(Praise the Lord, my soul), 69, also BWV69.2,
[Work at ]Bach Digital
Bach Digital (German: ), developed by the Bach Archive in Leipzig, is an online database which gives access to information on compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and members of his family. Early manuscripts of such compositions are a major foc ...
website: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele BWV 69.2; BWV 69; BC B 10 / Sacred cantata (Council election) is a
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...
by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
.
History and text
Bach composed a cantata with this title (
BWV 69a/69.1) in 1723 during his first year in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
.
Bach revived the work later in the 1720s, changing the instrumentation of one of the arias.
Much later, in 1748, he reworked the cantata for the church service which was held to mark the inauguration of a town council. The
recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...
s and the chorale were changed. In this form, it was first performed on 26 August 1748.
The festive orchestration of the original work was suitable for the new occasion.
The text of the first movement is from
Psalm 103
Psalm 103 is the 103rd psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Bless the , O my soul". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Tanakh, Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christianity, Christian ...
. The chorale is the third verse of "" by
Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
(1524). The author of the rest of the text is unknown.
Scoring and structure
The cantata is scored for four solo voices (
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...
,
alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...
,
tenor
A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...
, and
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Wood
* Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
), a
four-part choir, three
trumpets
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B o ...
,
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
, three
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
s,
oboe d'amore
The ; (), less commonly (), is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, betw ...
,
bassoon
The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...
, two
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
s,
viola
The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...
, and
basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
.
The work is in six movements:
#Chorus:
#Recitative (soprano):
#Aria (alto):
#Recitative (tenor):
#Aria (bass):
#Chorale:
Music
The chorus and the bass
aria
In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...
are taken without significant alteration from the earlier model. The second movement is a
secco soprano
recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...
which opens much like in the original version before
modulating to
G major
G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...
. The other aria is
transposed
In linear algebra, the transpose of a matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal;
that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other notations).
The tra ...
from the tenor original for the alto voice, and is accompanied by violin and oboe instead of flute and
oboe da caccia
The oboe da caccia (; literally "hunting oboe" in Italian), also sometimes referred to as an oboe da silva, is a double reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family, pitched a fifth below the oboe and used primarily in the Baroque period of Euro ...
. The following tenor recitative with string accompaniment is "an example of Bach's highly emotional recitative melodic line at its most mature and expressive"; midway through, it moves into a dissonant and chromatic passage. The closing chorale includes prominent parts for trumpet and drums.
Recordings
*
Gächinger Kantorei
Gächinger Kantorei (Gächingen Chorale), which uses the old German spelling of its name, the Gaechinger Cantorey, is an internationally known German mixed choir, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1954 in Gächingen (part of St. Johann close to Reutl ...
/
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart is an internationally known German instrumental ensemble, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1965 to accompany the Gächinger Kantorei in choral music with orchestra. Its members are mostly orchestra musicians from Germany and ...
,
Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970),
the Internationale Bachakade ...
. ''Die Bachkantate Vol. 67''.
Hänssler
Hänssler-Verlag is a German music publishing house founded in 1919 as Musikverlag Hänssler by (died 1972) to publish church music. In 1941 the Nazi government shut down the publishing house. It was allowed by the West German authorities to reo ...
, 1982.
*
Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam.
The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Bar ...
,
Ton Koopman
Antonius Gerhardus Michael "Ton" Koopman (; born 2 October 1944) is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir.
He is a professor ...
. ''J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 6''. Erato, 1997.
* Holland Boys Choir / Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink. ''Bach Edition Vol. 9''. Brilliant Classics, 1999.
References
Sources
*
External links
Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69 performance by the
Netherlands Bach Society
The Netherlands Bach Society () is the oldest ensemble for Baroque music in the Netherlands, and possibly in the world. The ensemble was founded in 1921 in Naarden to perform Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'' on Good Friday and has performed the work ...
(video and background information)
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele'', BWV 69
1748 compositions
Council cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach
Psalm-related compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach