Today’s cantata, Meine Seele erhebt den Herrn, celebrates the life and work of C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788), the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach.  In collaboration with, and in gratitude to The Packard Humanities Institute, Emmanuel Music is thrilled to offer this North American premiere.  The Complete Works of C.P.E. Bach began publication in 2005 under the auspices of The Packard Humanities Institute, and individual volumes are edited by such eminent musical scholars as Christopher Hogwood, Robert Levin and Christoph Wolff. We are very grateful to managing editor Paul Corneilson and his staff for the generosity and tireless efforts in creating this performing edition.  Additional appreciation is extended to Robert Levin for his musicological guidance, and Christopher Hogwood, who will be conducting the modern-day premiere of C.P.E. Bach’s Einführungsmusik Sturm (installation cantata for Pastor Sturm), H 821i at Emmanuel on March 30, 2014.

C.P.E. Bach entered the St. Thomas School in Leipzig in 1723; where his father had just become cantor, but then went on to study law at Frankfurt an der Oder.  However, in 1738 he completely abandoned his legal career for one in music.  He went on to obtain an appointment in the service of Frederick the Great in Berlin, which he held until 1768.  While in Berlin he established himself as one of the foremost clavier players and composers in Europe.  In 1768 he left Berlin to succeed his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann as director of music at Hamburg.  It was during this time that CPE Bach turned his creative energies toward the composition of ambitious choral works including the oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste (The Israelites in the Desert), twenty-one Passion settings and over seventy cantatas. 

C.P.E. Bach has been called a “transitional composer” because his lifetime fell between the Baroque and Classical eras. From his musical education by his father, he was deeply rooted in Baroque polyphony, but he extended his interest to meet listeners of the Enlightenment on their own ground, founding Classical music. His works were not the balanced masterpieces of his father’s era. Along with their unorthodox mix of Baroque and Classical styles, they anticipated Romanticism by half a century, creating vivid music imbued with remarkable individualism.

Today’s cantata, first performed in 1768, comes down to us as a musical pasticcio, as are virtually all of C.P.E. Bach’s cantatas for Hamburg. The first movement is a parody based on his Magnificat (1749), Wq 215, adapted to the German text. The chorale no. 2 is a setting by Telemann, and movements 4–7 are presumably by an unidentified composer named Hoffmann.

The opening choral movement pays tribute to his father. Yet where J.S. Bach gives prominence to counterpoint, C.P.E. expresses a more lyrical style with emphasis on the melodic line.  The driving eighth note figure in the horns are encouraged by the fanciful sixteenth notes in the violins that surge forward with an excited, joyful pulse.  After the chorale movement by Telemann, the soprano aria is another nod to J.S. Bach.  The opening ritornello, vocal line, and use of flute bear an uncanny resemblance to the tenor aria from BWV 113 heard earlier this fall. This rather low soprano aria features a flowing triplet figure tossed about between the flutes and strings depicting the little brook the overflows with gratitude. The unusually high alto accompanied recitative actually sits in a higher range than the soprano aria.  Perhaps this choice of tessitura was intentional to convey the congregational declamation of praise. 

The bass aria is unique in that the horn writing, in pairs, is stratospheric and nearly treacherous in range and tempo.  This is balanced by the heroic vocalism of the bass soloist proclaiming majesty.  In the choral fugue that follows, with the dramatic addition of trumpets doubling the high horn parts, the jubilation reaches a fever pitch and pace. Marked presto, C.P.E. Bach employs his father’s “joy motive” – a fast three-note ascending figure on the text freuet (rejoice).  Our Marian cantata concludes with a setting of a Paul Gerhardt chorale from 1563.  The triple meter and text of heartfelt gratitude re-assert the cantata’s them of spiritual opulence and warmth. 

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