Free Johann Sebastian Bach by Christoph Wolff Page B

him that Johann Wilhelm Drese was in line to succeed his father. After all, the younger Drese had been sent to Venice in 1702–3 at the expense of the Weimar court in order “to habilitate himself in music and composition,” and appointed vice-capellmeister not long after his return (see Chapter 5).
    But although Bach accepted the organizational arrangements of 1714 and did not expect a promotion to capellmeister while Johann Wilhelm Drese was active, he made an extraordinary contribution to the cantata repertoire for the Himmelsburg —extraordinary even considering the incomplete transmission of his works. Two major factors stimulated Bach’s interest in the cantata genre, which went through a conceptual transformation after 1710 and which he himself had been able to explore only sporadically. The most important was the collaboration with Salomo Franck, an erudite poet of considerable accomplishments. With Franck providing the librettos for nearly all of Bach’s cantatas written in Weimar from 1714 on, the composer was given the chance to work with lyrics of very high quality, in both form and content. Franck’s elegant poetic language and the pure, straightforward theological message in his sacred texts provided Bach with an ideal vehicle for his own musical thoughts and, in general, for the advancement of his compositional art. The other main factor was the professional competence and versatility of the Weimar court capelle as well as the congenial and intimate space available at the palace church for the performance of sacred music.
    The performance space accounts for the predominantly chamber-music-like character of the Weimar cantatas and their scoring for a smallish yet colorful ensemble. The repertoire exhibits a great diversity in the choice of instruments, the size of the ensemble notwithstanding (see Table 6.3). While he stuck to no standard scoring patterns, Bach made one fundamental change in the spring of 1715: he moved from the traditional German (and also French-style) five-part string score (with two violas), which had prevailed in his cantatas up to and including the Easter cantata BWV 31, to the Italianate four-part score (with one viola), which he now established as a new norm. Apart from this change, Bach’s instrumental ensembles vary from a pure string body—to a mixed group involving one or more winds. Particularly distinctive colors are featured in BWV 152, whose delicate five-part ensemble comprises recorder, oboe, viola d’amore, viola da gamba, and basso continuo. Many cantatas begin with an elaborate Sinfonia or Sonata (BWV 12, 18, 21, 31, 152, 182), and all contain arias with ornate instrumental obbligati, sometimes of unusual makeup—BWV 163/3 (3rd movement) uses two obbligato cellos. Even where only a pure string ensemble is called for, as in BWV 161/3, the dense imitative treatment of the homogeneous score immediately draws the listener’s attention.
    The vocal dimension of the cantatas is equally attractive and varied, both in the choral sections and in the solo movements. The spectrum of choruses ranges from the traditional concertato motet (BWV 21/1), chorale motet (BWV 182/7), fugue (BWV 182/2), freer concerto type (BWV 31/1), and extended bipartite form (BWV 63/1 and 7) to highly innovative settings such as chorale elaboration in overture style (BWV 61/1), chaconne with motet (BWV 12/2), and choral litany in combination with a solo recitative (BWV 18/3). The recitatives and arias demand from the singers no less technical proficiency than the instrumental parts require of their players. Italianate melodic declamation and phrasing with emphatic expression (BWV 21/3: “Seufzer, Tränen, Kummer, Not”) prevails from 1714 on. Expansive vocal duet structures occur in some movements (BWV 21/8 and 152/2: Christ and Soul in dialogue) and sophisticated textures in others (BWV 54/1: dissonant pulsating chords at the very beginning; 54/3: