BachKantaten BWV 127, 140, 159, 161 & 182

Note: ​Peter Wollny (Director of the Bach Archive), Michael Maul (Director of BachFest), and Sir Eliot Gardiner (President of the Bach Archive) have selected the most famous sacred cantatas composed by J.S. Bach in December 2018. I shall highlight all 33 of them by their consecutive BWV numbering in the following months. The final series of five cantatas are listed today. 

BWV 127: Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und GottJohann Sebastian Bach composed the chorale cantata Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God in 1725 in Leipzig for the Sunday Estomihi, the Sunday before Lent. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "praise of love" (1 Corinthians 13:1–13), and from the Gospel of Luke, healing the blind near Jericho (Luke 18:31–43). The Gospel also announces the Passion. The text is based on the funeral song "Herr Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott" in eight stanzas by Paul Eber (1562). The hymn suites the Gospel, stressing the Passion as well as the request of the blind man in the final line of the first stanza: "Du wollst mir Sünder gnädig sein" (Be merciful to me, a sinner). The song further sees Jesus' path to Jerusalem as a model for the believer's path to his end in salvation. An unknown librettist kept the first and the last stanza and paraphrased the inner stanzas in a sequence of recitatives and arias. Stanzas 2 and 3 were transformed to a recitative, stanza 4 to an aria, stanza 5 to a recitative, stanzas 6 and 7 to another aria. Bach first performed the cantata on 11 February 1725.
 
The cantata in five movements is richly scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, trumpet, two recorders, two oboes, two violins, viola and basso continuo. 

1. Chorale: Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott
2. Recitative (tenor): Wenn alles sich zur letzten Zeit entsetzet
3. Aria (soprano): Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen
4. Recitative and aria (bass): Wenn einstens die Posaunen schallen – Fürwahr, fürwahr, euch sage ich
5. Chorale: Ach, Herr, vergib all unsre Schuld

 
The opening chorale is structured by an extended introduction and interludes. These parts play on a concertante a motif derived from the first line of the chorale, but also have a cantus firmus of the chorale "Christe, du Lamm Gottes," the Lutheran Agnus Dei, first played by the strings, later also by the oboes and recorders. It appears in a similar way to the chorale as the cantus firmus in the opening chorus of his later St Matthew Passion, "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig." Its request "erbarm dich unser" (have mercy upon us) corresponds to the request of the blind man. A third chorale is quoted repeatedly in the continuo, "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden." Bach chose a rare instrumentation for the first aria, the oboe plays a melody, supported by short chords in the recorders, in the middle section Sterbeglocken (funeral bells) are depicted by pizzicato string sounds. Movement 4 illustrates the Day of Judgement. On the text "Wenn einstens die Posaunen schallen" (When one day the trumpets ring out), the trumpet enters. The unusual movement combines an accompagnato recitative with an aria, contrasting the destruction of heaven and earth with the security of the believers, the latter given in text and tune from the chorale. The closing chorale is a four-part setting with attention to details of the text, such as movement in the lower voices on "auch unser Glaub stets wacker sei" (also may our faith be always brave)[1] and colourful harmonies on the final line "bis wir einschlafen seliglich" (until we fall asleep contentedly).
 
BWV 140: Wachet auf, ruft uns die StimmeAwake, calls the voice to us , also known as Sleepers Awake, was composed in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 25 November 1731. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, be prepared for the day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1–11), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1–13). It is based on Philipp Nicolai's Lutheran hymn in three stanzas, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," which is based on the Gospel. Published in Nicolai's FrewdenSpiegel deß ewigen Lebens (Mirror of Joy of the Life Everlasting) in 1599, its text was introduced: "Ein anders von der Stimm zu Mitternacht / vnd von den klugen Jungfrauwen / die jhrem himmlischen Bräutigam begegnen / Matth. 25. / D. Philippus Nicolai." (Another [call] of the voice at midnight and of the wise maidens who meet their celestial Bridegroom / Matthew 25 / D. Philippus Nicolai). The text of the three stanzas appears unchanged and with the melody in the outer movements and the central movements (1, 4 and 7), while an unknown author supplied poetry for the other movements, twice a sequence of recitative and duet. He refers to the love poetry of the Song of Songs, showing Jesus as the bridegroom of the Soul.
 
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements. The text and tune of the hymn are kept in the outer choral movements and the central movement, set as two chorale fantasias and a four-part closing chorale, which frame two sequences of recitative and aria. Bach scored the work for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor, bass), a four-part choir, (SATB) and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of horn, two oboes, taille, violino piccolo, two violins, viola, and basso continuo including bassoon. The duration is given as 31 minutes.
 
The first movement, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" ("Awake", we are called by the voice [of the watchmen]), is a chorale fantasia based on the first verse of the hymn, a common feature of Bach's earlier chorale cantatas. The cantus firmus is sung by the soprano. The orchestra plays independent material mainly based on two motifs: a dotted rhythm and an ascending scale "with syncopated accent shifts". The lower voices add in unusually free polyphonic music images such as the frequent calls "wach auf!" (wake up!) and "wo, wo?" (where, where?), and long melismas in a fugato on "Halleluja.” "Er kommt" (He comes), is a recitative for tenor as a narrator  who calls the "Töchter Zions" (daughters of Zion). In the following duet, "Wann kommst du, mein Heil?" (When are You coming, my Salvation?), with obbligato violino piccolo, the soprano represents the Soul and the bass is the vox Christi (voice of Jesus). In a slow siciliano, the violino piccolo illustrates "the flickering of lamps 'lit with burning oil'" in arabesques. The fourth movement, "Zion hört die Wächter singen" (Zion hears the watchmen singing), is based on the second verse of the hymn. It is written in the style of a chorale prelude, with the phrases of the chorale, sung as a cantus firmus by the tenors (or by the tenor soloist), entering intermittently against a famously lyrical melody played in unison by the violins (without the violino piccolo) and the viola, accompanied by the basso continuo. The fifth movement, "So geh herein zu mir" (Then come in to me), is a recitative for bass, accompanied by the strings. It pictures the unity of the bridegroom and the "chosen bride." The sixth movement, "Mein Freund ist mein!" (My Friend is mine!), is another duet for soprano and bass with obbligato oboe. This duet, like the third movement, is a love duet between the soprano Soul and the bass Jesus. The closing chorale, "Gloria sei dir gesungen" (Let Gloria be sung to You), is a four-part setting of the third verse of the hymn. The high pitch of the melody is doubled by a violino piccolo an octave higher, representing the bliss of the "heavenly Jerusalem."
 
BWV 159: Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem
Behold, let us go up to Jerusalem was composed in Leipzig for the Sunday Estomihi, the last Sunday before Lent, and probably first performed it on 27 February 1729. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "praise of love" (1 Corinthians 13:1–13), and from the Gospel of Luke, healing the blind near Jericho (Luke 18:31–43). The gospel reading includes Jesus announcing his suffering in Jerusalem. While Bach's earlier cantatas for the occasion also reflected the healing, this work is focused on reflecting the Passion. The text was produced by Picander, who also wrote the text for the St Matthew Passion. He published it in his collection Cantaten auf die Sonn- und Fest-Tage (Cantatas for the Sundays and feast days) of 1728. The poet focused on the announcement of suffering, which is regarded as tremendous (movement 1), as an example to follow (2), as a reason to say farewell to earthly pleasures (3), finally as a reason to give thanks (4, 5). In movement 2 the poet juxtaposed his recitative by stanza 6 of Paul Gerhardt's "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," a hymn that appears in the St Matthew Passion in this and four other stanzas. The beginning of movement 4, "Es ist vollbracht" ("It is accomplished," John 19:30), appears literally in the Gospel of John as one of the Sayings of Jesus on the cross, and is announced in the Sunday's gospel reading: "... all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished" (Luke 18:31). Bach's St John Passion contains an alto aria beginning with this line, as a summary immediately after the death of Jesus. The closing chorale of the cantata is the last of 33 stanzas of Paul Stockmann's "Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod" (1633).
 
Bach structured the cantata in five movements. He scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir only in the closing chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of oboe, two violins, violaand basso continuo. The first movement is a dialogue of the bass as the vox Christi who sings a quotation from the gospel, and the alto representing a follower, named a "faithful Soul" by Durr. The second movement is a dialogue of the alto, and the soprano singing a stanza from Paul Gerhardt's hymn. The soprano part can be sung by a soloist or the soprano section of the choir. The third and to fifth movements are more the usual sequence of recitative, aria and four-part closing chorale. The duration of the cantata is given as 17 minutes.
 
Without any choral opening, the first movement is a dialogue of two characters. A line that Jesus says in the gospel reading is sung by the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ). The alto represents a follower, expressing the reaction to the announcement. Bach achieves dramatic contrast, setting the words of Jesus as an arioso, accompanied by the continuo, while the alto answers in a recitativo accompagnato, with the strings. The line from the gospel is broken in three parts, interrupted by the alto. Sehet ("Behold", literally: see!) is expressed in a long melisma. After an intervention of the alto, the move uphill in illustrated by an upward scale. After another reply of the alto, the destination is named: Jerusalem. The phrase is repeated several times, accenting different words each time, to present different aspects of its meaning following the principle of monody. In the second movement, the expressive melodic lines of the alto are juxtaposed to the chorale on the melody of "Befiehl du deine Wege".  The Soul begins "Ich folge dir nach" ("I follow after You"),  while the first line from the chorale states: "Ich will hier bei dir stehen" ("I will stay here with You"). The process, with the alto voice beginning sooner and ending later than the chorale line, is repeated for the other lines of the chorale, in the end combining the alto's "Und wenn du endlich scheiden mußt, sollst du dein Grab in mir erlangen" ("And if You must depart at last, You shall find Your grave in me"),  to the choral's "Alsdenn will ich dich fassen in meinen Arm und Schoß" ("Then I will hold You fast in my arm and bosom"),  The melodic treatment is described as powerful and expressive. A secco recitative of the tenor  expresses first sorrow about the way to death, "Nun will ich mich, mein Jesu, über dich in meinem Winkel grämen" ("Now, over You, my Jesus, I will grieve in my corner"),  and finally turns to the expectation for an ultimate union with Jesus: "... bis ich durch dich erlöset bin; da will ich mich mit dir erquicken" ("... until I am redeemed through You; then I will be refreshed with You"). The cantata culminates in the fourth movement, with the vox Christi reflecting the completion of the Passion, "Es ist vollbracht."  The oboe introduces a meditative motif. The bass picks it up, and both rest on long sustained string chords. The middle section illustrates the words "Nun will ich eilen" ("Now I will hasten")  in runs of the voice, oboe and now also the violins. A quasi da capo resumes the first motif, now on the words "Welt, gute Nacht" ("World, good night").  The aria was described by a reviewer as a "hauntingly affective reflection on Jesus's last words from the cross," with a "wrenchingly beautiful oboe line," "rich suspensions," and an "unusually contoured melody." In Picander's printed cantata text, another recitative, "Herr Jesu, dein verdienstlich Leiden" introduced the closing chorale. It is unclear if Bach intentionally did not compose it, or if it got lost. The closing chorale is a four-part setting of Stockmann's hymn which summarises the Passion: "Jesu, deine Passion ist mir lauter Freude" ("Jesus, Your passion is pure joy to me").
 
BWV 161: Komm, du süße TodesstundeCome, you sweet hour of death was composed in Weimar for the 16th Sunday after Trinity, and was probably first performed on 27 September 1716. The prescribed readings for that Sunday were from the Epistle to the Ephesians, about the strengthening of faith in the congregation of Ephesus (Ephesians 3:13–21), and from the Gospel of Luke, about the raising from the dead of the young man from Nain (Luke 7:11–17). In Bach's time the story pointed at the resurrection of the dead, expressed in words of desire to die soon. Franck's text was published in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer in 1715. He included as the closing chorale the fourth stanza of the hymn "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (1611) by Christoph Knoll. Franck wrote a libretto full of biblical references, including (in the first movement) "feeding on honey from the lion's mouth," based on Judges 14:5–9. Dürr summarizes that Franck wrote "a deeply felt, personal confession of longing for Jesus." The Bach scholar Richard D. P. Jones notes that the cantata is "one of the most richly inspired of all Bach's Weimar cantatas" and sees the text as a part of the inspiration, with its "mystical longing for union with Christ." 

The cantata is structured in six movements: a series of alternating arias and recitatives leads to a chorus and a concluding chorale. As with several other cantatas based on words by Franck, it is scored for a small ensemble: alto soloist, tenor soloist, a four-part choir and a Baroque chamber ensemble of two recorders, two violins, viola, organ and basso continuo. The title page reads simply: "Auf den sechzenden Sontag nach Trintatis" (For the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity). The duration is given as 19 minutes. 
 
A Phrygian chorale melody, well known as the melody of "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," provides the musical theme of the cantata, appearing in movement one in both its original form and the alto line derived from it. The themes of the two other arias are taken from the same melody, providing formal unity. The same melody appears five times in chorales of Bach's St Matthew Passion. The opening aria for alto, "Komm, du süße Todesstunde" ("Come, o sweet hour of death" or "Come, thou sweet hour of parting") is accompanied by the recorders. They move in the ritornello in parallel thirds and sixths. The organ serves not only as a bass instrument but supplies the chorale melody. In Weimar, Bach seems to have expected the congregation to know the words of the first stanza of Knoll's hymn. In a later performance in Leipzig, a soprano sang the stanza with the organ. The tenor recitative, "Welt, deine Lust ist Last" (World, your pleasure is a burden), begins as a secco recitative, but ends in an arioso as the words paraphrase a biblical verse from Philippians 1:23, "Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden und bei Christo zu sein" to "Ich habe Lust, bei Christo bald zu weiden. Ich habe Lust, von dieser Welt zu scheiden" (I desire to pasture soon with Christ. I desire to depart from this world). The aria for tenor, "Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland zu umfangen" (My longing is, to embrace my Savior), is the first movement with the strings, adding depth to the emotional expression. It returns to the hope for union with Jesus of the first movement, expressed in an agitated way, with syncopies for "longing" and flowing motifs for "embracing." The middle section is mostly accompanied by the continuo only, but at times interjected by the strings playing the "longing"-motifs. The alto recitative, "Der Schluß ist schon gemacht" (The end has already come), is accompanied by all instruments, creating images of sleep (in a downward movement, ending in long notes), awakening (in fast movement upwards), and funeral bells in the recorders and pizzicato of the strings. The first choral movement 5,"Wenn es meines Gottes Wille" (If it is my God's will), is marked aria by Franck. Bach set it for four parts, using song-like homophony. Wolff compares the style to Thuringian motets of around 1700. The first part is not repeated da capo, in keeping with the last words "Dieses sei mein letztes Wort" (May this be my last word). The closing chorale, "Der Leib zwar in der Erden" (The body, indeed, in the earth), is illuminated by a fifth part of the two recorders playing a lively counterpoint in unison. The "soaring descant" of the recorders has been interpreted as "creating the image of the flesh transfigured." Wolff summarizes: "Cantata 161 is one of the most delicate and jewel-like products of Bach's years in Weimar. The writing in up to ten parts is extraordinarily subtle. ... The recorders additionally contribute in no small way to the spiritualised emotion and positive feelings associated with the 'sweet hour of death.'"
 
BWV 182: Himmelskönig, sei willkommenKing of Heaven, welcome was composed in Weimar for Palm Sunday, and first performed on 25 March 1714, which was also the feast of the Annunciation that year. The prescribed readings for the day were from the Epistle to the Philippians, "everyone be in the spirit of Christ" (Philippians 2:5–11), or from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "of the Last Supper" (1 Corinthians 11:23–32), and from the Gospel of Matthew, the entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9). The poetry was written by the court poet Salomon Franck, although the work is not found in his printed editions. Bach's biographer Philipp Spitta concluded this from stylistic comparison and observing a lack of recitatives between arias. The poetry derives from the entry into Jerusalem a similar entry into the heart of the believer, who should prepare himself and will be given heavenly joy in return. The language intensifies the mystical aspects: Himmelskönig (King of Heaven), "Du hast uns das Herz genommen" (You have taken our hearts from us), "Leget euch dem Heiland unter" (Lay yourselves beneath the Savior). The chorale in movement 7 is the final stanza 33 of Paul Stockmann's hymn for Passiontide "Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod" (1633).

The cantata in eight movements is scored for alto, tenor, and bass soloists, a four-part choir, recorder, two violins, two violas and basso continuo. 

1. Sonata
2. Chorus: Himmelskönig, sei willkommen
3. Recitative (bass): Siehe, ich komme, im Buch ist von mir geschrieben
4. Aria (bass): Starkes Lieben
5. Aria (alto): Leget euch dem Heiland unter
6. Aria (tenor): Jesu, laß durch Wohl und Weh
7. Chorale: Jesu, deine Passion ist mir lauter Freude
8. Chorus: So lasset uns gehen in Salem der Freuden

 
The cantata is intimately scored to match the church building. An instrumental Sonata in the rhythm of a French Overture depicts the arrival of the King. (In his cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, for Advent that same year on the same reading, Bach went further and set a chorus in the form of such an overture). The recorder and a solo violin are accompanied by pizzicato in the divided violas and the continuo. The first chorus is in da capo form, beginning with a fugue, which leads to a homophonic conclusion. The middle section contains two similar canonic developments. The following biblical quotation is set as the only recitative of the cantata. It is given to the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ) and expands to an arioso. The instrumentation of the three arias turns from the crowd in the Biblical scene to the individual believer, the first accompanied by violin and divided violas, the second by a lone recorder, the last only by the continuo. The chorale is arranged as a chorale fantasia in the manner of Pachelbel; every line is first prepared in the lower voices, then the soprano sings the cantus firmus, while the other voices interpret the words, for example by fast movement on "Freude" (joy). The closing chorus is, according to conductor John Eliot Gardiner, "a sprightly choral dance that could have stepped straight out of a comic opera of the period."
 
Here are four albums:
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 34 – Cantatas 1, 126, 127. Masaaki Suzuki with Carolyn Sampson (soprano), Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Gerd Türk (tenor) & Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 26 Feb 2007. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISCD1551. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 44.1 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
Penguin Guide, Rosette.
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 52 – Cantatas 29, 112, 140. Masaaki Suzuki with Hana Blažíková (soprano), Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Gerd Türk (tenor) & Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 2 Jan 2013. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISSACD1981. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 44.1 kHz, 24 bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 49 – Cantatas 156, 159, 171, 188. Masaaki Suzuki with Rachel Nicholls (soprano), Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Gerd Türk (tenor) & Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 26 Sept 2011. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISSACD1981. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 44.1 kHz, 24 bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 5 – Cantatas 18, 143, 152, 155, 161. Masaaki Suzuki with Midori Suzuki (soprano), Ingrid Schmithüsen (soprano), Yoshikazu Mera (counter-tenor), Makoto Sakurada (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 1 Sept 1997. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISSACD841. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 3 – Cantatas 12, 54, 162, 182. Masaaki Suzuki with Yumiko Kurisu (soprano), Yoshikazu Mera (counter-tenor), Makoto Sakurada (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass) and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 1 Jul 1996. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISCD791. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).

References:

Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott, BWV 127. (2024, August 5). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herr_Jesu_Christ,_wahr%27_Mensch_und_Gott,_BWV_127 

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140. (2024, November 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachet_auf,_ruft_uns_die_Stimme,_BWV_140
 
Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem, BWV 159. (2024, May 15). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sehet,_wir_gehn_hinauf_gen_Jerusalem,_BWV_159
 
Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161. (2023, May 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komm,_du_süße_Todesstunde,_BWV_161
 
Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182. (2023, February 18). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himmelskönig,_sei_willkommen,_BWV_182