transience and hope–as aesthetically and impressively as Unser Leben ist ein Schatten.” From the Carus choral music blog.

Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), uncle 

Within the Bach family Johann Christoph was highly respected as a composer (a “profound'” one, according to the Ursprung[ST1] ). In J.S. Bach's writings, he is mentioned expressly as one who “was as good at inventing beautiful thoughts as he was at expressing words. He composed, to the extent that current taste permitted, in a galant and cantabile style.” 

Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener

This is a graceful and simple setting of the famous Song of Simeon (Nunc dimittis), from the St. Luke Gospel.  The text is enhanced by beautiful and elegant rhythmic gestures. 

Es ist nun auf mit meinem Leben

This motet is a setting of four of the six verses of the chorale; the harmonization is simple, and yet the rising line in the soprano part near the end of each verse adds a lyrical dimension.  The text is given all of the attention here, and the challenge is to make each verse (otherwise in an identical musical setting) convey its particular message.  The overall theme of the motet is a sweet acceptance of death.

Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf

Apparently, Johann Sebastian Bach arranged an instrumental accompaniment to this motet a few months before his death in 1750 and possibly also asked for it to be performed for his funeral. Christoph Wolff, said, "It is an extraordinarily expressive piece that gives us an insight into Bach's funeral, about which we basically knew next to nothing beyond that Bach was put in an oak casket and given a free hearse."



Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731), distant cousin

Johann Ludwig Bach was born in Thal near Eisenach. He was a third cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made copies of several of Johann Ludwig’s cantatas and performed them at Leipzig.  

 Unsere Trübsal die zeitlich und leicht ist

The motets of Johann Ludwig Bach are rooted firmly in the shorter motets from the Thuringian tradition, but as a court composer he was exposed to other styles and incorporated them as well. Varying ensembles and dialogue-like passages contribute to these richly expressive compositions. In this motet, for example, the composer employs various configurations of the high, middle, and low voices to add color to the words.  The mournful first section on life’s tribulations yields to a joyful section in triple meter, expressing anticipation and hope, and a concluding section of vigorous rhythms, contrasting the “seen” and “unseen” glories to come after suffering ceases.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) 

This composer barely needs an introduction, as the most well known, thoroughly researched, and most performed member of this family. However, as we see from the family history, he comes from a long line of distinguished musicians.  

Johann Sebastian Bach

 For about fifty years after Bach’s death, his music was neglected. This was only natural; in the days of Haydn and Mozart, no one took much interest in a composer who had been considered old-fashioned even in his lifetime. Yet, his music never went out of circulation entirely, at least among sophisticated musical circles, and broader general interest in his works was revived by such nineteenth century composers as Mendelssohn and Schumann. In retrospect, the Bach revival, reaching back to 1800, can be recognized as the first example of the deliberate exhumation of old music, accompanied by biographical and critical studies. The revival also served as an inspiration and a model for subsequent work of a similar kind.

 Jesu, meine Freude

This motet is one of the few works by Bach for five vocal parts. Christoph Wolff suggested that the motet may have been composed for education in both choral singing and theology. Unique in its complex symmetrical structure juxtaposing hymn text and Bible text, the motet has been regarded as one of Bach's greatest achievements in the genre. 

 As a key teaching of the Lutheran faith, the Bible text reflects on the contrast of living "in the flesh" or "according to the Spirit." The hymn text was written by the theologian Johann Franck, from an individual believer's point of view, that addresses Jesus as joy and support, against enemies and the vanity of existence, which are expressed in stark images. The hymn adds a layer of individuality and emotions to the Biblical teaching.

The music is arranged in different layers of symmetry around the sixth movement. The first and last movements have the same four-part setting of two different hymn stanzas. The second and next to last movements use the same themes in fugal writing. The third and fifth movements, both five-part, mirror the seventh and ninth movements, both four-part. The fourth and eighth movements are both trios: the fourth for the three highest voices; the eighth for the three lowest voices. The central movement is a five-part fugue. The six hymn stanzas form the odd movement numbers, while the even numbers each take one verse from the Epistle as their text. 

 Ich lasse dich nicht

This SATB double choir motet was attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach when it was first published in 1802. Around 1823 the motet was published as a composition by Johann Christoph Bach, after which its attribution became a matter of discussion among scholars. 

 The text of its first movement consists of a quote from Genesis 32:27 and the third stanza of the Lutheran hymn "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz." Such a mixture of scripture and chorale texts was common for motets of the generation before Johann Sebastian, as was its eight-part setting. Over-all the complexity and style of this movement's setting appears closer to similar works by a young Johann Sebastian than to works by a mature Johann Christoph.     

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Bach Family: (From Left) Johann Sebastian, Carl Phillipp Emanuel, Johann Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christoph Friedemann

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795), son

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was a son of J. S. Bach and his second wife, Anna Magdalena. He pursued a fusion of the counterpoint he had learned with "the simpler textures and harmonies of the South," namely, the Italian style.

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme

This is a chorale motet composed around 1780. It is based on Philipp Nicolai's hymn by the same name.

The motet is written for a four-part choir. It is structured in three movements, corresponding to the three stanzas of the hymn. The first movement is an extended chorale fantasia; the second develops motifs from the first movement; the third includes a quotation of his fathers's closing chorale from his cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. 

The musicologist S. Lachtermann notes: "The shape of the lines, and the contour of the harmonic progression are 'modern,' but the interlacing of voices and the focus on individual words harken back to his father’s art." 

 Sources:  Wikipedia, Carus Music blog, Professor Christoph Wolff (Harvard University), Encyclopedia Brittanica

Patricia Jennerjohn, September 2021

Soloists for our Interactive Workshop on Cantata 6, June 5, 2021

Victoria Fraser

Victoria Fraser, soprano

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, soprano Victoria Fraser holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Notre Dame, and University of Limerick in Ireland. Victoria has performed as a soloist and chorister in Europe and North America, notably with Il Coro del Duomo in Florence, Italy; the Vocalensemble Frankfurt Dom, in Frankfurt, Germany; Vox Humana in Texas; True Concord in Arizona; the Berwick Chamber Chorus at the Oregon Bach Festival; and the Bachkantaten-Akademie in Thuringia, Germany. 

She has sung under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, Helmut Rilling, Matthew Halls, John Nelson, and Jeffrey Thomas. Passionate about interdisciplinary performance, Victoria produces and performs concerts which re-contextualize classical music through visual art, dance, and technology. Also a composer, Victoria’s compositions were featured at last year’s Hot Air Music Festival, at the San Francisco Conservatory. Born to a mountaineer father, Victoria loves to ski, rock climb, mountain bike, hike, SCUBA dive, and row. 

Gabriela Estephanie Solis

Gabriela Estephanie Solis, mezzo-soprano

Noted for her "rich tone" and "seemingly effortless melismatic lines" (San Francisco Classical Voice), mezzo-soprano and San Francisco Bay Area native Gabriela Estephanie Solís enjoys a varied career throughout the U.S. She performed as a young artist at the Boston Early Music Festival in performances of Handel’s Orlando (role of Medoro) and in scenes from Cavalli’s L’Erismena (Orineo) at the Amherst Early Music Festival.

As a passionate concert soloist, some of her notable repertoire includes Bach’s B Minor Mass (American Bach Soloists Festival and Academy), Handel’s Messiah (Eureka Symphony), Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi’s Gloria (First Church Berkeley). Ensemble collaboration includes performances with the American Bach Soloists, Gaude SF, Cappella SF, JSB Ensemble Stuttgart, and the Weimar Bach Cantata Academy. She also sings regularly with the California Bach Society for works such as Monteverdi’s Vespers, Rachmaninoff’s All-night Vigil, and various masses and cantatas by J.S Bach.

Border CrosSing, a Minnesota-based choral group, also regularly engages her in performances of Spanish-langage repertoire; with them, she sang as a choir member and soloist in performances of Golijov’s rarely performed La Pasión según San Marcos.

Past accomplishments include winning the Bethlehem Bach Aria Competition and receiving first place in various divisions at NATS Indiana, San Francisco Bay Area chapter competitions. Most recently, she won second place in the NATS Mid-Atlantic regionals and was a finalist for the Kentucky Bach competition. Gabriela is a graduate of the Sacred Music Program at the University of Notre Dame, where she co-wrote winning grants for the Institute of Liberal Arts and received the program’s vocal performance award. 

Mark Bonney

Mark Bonney, tenor

British-American tenor Mark Bonney performs internationally. He is in Glasgow this 2020-2021 season, where he is completing the Advanced Opera Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 

Recent roles have included Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Berlin Opera Academy), Count Barigoule in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon (Wexford Opera Festival), Jonathan in Handel’s Saul with Laurence Cummings (Dartington International Festival), the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion (Amsterdam), the title role in Handel’s Jephtha (Iford Arts & Bath Choral Society) and Paolino in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto (Pop-up Opera).

In addition to his work as a soloist, Mark has performed in the chorus at Opera Holland Park, Wexford Festival Opera, Bury Court Opera, Iford Arts, with the Monteverdi Choir, and with Barbara Hannigan at the Aldeburgh Festival. He is often invited to perform with leading ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort, Britten Sinfonia and Le Concert d’Astrée. 

Mark grew up in San Francisco. Before embarking on his career as a classical singer, Mark worked in socio-economic development in Egypt—before, during, and after the Arab Spring. In addition to a masters in music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University. He also studied at the Berlin Opera Academy, the Franz Schubert Institute and the American Institute of Musical Studies.

Scott Graff

Scott Graff, bass

Praised for his purity of tone and expressive musicianship, bas-baritone Scott Graff has appeared as a soloist with numerous ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Musica Angelica, Catacoustic Consort, the Carmel Bach Festival, and Synchromy. With California Bach Society, he sang the role of Christ in our performances of Bach’s St. John Passion in 2010.  Scott has been featured as a soloist in the City of Beverly Hills’ Music in the Mansion Series and has performed solo recitals for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auxiliary.

Scott is also an active ensemble singer. Now, in his 21st season with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, he is part of their touring company presenting the staged and memorized production of Orlando di Lasso’s monumental Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars. Tour performances have included Melbourne, Auckland, Chicago, Mexico City, Guanajuato, London, and Paris; in 2019, the production was the opening program for the Salzburg Festival. He also completed a tour of Europe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing John Adams’ new oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Scott was also part of the Los Angeles Chamber Singers recording Padilla: Sun of Justice, which was awarded the 2007 Grammy® for Best Small Ensemble recording.

In addition to live performance, Scott has participated in soundtrack recordings for more than 60 feature films (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Frozen, Minions, Venom, and Sing, among others) and television projects (Outlander, House of Cards, Family Guy, and various Mickey Mouse cartoons).

He is an instructor of voice on the music faculty of Pomona College in Claremont, California.

J.S. Bach's Cantata 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen Zagen

J.S. Bach wrote Cantata 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, wailing, fretting, fearing) for the third Sunday after Easter, while working in Weimar in 1714. Even though that Sunday is called “Jubilate” in the church year, all the cantatas Bach wrote for this particular Sunday contain a lot of sorrow and grief. This makes sense when we look at the Gospel reading for that day. It is one of the so-called Farewell Discourses Jesus gave to his disciples in the weeks before he was arrested and crucified. Jesus told his twelve disciples that they would experience sorrow and tribulations, but that their grief would not be of long duration (only a “little while”) and that it would turn into joy. (John 16:16-23).

In almost every movement of this cantata, Bach shows that there is no solace without sorrow, and he illustrates how the two themes are connected. For the full German text of this cantata with English translations, please visit this website.

Bach sets the cantata’s second movement for chorus; You might recognize this music: it would later become “Crucifixus” in his Mass in B Minor.  Bach chooses a standard tool of Baroque composers to illustrate a lament, whether in an opera or an oratorio: a chaconne or passacaglia with a repeating “walking” bass motive. Earlier examples of this are Dido’s Lament by Purcell and Lamento della Ninfa by Monteverdi. Bach repeats the lamento bass exactly twelve times, and builds all the dissonant lines of the “Weinen” (weeping) and “Klagen” (complaining) on top of that. 

German Bach researcher Michael Maul (see the note at the end of this article) believes that Bach uses the number 12 on purpose. He thinks Bach must have wanted the voices in this choral piece to represent the twelve disciples from the Gospel story, which occurs before Judas’s betrayal and the crucifixion. In his podcast Maul also states that he doesn’t know if there exists a better lament in choral literature than the chorus of this cantata. 

The alto recitative is a direct quote from another part of the Bible, Acts 14:22: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” It is only seven measures long, but in those seven measures Bach expresses everything he wants to say in this cantata. Above the alto’s lament in the sorrowful key of C-Minor, the first violins play an upward scale in the optimistic key of C-Major, providing an ascent to Heaven and thus illustrating the words “enter the kingdom of God.”

British conductor John Eliot Gardiner points out that the entire cantata can be seen as an ascent to Heaven, or an “escape ladder” as he calls it, because each movement is a third higher than the preceding one.

In the alto aria Bach and his librettist explain that Kreuz und Krone (Cross and Crown) are connected, as are Kampf und Kleinod (Conflict and Jewel). Of course here the Cross and the Conflict are symbols of the present life with its tribulations and sorrows, while the Crown and the Jewel are symbols of the future life in which the disciples will see Jesus again.

Dutch Bach researcher Eduard van Hengel explains that after the “instructional” statement in both alto solos, it seems that Bach uses the bass aria to show the “exemplary believer” who has understood the message and who confirms that he will follow Jesus: “Ich folge Christo nach.” Bach beautifully paints this image of the believer following in Jesus’ footsteps by four voices repeating each other: the two violins, the continuo, and the bass soloist. 

And what about those first six notes, on the syllables Ich - fol - ge - Chri - sto - nach? Those are the same six first notes of the closing chorale: Was - Gott - tut - das - ist - wohl.  And that is of course not a coincidence. At the end of the aria, when Bach sets the words “Ich folge Christo nach” one final time, the jump in the vocal line is one note more than an octave. Van Hengel thinks that in writing it like this, Bach wants to remind the listeners/believers of the upward scale of the first violins in the alto recitative, and thus make them understand that by following Jesus, they will reach the kingdom of God.

In the tenor aria, Bach again shows there is a connection between sorrow and solace. The tortuous vocal line (written for a star singer at the Weimar court*) can be seen as an illustration of how difficult it can be to remain steadfast under provocation. In the text of this aria, there are strong references to Jesus’ promise to the disciples that it would only be “a little while” until they see him again. Bach then adds the chorale Jesu, meine Freude to this aria. The chorale appears only in the instrumental accompaniment**, not in words, but the church-goers in Weimar would have heard the words in their head:

Jesu, meine Freude,
Jesus, my joy,
Meines Herzens Weide,
My heart's delight
Jesu, meine Zier,
Jesus, my treasure
Ach wie lang, ach lange
Ah how long,ah how long
Ist dem Herzen bange
must my heart be anxious
Und verlangt nach dir!
And full of longing for you!
Gottes Lamm, mein Bräutigam,
Lamb of God, my bridegroom
Außer dir soll mir auf Erden,
Besides you there is in on earth
Nichts sonst Liebers werden.
Nothing else that is dearer to me.

It is likely that Bach offers this chorale to remind the listener of the promise and hope of seeing Jesus again. John Eliot Gardiner takes it a bit further. Continuing his theme of the “escape ladder,” he suggests that the believer is now standing “on the last rung of the ladder” and needs a bit of help. In his view, the chorale should thus be seen as “an outstretched hand.” No matter what Bach meant with it, and no matter if you hear the words of the chorale in your head or not, the result of this clever combination is the best kind of consolation in the form of music, and simply a gorgeous composition.

This article was written by Wieneke Gorter, helped by John Eliot Gardiner’s notes from when he performed this cantata during his Bach Pilgrimage Tour in 2000, Eduard van Hengel’s Dutch Bach cantata website, and a German-language podcast by Michael Maul, who is one of Germany’s top Bach researchers of today. 

*According to Michael Maul, the star tenor at the Weimar court as of 1705 was Andreas Aiblinger, a former monk from a prestigious Catholic abbey outside of Vienna, who also sang at the Opera in Vienna and in the city’s churches. He left the abbey presumably to go on a pilgrimage to Rome but ended up in Weimar. There he was converted to Lutheranism at the court chapel, and immediately thereafter entered into the Duke’s employment as secretary and singer, earning a similar salary as Bach himself.

**Bach wrote this part for a special kind of slide trumpet, but in our workshop, it will be played on violin. 

Soloists for our Interactive Workshop on Cantata 12, May 15, 2021

Holly Piccoli

Holly Piccoli, violin

Australian violinist Holly Piccoli is a member of the Omaha Symphony and the Melbourne Piano Trio. Her career  spans an extensive range of styles performing with ensembles such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Piccoli has also worked in the pop scene, having performed with Olivia Newton-John, Hugh Jackman, as well as frequently performing on live-to-air Dancing with the Stars Australia. 

Career highlights include performing in Manhattan with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra as Concertmaster and soloist for Bach's St. Matthew Passion; at the Sanguine Estate Music Festival  (Australia), performing masterworks with champion violinists Anthony Marwood and Andrew Haveron; at the Valley of the Moon Festival (Sonoma), performing Schubert's Death and the Maiden string quartet on period instruments; touring China as concertmaster of the Australian International Opera Company Orchestra; and most recently recording Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Apollo’s Fire.

Ms. Piccoli received her training in modern violin at the Australian National Academy of Music and Yale University, and began her baroque violin career during her fellowship in the Yale Baroque Ensemble. 

Kyle Stegall

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Kyle Stegall’s performances around the world have been met with accolades for his “blemish-free production” (Sydney Morning Herald) and “lovely tone and ardent expression” (New York Times). 

Mr. Stegall’s successful solo debuts in Japan, Australia, Vienna, Italy, Singapore, and Canada as well as on major stages across America have been in collaboration with many of the world’s most celebrated artistic directors including Manfred Honeck, Joseph Flummerfelt, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki and Stephen Stubbs. He is the tenor soloist on American Bach Soloists’ historic video recording of Handel’s Messiah and he recorded a solo album “Myrtle and Rose,” with Lieder by Clara and Robert Schumann.

This year, Mr. Stegall travels to Bremen to record Desmarest’s Circé; sings Evangelist in Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium with Bach Society Houston, and returns to Valley of the Moon Music Festival with fortepianist Eric Zivian for Beethoven, Wolf, Brahms and Lang Lieder.  Further details for upcoming engagements and updates on forthcoming audio and video releases can be found at kylestegall.com.

Marc Pantus

Marc Pantus, bass-baritone

Dutch bass-baritone Marc Pantus is at home in opera as well as oratorio repertoire. He has been a soloist with Vox Luminis, the Dutch National Opera, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble. As a stage director, he has created productions for Wishful Singing, Luthers Bach Ensemble, and the Netherlands Bach Society (Bach’s Coffee Cantata and an upcoming program about Alzheimer's disease with music by J.S. Bach, C.Ph.E. Bach, Pandolfi, and Ligeti).

In October 2016 we were fortunate to welcome Mr. Pantus as a guest with California Bach Society. He sang the bass arias, as well as the roles of Peter and Pilate, in our award-winning performances of the St. Matthew Passion. San Francisco Classical Voice wrote: “Among the soloists bass baritone Marc Pantus stood out. Singing the roles of Peter and Pilate, he brought a deeply felt texture to the dual tasks.” In addition to participating in numerous traditional performances of Bach’s Passions in the Netherlands, he has also been featured in various modern interpretations of the works, such as Willem van Merwijk’s arrangement of the St. Matthew Passion for brass ensemble, percussion ensemble, and four singers for the Residentie Orkest.

His solo-CD Harry: Heine in Holland (Harmonia Mundi NL), featuring Lieder written by Dutch composers on German texts by the renowned poet Heinrich Heine, received four stars in the highly regarded Dutch/Belgian CD review magazine Luister and five stars in Dutch national newspaper Trouw, as well as glowing reviews in many other newspapers. 

Mr. Pantus studied with Udo Reinemann and Meinard Kraak at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands. He received a fellowship from the Steans Institute for Young Artists in Chicago, where he studied with Thomas Allen, Christa Ludwig, Barbara Bonney, Elisabeth Söderström and Roger Vignoles. 

Paul Flight

Paul Flight, artistic director and countertenor

Artistic director Dr. Paul Flight — a noted choral conductor, teacher, and singer — is in his fifteenth season (2020-2021) with the California Bach Society. A former member of such distinguished ensembles as the Waverly Consort, Theatre of Voices, Pomerium Musices, and the New York Collegium, he brings a wealth of expertise to CBS. 

For nine years Dr. Flight was principal conductor of the Madison Early Music Festival, where he directed masterworks by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Purcell, Dufay, and Guerrero. He has twice been a visiting professor of music at the University of California at Berkeley, directing the music department's top choral ensembles. As a visiting professor at Mills College, he has lectured on opera, and music history and form. He conducted an operatic double-bill production of Gustav Holst's Savitri and Darius Milhaud's Les malheurs d'Orphée for Mills College. 

A renowned countertenor, Dr. Flight has performed works by John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, and Unsuk Chin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Cincinnati May Festival and the Norwegian State Opera. In 2003 he sang the title role in Philip Glass's Akhnaten for Oakland Opera Theater. He made his debut at the Kennedy Center in 2008, singing the first countertenor role in Adams's El Niño, and in August, 2010 he made his debut at the Edinburgh International Festival singing the third countertenor role.

Dr. Flight received his doctorate from Indiana University, where he studied conducting with Robert Porco. His research focused on the Venetian composer Giovanni Croce (1557-1609). He has recorded a program featuring the music of Croce for Harmonia, a nationally syndicated radio show, and has appeared several times as a guest on KALW radio's performing arts programs My Favorite Things and Open Air.

J.S. Bach's first true Leipzig cantata

Even though Cantata 105 Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (Enter not into judgement with Thy servant, O Lord)  is the ninth cantata Bach performed after taking up his post in Leipzig in 1723, it can be seen as his first original cantata from Leipzig. The previous eight cantatas had, at least partly, either been written ahead of time, while Bach still lived in Köthen, or were reworkings of cantata movements Bach had written earlier in his career. Thus cantata 105 can be seen as Bach’s first true Leipzig cantata. 

And Bach did his very best with this cantata, because most scholars consider this composition one of his masterworks. Alfred Dürr, normally extremely careful with praise, even goes so far as to declare it  “one of the greatest soul paintings of Baroque and Christian art.” 

Seen from that viewpoint, it is extra interesting that this cantata contains several features that would later turn up in Bach’s Passions. It is possible that he was experimenting with ideas for those compositions, perhaps even planning for them already as early as that summer of 1723. Or maybe he was just so proud of this Cantata 105 that he referred back to it when composing those later works. Whether there is a connection between the different compositions or not, the new features in this cantata are striking, and worth looking at.

If you would like to follow along in the score or read the text, you can find the German text with English translations here, and the full score here. (To participate in our workshop as a singer, please use the vocal reduction score available here).

Pleading to God in the opening chorus:

Bach might have referred back to the opening chorus of Cantata 105 from 1723 when writing the opening chorus of his St. John Passion for Good Friday, 1724. The “Herr, Herr” exclamations, the pulsating bass notes, and the crunching harmonies in the first instrumental measures are some features that appear in both compositions. Already after the first few measures you know there is something very special happening.

A soprano aria without a foundation

The exquisite soprano aria has no cello, bassoon, or organ in the accompaniment. This is extremely unusual for a Bach aria, or any aria of the Baroque era. The accompaniment consists only of oboe, violins, and viola. Bach omits the music’s foundation on purpose, to illustrate the wavering and uncertainty expressed in the text. This is made even more apparent by the “trembling” in the violin parts. Note that these same trembling strings appear again in the violin parts of this cantata’s closing chorale.

It is the first time ever that Bach leaves out the bass instruments when writing an aria for a cantata. He will experiment a bit more with this technique two weeks later, in the soprano aria “Liebster Gott, erbarme dich”  from Cantata 179, though not as drastically as in Cantata 105. The score for that aria does include a line for the bassoon or cello, but not for the organ. When Bach applies this model again for the alto aria “Ich will auch mit gebrochen Augen” in Cantata 125 in 1725, he explicitly writes in the score that the organ is to play only the written notes, “no accompaniment” (i.e. no chords).

The pinnacle of a Bach aria without bass instruments is the “Aus Liebe” aria from the St. Matthew Passion, from 1727. There are truly no bass instruments in the accompaniment for that aria; there are just two oboes and a flute. The oboes are the lowest instruments here, similar to the viola in the soprano aria of Cantata 105.

The deeply moving and comforting bass arioso

There is no way to prove this, but it seems that Bach might have thought of this moving and comforting bass arioso from Cantata 105 when he wrote the bass arioso “Am Abend da es kühle war” for his St. Matthew Passion. It is not exactly the same music, and the movement from the St. Matthew Passion has one more line of text, but the style and the idea behind it are similar. In the cantata the text about carrying a body to the grave refers to the believer’s body, while in the bass arioso from the St. Matthew Passion it refers to Jesus’ body.

An uncommon closing chorale

The closing chorale of this cantata is very different from most closing chorales of Bach’s cantatas. Bach uses the 11th verse of a special chorale, Jesu der du meine Seele, which we know from Cantata 78. Normally Bach lets the instruments double the vocal parts, but in this case he writes independent lines for the two violin parts and the viola part. At first, these are exactly the same repeating chords as used earlier in the soprano aria. But at the start of the third line of the text, the “trembling” slows down; at the fifth line, it slows down even more; and at the 7th line the rhythm changes from ominous to dance-like. With this, Bach illustrates that the fear has gone and the beating heart has calmed down. Life is still a tribulation (hence the dissonant harmonies from the opening chorus still present here), but the believers can be assured that they will be saved in the end. Showing the entire story of the cantata in the closing chorale is something Bach has not done prior to writing this cantata.

Wieneke Gorter, March 2021.