BWV 180

The Matthew version of King’s banquet is the Gospel reading for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity. It is even more mysterious, and, one must say, more brutal than the Luke version, which was the reading for the second Sunday after Trinity. Strangely, none of the three cantatas reflect the savagery of the text and all of them have a kind of melancholy to them. Cantata BWV 180 was the last of the 2nd Jahrgang to be published in the old Bach Gesellschaft. It is strange that the editors would delay the publication of this piece for so long a time, for it is not only one of the greatest cantatas, but one of the most appealing. Bach’s only settings of the chorale “Schmücke dich” are the three versions represented in this cantata and the great chorale prelude in the 18 Leipzig preludes. A comparison of the four versions is instructive, for all have a kind of warm contemplative quality to them. The organ chorale prelude is probably the most well known of the four. It is in Bach’s most luxuriant late style. The lower manual plays a richly ornamented version of the chorale theme in sixths over an active and expressive bass. This material predominates in this manual throughout the prelude. The melody, when it enters in the right hand, is a highly ornamented version of the tune, deeply expressive. Even aside from the similarity of mood of the settings, certain similar qualities of the treatment are apparent. Bach finds the two phrases that begin the Abgesang clearly the most expressive things in the chorale. In each setting there is a wonderful harmonic tug that sets them off. All of these qualities seem so natural that one would think that they are indigenous to the tune. It is not true. Witness Handel’s rather plain harmonization of it in the Brockes-Passion.

The opening chorus of the cantata is a magical piece quietly dancing in 12/8 time. There is neither a hint of the gigue or of the Sicilliano about this 12/8. Rather, all of the beats are equally weighted. Bach avoids any sense of heaviness by his extraordinarily careful orchestration. The bass, except when playing motivic material always plays short notes. The winds are usually spread in widely spaced accompanying chords or play the main motive in pairs. The breadth of these wind spacings is achieved by the use of the high recorders and having, unusually for Bach, one oboe and one oboe da caccia. The extra fifith added to the range of the bottom oboe is used to cover a larger range in these chords. When they are playing the main motive, the strings usually play in unison. The melody itself is enchanting, one of the great motoric tunes in all of Bach. We have spent some time detailing niceties of scoring, because they are an important element in this movement. The overall mood of the piece is contemplative and one must say, autumnal; the twentieth Sunday after Trinity always comes in the fall.

The tenor aria with flute obbligato is equally carefully scored. The bass line is particularly ingenious. Its principal figure avoids the lowest note on the downbeat. This way any heaviness or thumpiness is avoided. The actual continuity of the aria is very interesting. The motion goes along quite continuously until the word klopft.(knocks) The word is like a call to arms and the rest of the aria is incredibly detailed. Both the flute and the tenor melismas are unusually detailed. It is interesting to compare this aria to the identically scored one in Cantata 96 written for the Sunday two weeks previous. In that piece the melismas bounce along merrily, here they have a much more detailed spikey quality.

We have with BWV 180 the first appearance in the Bach cantatas of the violoncello piccolo, a five-stringed cello with an extra upper string. The ability of the instrument’s easy use of the upper register combined with its ability to dip down to the low cello C is very appealing to Bach. It makes regular appearances from here on in the 2 ndJahrgang and is reserved for some of Bach’s greatest and most expressive obbligati. Here the instrument plays an expressive slow motoric obbligato while the soprano sings a beautifully ornamented version of the chorale.

The alto recitative is accompanied by the two recorders, which reintroduce that piping sound to the cantata. They are joined by the rest of the orchestra in the extraordinary bounding, energetic soprano aria. This aria is dominated by a snapping rhythmic figure that is played in virtually every bar of the piece. The figure is always associated with the word Son-ne. There is something indeed very sunny about the figure. This is one of Bach’s most irresistible and infectious dances. The final chorale is so quiet and reserved that it is easy to miss what a marvelous harmonization of the tune it is.

©Craig Smith