Tag Archives: Johann Sebastian Bach

My heart is swimming in blood

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Corrie and I made our first visit to the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival yesterday afternoon. What a delight! It’s a lovely setting; we were surprised to find the festival barn air-conditioned and we enjoyed the free wine and nibbles at intermission. But the music was the reason we went and we were wowed.

The Harbisons, along with some local musicians joined members of Emmanuel Bach Musicians from Boston for an all Bach concert. The main piece was the cantata “Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut” BWV #199. The text and translation is here.

The key passages are these:

6. Chorale S
Ich, dein betrübtes Kind,
Werf alle meine Sünd,
So viel ihr in mir stecken
Und mich so heftig schrecken,
In deine tiefen Wunden,
Da ich stets Heil gefunden.
(“Wo soll ich fliehen hin,” verse 3)		 6. Chorale S
I, Your troubled child,
cast all my sins,
as many as hide within me
and frighten me so greatly,
into Your deep wounds,
where I have always found salvation.
7. Rezitativ S
Ich lege mich in diese Wunden
Als in den rechten Felsenstein;
Die sollen meine Ruhstatt sein.
In diese will ich mich im Glauben schwingen
Und drauf vergnügt und fröhlich singen:		 7. Recitative S
I lay myself on these wounds
as though upon a true rock;
they shall be my resting place.
Upon them will I soar in faith
and therefore contented and happily sing:
8. Arie S
Wie freudig ist mein Herz,
Da Gott versöhnet ist
Und mir auf Reu und Leid
Nicht mehr die Seligkeit
Noch auch sein Herz verschließt.		 8. Aria S
How joyful is my heart,
for God is appeased
and for my regret and sorrow
no longer from bliss
nor from His heart excludes me.

The chorale is the 3rd verse of a hymn by Johannes Hermann and it clearly provides the anchor point for the whole cantata.

The language of “throwing all of one’s sins in the deep wounds” of Jesus Christ seems stranger coming in a seventeenth-century Lutheran hymn than it would from an eighteenth-century cantata influenced by Pietism. But the imagery harkens back much further to late-Medieval piety that had as a devotional focus the wounds of Jesus Christ, especially the side wound. The translation copied above seems incorrect in the recitative, which translates the German preposition “in” as “on.” John Harbison’s notes on the piece are here. Here, as so often, Bach is able to transform a text that is rather over the top religiously into something sublime.

In any case, it was a lovely performance by soprano Kendra Colton.

I’m looking forward to next year’s series.

 

Bach Revelations

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The Madison Bach Musicians, under the direction of Trevor Stevenson, gave two concerts at Grace this past weekend. The program consisted of three cantatas. It was a wonderful concert and I am sorry I was unable to attend the pre-concert lecture.

I was especially moved by BWV 106: “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbester Zeit.” The text (German and English) is here. It’s a remarkable piece of music and profound theologically. From the earliest period of Bach’s work, it was probably composed for a funeral. As such, it is a meditation on the universality of death and the Christian hope of the resurrection. Weaving together scripture with chorale verses, Bach elicits a wide range of emotions in the listener and inspires reflection.

It begins with a statement of faith in the transcendence of God:

God’s time is the best of all times.
In Him we live, move and are, as long as He wills.
In Him we die at the appointed time, when He wills.

Then come a series of quotations from the Hebrew Bible that emphasize the finality and inevitability of death. Message and tone change abruptly as the soprano sings “Yes, Come, Lord Jesus.”

After that, another series of quotations, this time from the New Testament. In the Sunday performance, an Alto sang two quotations from Jesus’ last words on the cross, “Into your hands I commend my spirit;” and “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” In the first, Jesus is addressing his Father, at the moment of death returning from whence he had come. In the second, Jesus is addressing one of the two bandits with whom he was crucified and responding to the request “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”

In the mouth of the alto, both become statements of faith; the first is a confession that God is merciful, the second expresses the belief that death is not the end.

The cantata concludes with two chorale stanzas. The first is from Luther

With peace and joy I depart
in God’s will,
My heart and mind are comforted,
calm, and quiet.
As God had promised me:
death has become my sleep.

Apparently, it’s a paraphrase of the Nunc Dimittis, the words Simeon sang when he encountered the newborn Jesus Christ. The second is a hymn praise to the glory and majesty of God.

What a revelation! In a few minutes, Bach takes the listener through the gamut of emotions and at the same time expresses a deep understanding of the Christian faith. The performance was magnificent. Wow! It was great to be able to host this event at Grace. Good crowds at both performances, and the acoustics were perfect for the ensemble.