First Sunday music

This Sunday, March 6, Saint Philip’s adult choirs will present Bach’s jewel-like cantata, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131. This profound piece of church music is one of the earliest cantatas from Bach’s time at Mühlhausen (c. 1707-08). For musicians, it’s kind of stunning to contemplate a work of such depth coming from a very young man—Bach was only 22 or 23 years old!

Aus der Tiefen is a work of five movements that incorporates all of Psalm 130, the De profundis— ‘Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord’—and some verses from the German chorale Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut. Both of the texts imply a penitential theme, and Bach later used a bit of the German hymn in a separate cantata as a kind of foil to the Prayer of the Publican, a gospel lesson which is associated with Ash Wednesday. Accordingly, Aus der Tiefen logically and thematically fits with the beginning of the Lenten season.

My purpose is to provide an outline of the music for anyone who would like to better appreciate this great cantata and to understand how the choirs will use movements in the service on Sunday:

1. Voluntary.
   The opening movement is firmly divided into two parts: In the first section, the instruments and then the choir create a sense of pathetic ‘crying out’ or ‘calling’ (‘rufe’) to God with doleful accents. Quickly this mood transforms to a vigorous prayer as the music indicates vivace; however, imitative writing keeps the mood serious, and the voices often emphasize the psalmist’s ‘complaining’ (‘Flehens’). Verses 1-2.

2. Gradual.
   Next, a bass soloist sings a brief aria, imploring God ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?’ His solo often embellishes the verb ‘stand’ (‘bestehen’) and later, ‘be feared’ (‘fürchte’) with rather difficult runs, suggesting the struggle and humble posture of the psalmist. Over this solo, the sopranos softly sing the second verse of the chorale, ‘Have mercy on me with such a burden, take it away from my heart…’. Verses 3-4.

3. Offertory.
   The midpoint, a chorus, opens with a comforting chordal flourish on ‘I wait for the Lord’. However, this effect quickly shifts to much more serious, pathetic series of falling figures called suspensions (a movement from a dissonance to a resolution) between the voices with very long notes on the word ‘wait’ (‘harret’), while the instruments play a process-oriented music that almost sounds ‘clocklike’. Nevertheless, the chorus ends on a ‘ray of hope’ as the music resolves to a major key. Verse 5.

4. Communion.
   Here Bach inserts a long tenor aria with very little text. The result: a sense of anticipation, of waiting. The tenor sings long melismas (a long series of notes on one syllable) to the word ‘longing’ (‘wartet’), some of which move rather vigorously and circuitously. Clearly, waiting for God involves an experience of volatility, and the human perspective is limited by the vicissitudes of life and a recognition of one’s sinfulness. The altos softly and slowly intone the next verse of the choral over the top of the solo, singing of the poet’s desire to be ‘washed clean’ from sins ‘like David and Manassah’. Under all of this, the basso continuo (a term for the Baroque rhythm section: the organ, cello, and perhaps bass) play gentle triple rhythms—a medieval trope that automatically points to the Trinity. Softly, subtly, perhaps unnoticed, God supports the penitent soul. Verse 6.

5. Post-Communion.
   The final chorus is a fireworks display. It begins with declamatory phases ‘Israel, Israel, Israel, hope in the Lord (‘hoffe auf den Herrn’), sung rather vigorously and with optimism. That shifts quite quickly to an interior, painful view of the soul, as if the psalmist gazes inwards. Here, the oboe, which some say represents the Spirit of God, leads in a hopeful direction. Soon, the chorus literally takes off in a kind of musical gallop at the words ‘and plenteous redemption’ (‘und viel Erlösen). This quickly translates into a complex fugue with flashy running notes on ‘redemption’ and a chromatic, rising line at ‘for all his iniquities’ (‘aus allen seinen Sünden’) suggests that the figurative ‘downward’ motion of the psalm is being reversed. The cantata ends with the same hopeful cadence heard in movement 3. Verses 7-8.

Here’s a fantastic period performance by the Netherlands Bach Society, a truly riveting presentation:

I hope to see you at Saint Philip’s this Sunday, the first in the season of Lent.

—Justin Appel, Director of Music