Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123
Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, 123, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Epiphany and first performed it on 6 January 1725. It is based on the 1679 hymn of the same name by Ahasverus Fritsch which is focused on the contrast of the vanities of the world and the trust in support by Jesus.
The cantata is part of Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as that began in 1723. In the style of the cycle, an unknown poet retained the outer stanzas for framing choral movements and paraphrased the inner stanzas into four movements for soloists, alternating recitatives and arias. Bach scored the work for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of traversos, two oboes d'amore, strings and basso continuo.
History, hymn and words
Bach wrote the chorale cantata in his second year in Leipzig to conclude a set of Christmas cantatas on the Feast of Epiphany. The prescribed readings for the feast day were taken from the Book of Isaiah, the heathen will convert, and from the Gospel of Matthew, the Wise Men From the East bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn Jesus. The cantata text is based on the chorale in six stanzas by Ahasverus Fritsch. The hymn is focused on the expectation of Jesus supporting the believer in sufferings on the "journey of the Cross" and the vanities of the world, expressing that hate and rejection cannot harm those who believe. It is among the few rather new hymns within Bach's chorale cantata cycle, influenced by early Pietism. The melody is found in the Darmstädter Gesangbuch published in 1698.In the format of the chorale cantata cycle, an unknown poet retained the first and the last stanza, and paraphrased the inner stanzas to a sequence of as many recitatives and arias. The text has no specific reference to the readings, but mentions the term Jesusname, reminiscent of the naming of Jesus celebrated on 1 January. The poet inserts "" as a likely reference to the Epiphany, and alludes to Christmas by "".
Bach led the Thomanerchor in the first performed of the cantata on 6 January 1725.
Music
Structure and scoring
Bach structured Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen in six movements. Both the text and the tune of the hymn are retained in the outer movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing chorale. Bach scored the work for three vocal soloists, tenor and bass ), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two traversos, two oboes d'amore, two violin parts, a viola part, and basso continuo. The duration is given as 22 minutes.In the following table of the movements, the scoring, keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr's standard work Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach. The continuo, which plays throughout, is not shown.
Movements
, who conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 performing the cantatas for Epiphany at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, described the two works for the occasion, Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, and Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen as "two of Bach's most striking Leipzig cantatas".1
In the opening chorus, "", Bach uses the beginning of the chorale melody as an instrumental motif, first in a long introduction, then as a counterpoint to the voices. The instruments, paired transversos, oboes and violins, play the material alternately. The soprano sings the cantus firmus in long notes. The lower voices are set mostly in homophony, which is unusual in the chorale cantata cycle. Two exceptions intensify certain passages; the call "" is rendered by many calls in the lower voices, and the text of the final line is first sung by the bass to the melody of the first line, which alto and tenor then imitate while the soprano sings the text to the chorale melody of the last line, achieving a connection of beginning and end of the movement. The prominent woodwinds, two flutes and two oboes d'amore, and the time create a pastoral mood. Albert Schweitzer said of this chorus that the cantata Liebster Immanuel "is one of those that one cannot forget, so simple are the harmonies and indefinable their charm.2
A secco recitative for alto expresses "". The voice narrates with emotion, for example in a rising tritone ro express the word "".3
The tenor aria, "", is accompanied by two oboes d'amore. It is focused on "", illustrated by a chromatic ritornello of four measures in constant modulation. When the ritornello appears again at the end of the first section, it is calmer in the melodies, with the chromatic theme in the continuo, perhaps because the singer claims he is not frightened. In the middle section, thunderstorms are pictured "allegro" in "rapid vocal passages", which calm to "adagio" on "" ; this reference to the Epiphany is rendered more prominently by musical means than in the text.4
A bass secco recitative expresses "". Bach illustrates the beginning line by "a ninth descending in third intervals", and in contrast the imagined victory in "a major scale descending in octaves".5
The bass aria, "", features a flauto traverso as obbligato instrument. The phrase about "troubled solitude" is illustrated by "harmonic twists". Gardiner described it as "one of the loneliest arias Bach ever wrote". The voice is only accompanied by a single flute and a "staccato" continuo. Gardiner described the vocal line as "fragile" and "bleak in its isolation", and compared the sound of the flute to "some consoling guardian angel".6
The cantata is closed by an unusual four-part chorale, "". The Abgesang of the bar form is unusually repeated, the repeat marked piano. The reason is likely the text which ends "". Dürr noted similar soft endings also in Bach's early cantatas BWV 106, and BWV 171, but also in 1725 in BWV 68.\header
\paper
\layout
global =
soprano = \new Voice = "sopvoice" \relative c''
alto = \new Voice \relative c'
tenor = \new Voice \relative c'
bass = \new Voice \relative c
verse = \new Lyrics = "firstVerse" \lyricsto "sopvoice"
\score
\score