''Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet'' (We have a new governor), 212, is a secular

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 ...

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 ...

. It was entitled the "Cantate

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

" by Bach himself, but is now popularly known as the ''Peasant Cantata''. It is the last definitely dated Bach cantata.

History and text

This cantata's libretto was written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as

Picander Christian Friedrich Henrici (January 14, 1700 – May 10, 1764), writing under the pen name Picander, was a German poet and librettist for many works by Johann Sebastian Bach, notably the St Matthew Passion of 1727. Life and career Henrici was ...

, and was written for performance on 30 August 1742 at near

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 ...

. On that day the hereditary feudal lord and Kreishauptmann, , chamberlain to the

Elector of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

, celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday with a huge fireworks display and, as was customary, took homage from the peasants on the same occasion. It is thought that Picander asked Bach to set his poetry to music. The text describes how an unnamed farmer laughs with the farmer's wife Mieke about the tax collector's machinations while praising the economy of Dieskau's wife, ending by especially cheering on Dieskau. In places it uses the dialect of

Upper Saxon German Upper Saxon (, , ) is an East Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German state of Saxony and in adjacent parts of southeastern Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Thuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new r ...

("Guschel" for mouth, "Dahlen" for love-games, "Ranzen" for belly and "Neu-Schock" for a 60

Groschen Groschen (; from "thick", via Old Czech ') is the (sometimes colloquial) name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in parts of Europe including Kingdom of France, France, some of the Italian states, and various states of the Holy R ...

piece).

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for two voices: the farmer (

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 ...

) and Mieke (

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 ...

). The instrumentation includes a string trio of

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 ...

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 ...

, accompanied by a

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

and second violin respectively. The piece has 24 movements, more than any other Bach cantata: #Overture (A major- A minor- A major) #Duet aria: ' (A major) #Duet recitative: ' (A major) #Aria (soprano): ' (A major) #Recitative (bass): ' (D major) #Aria (bass): ' (D major) #Recitative (soprano): ' (B minor) #Aria (soprano): ' (B minor) #Duet recitative: ' #Aria (soprano): ' (G major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (B-flat major) #Recitative (soprano): ' #Aria (soprano): ' (A major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (G major) #Recitative (soprano): ' #Aria (soprano): ' (D major) #Recitative (bass): ' #Aria (bass): ' (A major) #Duet recitative: ' #Aria (soprano): ' (B minor) #Duet recitative: ' #Chorus: ' (F major)

Music

In accordance with the nature of the text, Bach kept the musical phrases short and the accompaniment mostly simple. He repeatedly drew on popular dance forms, folk and popular melodies (such as ''

La Folia ''La Folía'' (Spanish), or ''Follies'' (English), also known as ''folies d'Espagne'' (French), ''La Follia'' (Italian), and ''Folia'' (Portuguese), is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic ...

''); for the duet recitative "Nu, Mieke, gib dein Guschel immer her" (Saxon dialect for "Now, Mary, give me your mouth"), he quoted the fast part of the tune of "

Großvatertanz The "Großvatertanz" (Grandfather Dance) is a 17th-century German traditional dance folk tune from the region of Saxony. History The song was first mentioned in print in 1717 by the German ballet master Gottfried Taubert (1670–1746), but was ...

" for the orchestra following the girl's words, "If it were only that! I know you already, you ruffian, you want always more after that." knowing that the audience was aware of the omitted words, "with you and me into the featherbed". He also used excerpts from his own pieces ( BWV Anh. 11 and

BWV 201 (Swift, swift, you swirling winds), BWV 201, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, on a libretto by Picander (pen name of Christian Friedrich Henrici). It is a dramma per musica, likely composed for a public performance in 1729, ar ...

, No. 7).

Recordings

* ,

Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

. ''Bach Cantatas''. Vox 1965 *

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johann Nikolaus Harnoncourt (6 December 1929 – 5 March 2016) was an Austrian conductor, known for his historically informed performances. He specialized in music of the Baroque period, but later extended his repertoire to include Classical ...

Concentus Musicus Wien Concentus Musicus Wien (CMW) is an Austrian baroque music ensemble based in Vienna. The CMW is recognized as a pioneer of the period-instrument performance movement. History Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Alice Harnoncourt co-founded the CMW in 19 ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 211 & BWV 212''.

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to ...

1967 *

Peter Schreier Peter Schreier (29 July 1935 – 25 December 2019) was a German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. Schreier was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor conduct ...

, Kammerorchester Berlin. ''Bach Made in Germany Vol. VII – Secular Cantatas VII'', Eterna 1975 * Rosmarie Hofmann, Gregory Reinhadt, Linde-Consort, Hans-Martin Linde. ''J. S. Bach: Bauern-Kantate; Kaffee-Kantate''. EMI Reflexe 1984 *

Emma Kirkby Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, (; born 26 February 1949) is an English soprano and early music specialist. She has sung on over 100 recordings. Education and early career Kirkby was educated at Hanford School, Sherborne School for Girls in Dorse ...

, David Thomas,

Academy of Ancient Music The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a British period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after an 18th-century organisation of the same name (originally the A ...

Christopher Hogwood Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood (10 September 194124 September 2014) was an English Conducting, conductor, harpsichordist, and Musicology, musicologist. Founder of the early music ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music, he was an authority on h ...

. ''J. S. Bach: Coffee Cantata / Peasant Cantata''. L'Oiseau-Lyre 1987 *

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 ...

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 ...

. ''Edition Bachakademie Vol. 67 – Secular Cantatas''.

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 ...

1996 *

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 ...

, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. ''J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 5''. Antoine Marchand 1996 *

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist, conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for whi ...

Bach Collegium Japan Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in Baroque music, playing on period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque musi ...

. ''J. S. Bach: BWV 203, 209, 212''. BIS 2016 *''Bach: Kantaten No. 32'', Orchester der J. S. Bach-Stiftung,

Rudolf Lutz Rudolf Lutz (born 1951) is a Swiss organist, harpsichordist, conductor and composer. Education Lutz studied at the Zurich University of the Arts, in Zürich and at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Career From 1973 he was o ...

, J. S. Bach-Stiftung, 2020

References

External links

*
"Work details"
bach-cantatas.com

bach.de (in German)
"Entries for BWV 212"

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

* , Carmela Konrad (soprano);

Benjamin Appl Benjamin Appl (born 26 June 1982) is a German-British lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in opera houses and concert halls, particularly known as a Lieder singer. Early life and education Born in Regensburg, Appl ha ...