Bach Cantata Notes
BWV 79
It is interesting that the line of text that begins the Cantata BWV
79 comes from one of the most friendly and pastoral of all the Psalms,
#84. For the line "God, the Lord, is sun and shield" sets
off in Bach a chorus more spectacularly military than any other piece
in his output. This chorus reminds one of that great Altdorfer painting
of the armies of Saul. Row after row, literally thousands of soldiers
all in battle formation, fighting for the forces of good. Reformation
Sunday had long been the most overtly militant of Lutheran festivals
and our cantata here is characteristic. But this chorus is no mere noisy
battle piece. It is one of the most thrilling, stupendously energetic
works he ever wrote. It begins with two high horns in fanfare over a
very active tympani. Against these fanfares the strings and winds play
a grand marching theme. As exciting as this, is it is only an introduction
to the dazzlingly active fugue subject. This is a three voice fugue
with great detail and regularity. After five statements of the theme, the
horns and tympani make a grand return in the dominant to lead us into
the chorus entrance. The orchestral introduction is unusually long and
detailed; it is particularly distinctive to have a fugue of this complexity
and detail before the entrance of the chorus. The chorus entrance itself
is grand and rhetorical. It is quite some time before it enters in the
fugue. The texture is further thickened by the introduction of the fugue
theme passed through all of the instruments but not used fugally. By
the time the chorus actually begins its fugal treatment of the theme,
the tune is so familiar that Bach immediately introduces it in stretto.
The stretti are both at the bar and the half bar, so that the effect
is of a gradually winding coil. The pitch of excitement is unmistakeable,
not only because of the stretti but the shear bravura of dense sung
counterpoint moving along at this pace. The reentrance of the thunderous
horns on top of this amazing texture at is a tour de force, even for
Bach. One of the most remarkable things about this chorus also is Bach's
ability to mix simple block-like rhetoric with the most complex counterpoint.
After writing something this overwhelmingly grand, there is an inherent
problem of what to do next. Bach follows his grandest chorus with a
slim reed of a piece, a lovely little pastoral aria of simplicity and
lack of pretension. Because the opening line of text is almost exactly
identical to the opening of the chorus, it is clear that Bach is saying,
"see, I can look at this text in a completely different way." Originally composed for alto and oboe obligato in 1725, Bach revised it in 1730 for flute obligato. This is the version we hear today.
The third movement is unique
in all of Bach's works. He synthesizes the fanfares from the opening
chorus and makes them the accompaniment with just horns tympani and
continuo to a harmonization of the chorale "Nun danket alle Gott."
Although because they are alone and so exposed, these are probably the
most demanding horn parts in all of Bach, there is a sense here is of
a thinning out, and clarity. The fugue theme, which was the animating
force in the first movement, is completely absent. The effect of this
movement is of thanksgiving after a battle.
The following secco recitative
for bass and duet for bass and soprano, with all of the violins obbligato,
is unusual. The two singers in the duet almost never sing contrapuntally.
There is a sense of two small people against the forces of evil. The
obbligato for the violins is slim, almost sketchy in sound. While there
is something distinctive and appealing about the piece, there is also
a sense that it doesn't occupy enough space after the two monumental
chorus pieces. The horns and tympani return in the simple chorale, a
setting of "Wach auf mein Herz und singe."
©Craig Smith