Bach Cantata Notes

BWV 157

Bach Cantata BWV 157 was also associated with the Festival of the Purification. It also began life as a funeral work. Although very small in scale - it calls for only six instruments - the work is of extraordinary density and seriousness. It opens with a complex duet for tenor and bass with obbligato flute, oboe, and violin. While the elegant texture reminds one of gallant works like the "Paris" Quartets of Telemann, the notes are pure Bach. The tenor aria with oboe d'amore is perhaps the single most difficult tenor aria in the whole repertoire. The oboe part, too is one of the most demanding. The wild and extremely ornate melismas are an evocative illustration of the journey which we must make with Jesus. The bass aria is on the surface more jolly, but has interesting diversions of recitative style writing. It is one of the most formally innovative arias in the whole canon. A beautiful harmonization of the chorale "Meinem Jesum lass ich nicht" ends the cantata.

©Craig Smith