Weimar cantata (Bach)

Johann Sebastian Bach worked at the ducal court in Weimar from 1708 to 1717. The composition of cantatas for the Schlosskirche (court chapel) on a regular monthly basis started with his promotion to Konzertmeister in March 1714.^[1]

From 1714 to 1717 Bach was commissioned to compose one church cantata a month. His goal was to compose a complete set of cantatas for the liturgical year within four years. In the course of almost four years there he thus covered most occasions of the liturgical year.^[2]

The first version of Liebster Gott, vergisst du mich, BWV 1136 (formerly BWV Anh. 209), a lost cantata the libretto of which was written by Georg Christian Lehms and published in 1711 for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, may have been composed in Weimar.^[3]

Apart from some Weimar cycle cantatas which may have been composed before they were adopted into that cycle (BWV 18, 21, 54 and 199):

• Lost council election cantatas for Mühlhausen:
  • 1709: second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192)^[4]
  • 1710: third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2 (formerly BWV deest)^[5]
• Doubtful work:
  • New Year: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 143 (likely 1709–1711)^[6]

The expression "Weimar cycle" has been used for the cantatas composed in Weimar from 1714 (which form the bulk of extant cantatas composed before Bach's Leipzig time).^[7][8]

Cantatas 54 and 199 were performed within the cycle but possibly composed earlier. BWV 18 and 21^[9] may also have been composed before 1714.

• Annunciation (Mariae Verkündigung): Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182 (performed on Palm Sunday 25 March 1714)
• Jubilate (third Sunday after Easter): Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (22 April 1714)
• Pentecost: Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 (Weimar version in C major: 20 May 1714)
• Third Sunday after Trinity: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21 (C minor, Weimar: 17 June 1714; D minor, Köthen/Hamburg: 1720)^[10]
• Oculi (Third Sunday of Lent): Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54 (4 March 1714?)
• 11th Sunday after Trinity: Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199 (12 August 1714: Weimar version in C minor; restaged in Köthen in a version in D minor)
• First Sunday of Advent: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 (2 December 1714)
• Christmas Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63 (25 December 1714)^[11]
• Sunday after Christmas: Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152 (30 December 1714)
• Sexagesima (Second Sunday before Lent): Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18 (early version in G minor, Chorton: 24 February 1715)^[12]
• Oculi (Third Sunday of Lent): Alles, was von Gott geboren, BWV 80a (24 March 1715 or 15 March 1716; music lost)^[13]
• Easter: Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31 (Weimar version: 21 April 1715)
• Cantate (fourth Sunday after Easter): Leb ich, oder leb ich nicht, BWV Anh. 191 (19 May 1715 – music lost, extant libretto by Salomon Franck published Weimar 1715)^[14][15]
• Trinity: O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165 (16 June 1715)
• Fourth Sunday after Trinity: Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BWV 185 (14 July 1715)
• 20th Sunday after Trinity: Ach! ich sehe, itzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe, BWV 162 (25 October 1716 or possibly 3 November 1715)
• 23rd Sunday after Trinity: Nur jedem das Seine, BWV 163 (24 November 1715)
• Fourth Sunday of Advent: Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahn, BWV 132 (22 December 1715)
• Second Sunday after Epiphany: Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange? BWV 155 (19 January 1716)
• 16th Sunday after Trinity: Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161 (6 October 1715 or 27 September 1716)
• Second Sunday of Advent: Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV 70a (6 December 1716; in 1723 expanded to BWV 70 for Trinity XXVI)
• Third Sunday of Advent: Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186a (13 December 1716; in 1723 expanded to BWV 186 for Trinity VII)
• Fourth Sunday of Advent: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147a (20 December 1716; in 1723 expanded to BWV 147 for Visitation)

In the Bach-Jahrbuch of 2015, Peter Wollny wrote that Bach likely encountered several of the old-school contrapuntal sacred compositions, which were going to play a seminal role in the composer's output of the 1740s, for the first time in Weimar.^[16] Among these compositions are,

• Masses by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina:^[17]
  • Missa sine nomine, arranged by Bach around 1742.^[18]
  • Missa Ecce sacerdos magnus, copied under Bach's direction around 1744–1745.^[19]
• Pietro Torri's Magnificat in C major, arranged by Bach around 1742 (BWV Anh. 30).^[20][21]
• Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167, possibly performed under Bach's direction on 6 November 1713 in Weimar.^[22][23]

Passions performed in the Weimar period, however not considered to be passion cantatas, thus not generally listed in the Weimar (cantata) cycle:

• "Keiser"'s St Mark Passion, version BC D 5a (early 1710s, with possibly a few movements added or arranged by Bach)
• Weimarer Passion (26 March 1717, lost)

In 1713 Bach composed a sacred aria, "Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn' ihn", for a secular occasion, the birthday of William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar.^[24][25]

Bach composed the first version of his secular cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208 (Hunting Cantata) for performance on 23 February 1713.^[26]