BachKantaten BWV 81, 82, 95 & 101

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 sixth series of four cantatas are listed today. 
 
BWV 81: Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen?
Johann Sebastian Bach composed Jesus sleeps, what shall I hope for? in 1724 in Leipzig for the fourth Sunday after Epiphany and first performed it on 30 January 1724. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the Epistle to the Romans, love completes the law (Romans 13:8–10), and from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus calming the storm after sleeping in the boat (Matthew 8:23–27). The poet is unknown, but Erdmann Neumeister and Christian Weiss have been suggested by scholars. The poet refers to the Gospel and expands on the contrast of Jesus hidden (sleeping) and appearing (acting), similar to Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange?  BWV 155, written in 1716 and performed three weeks earlier on the First Sunday after Epiphany. The words of movement 4 are a quote from the Gospel, the question of Jesus: "Ihr Kleingläubigen, warum seid ihr so furchtsam?" (Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?). The closing chorale is the second stanza of Johann Franck's hymn "Jesu, meine Freude." 
 
The cantata in seven movements is scored for alto, tenor and bass soloists, a four-part choir in the chorale, two oboes d'amore, two recorders, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The recorders and the oboes were probably played by the same musicians.  The structure is as follows:

1. Aria (alto): Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen?
2. Recitative (tenor): Herr! warum trittest du so ferne?
3. Aria (tenor): Die schäumenden Wellen von Belials Bächen
4. Arioso (bass): Ihr Kleingläubigen, warum seid ihr so furchtsam?
5. Aria (bass): Schweig, aufgetürmtes Meer!
6. Recitative (alto): Wohl mir, mein Jesus spricht ein Wort
7. Chorale: Unter deinen Schirmen

                                                                                               
Bach expresses the questions of the anxious "soul" in a dramatic way, similar to dialogues such as in O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60. The first aria speaks of the "sleeping", illustrated by the recorders, low registers of the strings, and long notes in the voice. Bach used similar means also in the aria Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer of his Easter Oratorio. The third movement almost visualizes the storm and the movement of the waves, similar to scenes in contemporary operas. The central fourth movement within a symmetrical arrangement is devoted to the bass as the vox Christi (voice of Christ). The continuo and the voice use similar material in this arioso, intensifying the words. The following aria, marked allegro, contrasts the "storm", in unison runs of the strings, with calmer motion in the oboes. The closing chorale is set for four parts. It is the second verse of "Jesu, meine Freude," a chorale by Johann Franck with a melody by Johann Crüger which appeared first in his Praxis pietatis melica published in Berlin in 1653.
 
BWV 82: Ich habe genug
I have enough or I am content composed as a solo cantata for bass in Leipzig in 1727 for the Feast Mariae Reinigung (Purification of Mary). Part of the music appears in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. The cantata is one of the most recorded and performed of Bach's sacred cantatas. The opening aria and so-called "slumber aria" are regarded as some of the most inspired  creations of Bach. The prescribed readings for the feast day were taken from the book of Malachi, "the Lord will come to his temple" (Malachi 3:1–4), and from the Gospel of Luke, the purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, including Simeon’s canticle Nunc dimittis (Luke 2:22–32), on which the libretto is based. Until recently the poet's identity was not known, but recent research suggests that he was Christoph Birkmann, a student at the University of Leipzig in the 1720s.
 
Bach first performed the cantata on 2 February 1727. The extant autograph score and the parts show that he performed it at least three more times, in a version for soprano, BWV 82a, the first possibly in 1731 or even as early as 1730, another version for soprano in 1735; and again for bass, with minor changes to the original version, after 1745. Bach obviously had a high regard for this work. The first recitative and most of the aria"Schlummert ein" were copied to the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach in a version with continuo accompaniment, presumably for her own use. In the first version of the cantata, the choice of the bass voice probably illustrates the old man Simeon. The soprano voice shows more clearly that the situation applies to that of any believer.
 
The cantata is structured in five movements, with alternating arias and recitatives. In the first version it was scored for a bass soloist and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of oboes, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. It takes about 23 minutes to perform. Another version exists for soprano, transposed from C minor to E minor with the oboe part replaced by flute and slightly altered. In the 1740s version for bass, an oboe da caccia is the obbligato instrument.
 
The first movement, an aria, begins with an expressive melody of the obbligato oboe which is picked up by the voice on the words "Ich habe genug" (I have enough). The first motif is changed to a phrase that appears at the end of three vocal sections. A similar motif begins the middle section on the words "Ich hab ihn erblickt" (I have seen him), turning upwards in the end. Klaus Hofmann notes a "feeling of serene contentedness with life" in "elegiac tones" as the aria's expression. Musicologist Julian Mincham notes "that instant when body and soul come to rest and are resigned and in complete harmony. Bach encapsulates this experience of peace and acquiescent submission beyond anything that mere words can convey." He sees the "flowing oboe arabesques," which the singer imitates twice on the word "Freude" (joy) as a "clear indication that their expressive function is to proclaim the Christian's personal bliss, an inextricable element of this important experience of life." The following recitative begins with the same words as the aria, "Ich habe genug", on a new melody. The middle section stresses the words "Laßt uns mit diesem Manne ziehn!" (Let us go with this man!), speaking of following Jesus, by an arioso in which the continuo follows the singer. The central aria, beginning "Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen" (Fall asleep, you weary eyes), is a Schlummer-Arie (slumber aria). In a complex structure, it is not only a da capo aria of three sections framed by a ritornello of the strings, but repeats the first section in the center of the middle section. A short secco recitative, beginning "Mein Gott! wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun!" (My God! When will the lovely 'now!' come), ends with a downward continuo line, suggesting both "taking one's leave and being lowered into the welcoming grave." The concluding aria is a joyful dance, anticipating death as the fulfilment of desire, "Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod" (I am looking forward to my death). The "joyful longing for the hereafter" is expressed by "agile coloraturas that characterize the entire   movement.” Mincham notes that the final aria corresponds to the first in similarity of the scoring with the obbligato instrument, key, and triple time. The final aria is faster, marked "vivace." The text first treats the "joy of anticipation of death and the desire for it to happen imminently," then, treated in the middle section, the "conviction that death will release us from the misery of the world to which we have been chained."
 
BWV 95: Christus, der ist mein Leben
Christ, he is my life  was composed in Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 12 September 1723. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Ephesians, praying for the strengthening of faith in the congregation of Ephesus (Ephesians 3:13–21), and from the Gospel of Luke, the raising from the dead of the Young man from Nain (Luke 7:11–17). In Bach's time the story pointed immediately at the resurrection of the dead, expressed as a desire to die soon. As Salomon Franck  expressed in his text for cantata Komm, du süße Todesstunde, BWV 161, composed in Weimar in 1715, the unknown poet concentrates on a desire to die, in hope to be raised like the young man from Nain. The poet includes four stanzas from four different chorales. Two chorale stanzas are already presented in the first movement, "Christus, der ist mein Leben" (Jena 1609) and Martin Luther's "Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin" (1524), a paraphrase of the canticle Nunc dimittis. Movement 3 is Valerius Herberger's "Valet will ich dir geben," and the closing chorale is the fourth stanza of Nikolaus Herman's "Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist."
 
The cantata in seven movements is scored for three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, horn, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola, violoncello, piccolo,  and basso continuo. The structure as follows:

1. Chorale and recitative (tenor): Christus, der ist mein Leben / Mit Freuden, ja mit Herzenslust / Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin
2. Recitative (soprano): Nun, falsche Welt
3. Chorale (soprano): Valet will ich dir geben
4. Recitative (tenor): Ach könnte mir doch bald so wohl geschehn
5. Aria (tenor): Ach, schlage doch bald, selge Stunde
6. Recitative (bass): Denn ich weiß dies
7. Chorale: Weil du vom Tod erstanden bist

 
A week before, Bach had included three stanzas from a chorale in Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, BWV 138. In this cantata he includes four stanzas from four different funeral hymns. The first three movements combine three of them, first stanzas throughout. The first chorale on a melody by Melchior Vulpius is embedded in a concerto of oboes and strings in syncopated motifs in parallels of thirds and sixths. The melody in the soprano is reinforced by the horn. The line "Sterben ist mein Gewinn" (Death is my reward) is slower than the others, in a tradition observed already by Johann Hermann Schein. The recitative alternates between secco and accompagnato, with the same accompanying motifs as in the chorale. The second chorale on Luther's melody is graced by an independent violin part, and every line is preceded by an entry of the horn. A secco recitative leads to the third chorale, which is sung by the soprano alone like an aria, accompanied for the first line only by the continuo, but for the rest of the text by the oboes, playing an obbligato melody in unison. The only aria of the cantata is dominated by the oboes and accompanied by pizzicato in the strings which symbolizes funerary bells, according to John Eliot Gardiner. The closing chorale is again enriched by a soaring additional violin part. 
 
BWV 101: Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott
Take away from us, Lord, faithful God in Leipzig for the tenth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 13 August 1724. The cantata belongs to Bach's chorale cantata cycle, the second cycle during his tenure as Thomaskantor that began in 1723. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, different gifts, but one spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1–11), and from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus announcing the destruction of Jerusalem and cleansing of the Temple (Luke 19:41–48). The cantata is based on the seven stanzas of Martin Moller's chorale (1584), which he had written during a time of plague as a paraphrase of the Latin poem "Aufer immensam" (1541). The chorale is sung on the melody of Luther's "Vater unser im Himmelreich," a paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer. The hymn deals with the "antithesis of God's anger and mercy;" he is asked to lift a sentence as which the plague was seen, as also the destruction of the temple announced in the Gospel. The chorale text was retained unchanged in the outer movements. An unknown librettist transcribed the ideas of stanzas 2, 4 and 6 to arias. He retained the text of stanzas 3 and 5 but interpolated it by recitative text. The cantata text is only generally related to the readings, unlike Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgend ein Schmerz sei, BWV 46, composed a year earlier and dealing with the lament of Jerusalem in text from Lamentations. The poet hinted at the destruction of Jerusalem by the line "Daß wir nicht durch sündlich Tun wie Jerusalem vergehen!" (so that we might not, through sinful acts, perish like Jerusalem!) in the second movement. 
 
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements. Both text and tune of the hymn are retained in the outer movements, a chorale fantasia and a four-part closing chorale. Bach scored the work for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrument ensemble of cornett, three trombones, two oboes, oboe da caccia, taille, flauto traverso, two violin parts, one viola part, and basso continuo. The duration of the cantata is given as 25 minutes.
 
The opening chorus, "Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, die schwere Straf und große Not," (Take away from us, Lord, faithful God, the heavy punishment and great suffering), is a chorale fantasia with the cantus firmusin the soprano, each line prepared by the lower voices. A choir of trombones plays colla parte with the voices. Oboes and strings play in this movement, different from other more concertante opening movements, motifs that could also be sung, giving prominence to the voices. For each line of the chorale tune, the lower voices prepared the entrance of the leading soprano by singing this melodic part twice as fast and in imitation; the voices remain in polyphony until the end of the line in the soprano. The voices are reinforced by cornett and trombones, archaic-sounding "as though Bach were intent on reconnecting to Luther's time." 
 
In the first aria, "Handle nicht nach deinen Rechten mit uns bösen Sündenknechten" (Do not deal with us wicked servants of sin according to your justice), the tenor is accompanied by an obbligato virtuoso flute. Bach replaced the flute by a violin in a later version. The recitative for the soprano, "Ach! Herr Gott, durch die Treue dein" (Ah! Lord God, through your love), combines the complete third chorale stanza with new text, expanding each single line several by new lines of thoughts, ending with the last chorale line. The chorale lines are sung in an embellished version of the chorale melody, changed to 3/4 time, and accompanied by an ostinato continuo derived from it, while the new text is set as secco recitative. In the central movement is a bass aria in an unusual form. Three oboes and continuo begin with dramatic fury, marked vivace. Then the bass begins unexpectedly, marked andante, with the first line of the chorale stanza on the chorale melody: "Warum willst du so zornig sein?" (Why are you so angry?). On the word "Warum," Bach changes the key abruptly from E minor to C minor in a "calculated spotlit dissonance." The same text is then elaborated in the style of the opening ritornello. In the middle section, again andante, the complete chorale melody is played by the instruments, while the voice sings independently. Shortly before its end, the instruments pick up speed and motifs of the first ritornello and come to a close, without the voice. The second chorale with recitative, for tenor, "Die Sünd hat uns verderbet sehr" (Sin has corrupted us greatly), is similar to the first, but the melody is in common time. The sixth movement, "Gedenk an Jesu bittern Tod" (Think on Jesus' bitter death!) is a duet. The soprano and alto voices are combined with the flute and an oboe da caccia that plays the chorale melody. The music is in siciliano rhythm. The final chorale stanza, "Leit uns mit deiner rechten Hand und segne unser Stadt und Land" (Lead us with your right hand and bless our city and land) is set for four parts. The instruments play colla parte with the singers.
 
Here are four albums:
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 21 – Cantatas 65, 81, 83, 190. Masaaki Suzuki with Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), James Gilchrist (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 16 May 2003. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISCD1311. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 41 – Cantatas 56, 82, 84, 158. Masaaki Suzuki (harpsichord and conductor)with Carolyn Sampson (soprano) & Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 1 Dec 2008. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISCD1691. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 44.1 kHz, 24bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 11 – Cantatas 46, 95, 136, 138. Masaaki Suzuki with Midori Suzuki (soprano), Kai Wessel (counter-tenor), Makoto Sakurada (tenor), Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan. Release Date: 1 Oct 1999. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISCD991. CD Quality (44.1 kHz, 16bit).
 
Johann Sebastian Bach: Volume 31 – Cantatas 91, 101, 121, 133. Masaaki Suzuki with Yukari Nonoshita (soprano), Robin Blaze (counter-tenor), Gerd Türk (tenor) & Peter Kooij (bass), and Bach Collegium Japan and Concerto Palatino. Release Date: 30 May 2006. Label: BIS. Catalogue No: BISSACD1481. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 88.2 kHz, 24bit).
 

​References:
Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen? BWV 81 (2022, October 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_schläft,_was_soll_ich_hoffen%3F_BWV_81
 
Ich habe genug, BWV 82. (2024, August 3). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_habe_genug,_BWV_82
 
Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95. (2022, August 24). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus,_der_ist_mein_Leben,_BWV_95
 
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101. (2024, August 16). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimm_von_uns,_Herr,_du_treuer_Gott,_BWV_101