The Effect of the Lyrical and Musical Reciprocation in Bach Cantatas 106 and 80
Johann Sebastian Bach was an 18th century composer, not a theologian,
yet there are few men in the history of the world who have so
thoroughly captured God’s character and even fewer still who have so
passionately impressed that character upon men’s hearts. While the
music or lyrics of his cantatas alone are often enough to stir a man
to action or reduce him to tears, it is the relationship between the
two that truly seems to reflect all that encompasses God’s greatness.
Two of Bach’s most renowned cantatas, “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste
Zeit” (BWV 106) and “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (BWV 80), are
prime examples of this. The two have few similarities and yet they
seem to bookend much of who God is. With these pieces, Bach succeeds
in a task where most composers cannot: creating a perfect relationship
between music and lyrics. Through this relationship, he succeeds
where most theologians cannot: transforming this perfect God from one
who is simply feared, to one who is revered and adored in the hearts
of men.
The first written of the two cantatas, “Gottes Zeit ist allerbeste
Zeit” (BWV 106), was most likely written by Bach in August of 1707 in
Mühlhausen, during his earliest years of composition. It is different
from his later cantatas in that it does not contain recitative or
separate da capo arias for he had not yet been influenced by the
popular Italian style. Instead, it was influenced solely by German
hymns. Furthermore, each section of the cantata flows right into the
next instead of having separate movements of sorts, which is more
...
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...ina, that is of paramount importance to the listening
experience.
Bach wrote 224 cantatas, and yet through cantatas 80 and 106 alone, he
takes us through a rollercoaster of emotions concerning our
relationship to God – from confident to mournful, from grateful to
revering, from fearful to hopeful and back again. No one man can
fully encompass or explain who God is, but it is doubtful that any man
so beautifully portrayed as much of Him to mankind as did Bach.
Works Cited
1. Oron, Aryeh. http://www.bach-cantatas.com. 2000-2003
2. Koster, Jan.
http://odur.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/cantatas/comment/106.html.
1995
3. Thomas, Jeffery. American Bach Soloists Cantatas: Volume III.
Koch International, March 1993
4. Ambrose, Z. Philip. http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach.
1998
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