BWV 14 - Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit

Week 14 (9 April – 14 April 2013)

Recording: John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists; Joanne Lunn, soprano; Paul Agnew, tenor; Peter Harvey, bass

This comparatively late work (1735) was composed for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany, an event that happens only in years with a late Easter. Because it is a chorale-based composition, BWV 14 is thought to have been intended to complete the cycle of cantatas from ten years earlier, when the 1725 calendar did not contain the “fourth Sunday”. The cantata is relatively short – the Gardiner recording clocks in at under fifteen minutes – but chock full of marvelous music. Roughly contemporaneous with the Christmas Oratorio, the piece is written with a technical mastery that can be difficult to comprehend – in the sense that the listener is not at first even aware of the complexities of the piece because the construction is so seamless.

BWV 14 begins with a choral movement that provides an astonishing display of contrapuntal writing. Conceived as a counter-fugue, each entrance imitates the preceding voice, but in inverted form. Bach took each line of the first verse of Martin Luther’s hymn and developed it in this way, so that the movement has seven distinct segments, each with its own flavor – seven miniature lessons in the art of the counter-fugue. The carefully designed and paced mechanism reaches its climax with the last line, Die an uns setzen alle (all those set against us) where the compositional technique literally sets the voices against each other. To top it off, layered above the four vocal lines is the chorale theme, played by the winds and brass.

 

The vocal writing is complex and challenging for the singers – I’m betting that what Bach heard from his chancel on 30 January 1735 sounded absolutely nothing like the Monteverdi Choir! The first eighteen pages of the 38-page vocal score are this chorus, which ends up lasting about five minutes, but takes much, much longer than that to learn. The challenges just keep coming at you: diction problems such as diese Zeit, diese Zeit and uns setzen; small, medium, and large melismas (the bass part is particularly florid); a sudden transition to sustained singing at the text describing the people as a humble flock; and fast ornamentation in the exposition of the last fugue. But the coro rewards any effort put into it. Whether working on one part on your own, or participating in a choral performance, this is a piece that will improve any singer, choir, or choral conductor. It’s been fun to attempt to sing along with the recording, although I had to give it up because trying to sing to the lower pitch in the midst of all that polyphony was beyond me. But it’s one piece I intend to keep in work.

The soprano and bass arias require strong voices that can convey the invincibility of the people marching under God’s banner, while at the same time being capable of vocal lightness and agility. Both arias can stand on their own as church or recital solos, although the organ should be used for accompaniment to capture some of the instrumental colors of the original: the corno da caccia and solo violin in the soprano aria, and the oboes in the bass solo. Tasteful editing of some of the dal segno material may be useful to bring the pieces down to a manageable length. These solos are very fun, and are accessible to the alto kingdom through taking the soprano aria down a half-step (it’s not cheating, it’s Baroque tuning) and singing the bass part up an octave. Even if you don’t have the chance to perform them, the arias are well worth studying, whatever your voice part.  

 

The tenor accompagnato recitative, which acts as the structural fulcrum of the piece, provides a nice opportunity to declaim the dramatic text (courtesy of an “unknown poet”). However, less is more in this case. The drama exhibited on the Gardiner version of BWV 14 was probably riveting in a live performance, but comes across as over the top on a recording meant to be heard multiple times. Note that the piano “reduction” in the vocal score contains a fabricated treble part which should be simplified for performance in accordance with the full score.

The chorale is said to have been an old favorite of the Leipzig Lutherans, and the tune is included in the Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (1524) compiled by Luther’s friend Johann Walter. Psalm 124, which provides the basis for the verse, is a communal thanksgiving for a nation delivered from its enemies – perhaps, the verse had especial meaning in the less peaceful centuries prior to Bach’s era.

 

Martin Luther's Wer Gott nicht mit uns dise zeyt (1524)

 

In honor of John Eliot Gardiner’s 70^th birthday later this month, this week’s study recording was chosen from his series of Bach Cantata Pilgrimage performances in 2000. The recording was made in Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, England. Romsey is one of the few British churches to maintain an all-male choir, with boy trebles and adult men. They have a girls’ choir as well, but the majority of services and evensong are performed by the men. Maestro Gardiner wrote that the "beautifully proportioned Romanesque sturdiness" of Romsey Abbey "cries out for music", and the Abbey plays a significant role in the local arts community, including hosting a yearly arts festival named for one of its patron saints, the Ethelflaeda Festival. According to the brief history on the Abbey website, St. Ethelflaeda was sanctified for, among other spiritual acts, chanting psalms at night while standing naked in the near-by River Test. Maybe that included Psalm 124?