Иоганн Себастьян Бах: Шіркеу кантатасы "Жаным Құдайды дәріптейді"

Church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach

In 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV (Bach Werke Verzeichnis (catalogue of Bach's works))10, as part of his second cantata cycle. Taken from Martin Luther's German translation of the Magnificat canticle ("Meine Seele erhebt den Herren"), the title translates as "My soul magnifies the Lord". Also known as Bach's German Magnificat, the work follows his chorale cantata format. Bach composed Meine Seel erhebt den Herren for the Feast of the Visitation (2 July), which commemorates Mary's visit to Elizabeth as narrated in the Gospel of Luke, 1st chapter, verses 39 to 56. In that narrative the words of the Magnificat, Luke 1:46–55, are spoken by Mary. Traditionally, Luther's translation of the biblical text is sung to a German variant of the tonus peregrinus or ninth psalm tone, concluding with a doxology, translated from the Gloria Patri, on the same tune. Bach based his BWV 10 cantata on Luther's German Magnificat and its traditional setting, working text and melody into the composition as he had done with Lutheran hymns in other chorale cantatas. By early July 1724 Bach was more than a month into his second year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. BWV 10 is the fifth of 40 chorale cantatas he started that year. The outer movements of the cantata are set for mixed choir and an orchestra consisting of trumpet, two oboes, strings and continuo. Luther's translation of Luke 1:46–48 is the text of the first movement. The canticle's doxology is the text of the last movement. The five middle movements are a succession of arias and recitatives, with, between the fourth and sixth movement, a duet for alto and tenor. Soprano and bass each have one aria, and the two recitatives are sung by the tenor. The text of the arias and recitatives is paraphrased and expanded from Luke 1:49–53 and 55. The text of the duet is Luther's translation of Luke 1:54. The melody associated with Luther's German Magnificat appears in movements 1, 5 and 7. The music of two of the cantata's movements was published in the 18th century: an organ transcription of the duet was published around 1748 as one of the Schübler Chorales, and the closing chorale was included in C. P. E. Bach's 1780s collection of his father's four part chorales. The entire cantata was published in the first volume of the 19th century first complete edition of Bach's works. In 20th and 21st century concert and recording practice the cantata is often combined with other German language cantatas, but also several times with settings of the Latin Magnificat, by Bach and other composers.

Late May 1723 Bach took office as Thomaskantor (Kantor at St. Thomas) and director musices (music director) in Leipzig. He remained in that office until his death in 1750. From the first Sunday after Trinity in 1723, that year falling on 30 May, to Trinity Sunday of the next year he presented a series of church cantatas known as his first cantata cycle. The cantatas of that cycle were often based on music he had composed before his Leipzig period. From the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724, that year falling on 11 June, he started his second cantata cycle with forty chorale cantatas composed to new librettos. Each of these librettos was based on the text of a known chorale, usually a Lutheran hymn, the tune of which was adopted by Bach in his setting. The first weeks of the post Trinitatem (after Trinity) season included the Feast of John the Baptist (24 June) and the Feast of the Visitation (2 July). In Bach's time Protestant Leipzig observed three Marian feasts requiring Figuralmusik. In the context of the liturgical year Visitation was the third of such occasions, after Purification, falling in the period of the Sundays after Epiphany, and Annunciation, falling around Easter. Several traditions regarding these Marian feasts, such as the selection of readings for the church services, were continued from the period before Leipzig had adopted Lutheranism. Cantatas with a text in the native language had, since the early 18th century, become the dominant genre of figural music in Reformed German regions. Practices rooted in older traditions included the occasional performance of a Latin Magnificat on occasions such as Marian Feasts or Christmas. Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, for Visitation, is the fifth chorale cantata Bach presented in 1724. Its text is based on Luther's German translation of the Magnificat. The singing tune associated with that version of the Magnificat, a German variant of the tonus peregrinus, appears in Bach's composition.

The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Book of Isaiah, the prophecy of the Messiah , and from the Gospel of Luke the narration of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, which includes her song of praise, the Magnificat This gospel reading is a biblical episode that is often represented in art, especially in music where it has become a traditional part of Vesper services. In Bach's time, the German Magnificat was regularly sung in Leipzig in vespers in a four part setting of the ninth psalm tone (tonus peregrinus) by Johann Hermann Schein. Different from the other chorale cantatas of the cycle, the base for text and music is not a chorale, but the German Magnificat. It is a canticle, a biblical song in prose concluded by the traditional doxology. The text is based on Luther's translation of the biblical song to German in the Luther Bible, and on the doxology. In the format of the chorale cantata cycle, an unknown librettist retained some parts of Luther's wording, while he paraphrased other passages for recitatives and arias. He used the original verses 46–48 for the first movement, verse 54 for the fifth movement, and the doxology for the seventh movement. He paraphrased verse 49 for the second movement, verses 50–51 for the third, verses 52–53 for the fourth, and verse 55 for the sixth movement, the latter expanded by a reference to the birth of Jesus. Bach's music is based on the traditional ninth psalm tone which was familiar to the Leipzig congregation.

One of Bach's predecessors as director musices of the Neukirche in Leipzig was Melchior Hoffmann. Around 1707 he composed a German Magnificat in A minor based on Luther's German translation of the Magnificat. The portfolio of performance parts of this composition was updated until well into Bach's time in Leipzig. The work, known as Kleines Magnificat (Little Magnificat), was for some time attributed to Bach, but later listed as spurious in the BWV catalogue (BWV Anh. 21 / Anh. III 168‑>). BWV 189, a Visitation cantata on a libretto that paraphrases the text of the Magnificat canticle, also seems rather to have been composed by Hoffmann than by Bach, to whom this work used to be attributed. Johann Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor as Thomaskantor, composed a Latin Magnificat in two versions: one version with only the Latin text of the Magnificat for Marian feasts such as Visitation, and another version expanded with four German and Latin laudes relating to Christmas. When Bach presented his Latin Magnificat in 1723 (E flat major version, BWV 243a) it had the same expandable format: without laudes for Visitation, and with four laudes, on the same text as Kuhnau's, for Christmas. Another composition presented by Bach at that year's feast of the Visitation was Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, an expanded version of an Advent cantata composed before his Leipzig period (BWV 147a). A repeat performance of BWV 243a may have accompanied the first performance of BWV 10 on 2 July 1724. The libretto of the cantata performed in Leipzig at the feast of the Visitation of 1725 survives. Maria Aurora von Königsmarck is the possible author of this Magnificat paraphrase. Around a decade before the libretto was reprinted in Leipzig it had already been set by Reinhard Keiser and Johann Mattheson. It is not known whether Bach set the libretto, neither which setting of the libretto was used for the 1725 Visitation feast in Leipzig. Around 1733 Bach transposed his Latin Magnificat to D major (BWV 243). Besides transposing, he also applied a few modifications: for instance in the movement that has Luke 1:54 as text he replaced the trumpet as performer of the cantus firmus by two oboes. Around a decade later Bach prepared two Latin Magnificats by other composers for performance (BWV 1082, BWV Anh. 30). Probably around the same time Bach performed BWV 10 again. Several characteristics of the Magnificats and Visitation cantatas of the first half of the 18th century are combined in Bach's German Magnificat: it uses text of Luther's translation of the Magnificat, like BWV Anh. 21 and Picander's 1728 libretto, and it uses text paraphrased from the Magnificat like BWV 189 and the 1725 Visitation cantata. Like the Meiningen libretto used for JLB 13 the cantata not only starts with a dictum but also has a second dictum, directly quoted from Luther's translation of the New Testament, near the middle of the cantata (movement 4, "Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn", in Johann Ludwig's cantata, and movement 5, "Er denket der Barmherzigkeit" in BWV 10). This characteristic sets BWV 10 apart from Bach's other chorale cantatas, which as a rule contained quotes from Lutheran hymns, not from biblical prose. Some musical similarities between BWV 10 and Bach's Latin Magnificat have been described. Philipp Spitta sees a similar musical treatment at the end of the respective movements based on the Luke 1:51 text, which are the central "Fecit potentiam" movement of the Latin Magnificat and the third "Des Höchsten Güt und Treu" movement of BWV 10. The movements with respectively the German and Latin text of Luke 1:54 present the tonus peregrinus melody associated with Luther's German Magnificat as a cantus firmus played by wind instruments. The "Suscepit Israel" movement of the BWV 243a version of the Latin Magnificat has that cantus firmus performed by a trumpet. In the later BWV 243 version of the same movement the trumpet has been replaced by two oboes. In the corresponding movement of BWV 10 ("Er denket der Barmherzigkeit") the cantus firmus is performed by the trumpet and the two oboes. Masaaki Suzuki assumes that this should be interpreted as trumpet for the original 1724 version, replaced by two oboes in the 1740s revival version, the same modification that occurred to the related movement of the Latin Magnificat.

Karl Richter programmed BWV 10 along Bruckner's 150th Psalm at his first concert in Ottobeuren in 1957. In the 1960s, Paul Steinitz's and Fritz Werner's recordings of the cantata were released on LPs which also featured another German cantata by Bach. On Richter's 1978 LP release BWV 10 was also combined with other German Bach cantatas. Karl Münchinger's 1968 recording and Hans Joachim Rotzsch's 1978 recording of BWV 10 were issued on LPs which included their respective performances of Bach's Latin Magnificat. Also Michael Gielen's concert at the 1991 combined Bach's German and Latin Magnificat. Teldec's, Hänssler's, Koopman's, Brilliant Classics' and Suzuki's complete Bach cantata recordings include a recording of BWV 10. Roland Büchner's 2000 recording, with the Regensburger Domspatzen, combined Bach's German Magnificat with the 1723 Christmas version of his Latin Magnificat (BWV 243a). Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage featured BWV 10 in a concert recorded in 2000. Ton Koopman's concert at the 2003 Leipzig Bach Festival combined BWV 10 with the Christmas versions of Bach's and Kuhnau's Magnificat, thus allowing to compare similar works of two consecutive Thomaskantors. Sigiswald Kuijken recorded BWV 10 for his Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year series in 2007. The same year, a concert at the Indiana University combined Bach's Meine Seel erhebt den Herren cantata with a 2005 Magnificat by Sven David Sandström. Gustav Leonhardt, Pieter Jan Leusink and Ton Koopman used period instruments for their complete Bach cantata recordings. Also Musica Florea, the orchestra on Büchner's recording, performs on historic instruments. Instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are highlighted green under the header "Instr. (Type of instruments)". + Recordings of Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, issued on LP, CD, SACD and/or DVD Title Conductor / Choir / Orchestra Soloists Label Year Instr.