Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16
Herr Gott, dich loben wir,, is a church cantata for New Year's Day by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first performed on 1 January 1726 in Leipzig, as part of the composer's third cantata cycle. Its libretto is by Georg Christian Lehms, as for three other of Bach's cantatas for that Christmas season that started with Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110 on Christmas Day. He opened his text with the beginning of "", Luther's German Te Deum, and continued with expressing thanks for the completed year and prayers for future blessing. The cantata is closed with a stanza from Paul Eber's "" for the closing chorale. Bach structured the work in six movements and scored it for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir, corno da caccia, oboes, strings and basso continuo. The work features an unusual aria performed by a soloist with the choir.
History and words
Bach composed the cantata in 1726, his third year as in Leipzig, for New Year's Day, which is also the feast of the circumcision and naming of Jesus. He had composed few new church cantatas in his third year in office, but began a sequence of five cantatas for the 1725/26 Christmas season with Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110. For most of them, he set texts by Georg Christian Lehms that had been published in a collection of Andachten for the occasions of the liturgical year in 1711, entitled Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer. Lehms had written the texts originally for Christoph Graupner, then music director at the Darmstadt court. Bach, then in Weimar, had set two of them in 1713 as solo cantatas. It is unclear what motivated him to set more of them in 1725. Four of the five cantatas used texts from this collection.The prescribed readings for the feast day were taken from the Epistle to the Galatians, by faith we inherit, and from the Gospel of Luke, the Circumcision and naming of Jesus. The cantata text by Lehms centres on praise and thanksgiving without being related to the readings. The poet began with four lines from Martin Luther's German Te Deum, "". The following pair of recitative and aria deal with thanks for past gifts, while a further pair deal with a prayer for further blessings. The poet did not supply a closing chorale, but Bach chose the final stanza of Paul Eber's "" .
Bach first performed the cantata on 1 January 1726.
Music
Structure and scoring
Bach structured the cantata in six movements. The outer movements—the opening chorus and the closing chorale—are sung by the choir, and frame a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. The work is scored for three vocal soloists, tenor, bass ), a four-part choir and a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of corno da caccia, two oboes, oboe da caccia, two violins, viola, violetta and basso continuo. Dürr gave the duration as 21 minutes.In the following table, the scoring follows the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. The keys and time signatures are taken from Alfred Dürr's Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach using the symbols for common time. The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.
Movements
1
In the opening chorus, "", the soprano, reinforced by the horn present the liturgical melody of the Te Deum, whereas the lower voices move in vivid counterpoint, joined by a fourth part of oboe I and violin I. The archaic style of the melody invites a composition in motet style rather than concerto. Bach hints at the traditional antiphonal singing by setting the uneven lines only with continuo, while in the even lines instruments play colla parte with the voices and an independent fifth part is played by oboe and violin.2
A secco recitative for the bass, "", ends on the words "".3
Consequently, the next movement begins attacca with the voices' "",, to which the bass voice adds: "". This unusual movement combines elements of chorus and aria in a free da capo form, with the choir repeating its call to rejoice, sometimes in fugal fashion. The first section is dominated by the chorus, the middle section by the bass. The musicologist Julian Mincham points out that it is "an unusual and imaginative combination of aria and chorus" and likens it to the interaction between a pastor and his flock. The Bach scholar Hans-Joachim Schulze notes the "aural splendor" of the "complex, multilevel structure".4
A secco recitative for the alto turns to prayer for the future: "" ; it is followed by requesting "protection, peace, and growth".5
A tender tenor aria, "", was accompanied by an obbligato oboe da caccia in the first 1726 version. In later performances of 1731 and 1740, the obbligato instrument was a "violetta", which can, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, mean a viola or a descant viola da gamba. Schulze notes that the "silver shimmer" of the violetta may hint at the "fortune" and "treasure" of the text, as in other earlier compositions by Bach.6
The cantata closes with a four-part chorale, "", described as unpretentious.Publication
The first critical edition of the cantata, edited by Moritz Hauptmann, was published by the Bach Gesellschaft in 1852 as part of its complete edition of Bach's works. In the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, the second edition of Bach's works, the cantata was published in 1965, edited by Werner Neumann.Carus published a critical edition in German and English as part of its Stuttgarter Bach-Ausgaben in 2005, edited by Michael Märker.