Warum betrübst du dich
BWV 516 performed by Daniel Johannsen and Matthias Havinga
Walburgiskerk, Zutphen
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Texts
Texts
Credits
Credits
Calm down and concentrate
A heartfelt advice to the beloved wife – with lyrics maybe from the composer himself?
“Warum betrübst du dich und beugest dich zur Erden?” A truely biblical topos, this question (be it rhetorically to oneself or enquiring someone else), obviously taken from Psalm 42 (“Why art thou cast down, O my soul?”). Although described as an aria, this piece is quite short – in any case it doesn’t have anything in common with a typical da capo aria.
Part of the second book of music Bach compiled for his wife Anna Magdalena (the ‘Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach‘), this is - such as the other sacred texts in this book - rather a song for private worshipping, strongly reminding of Bach’s contributions to Schemelli’s hymnal. We see here only a single stanza, yet nothing seems to miss. It is a clear advice: regardless of all hardships and hazards which make you search restlessly ‘über Welt und über Himmel’– stay focused on God’s will, otherwise you won’t ever find any peace.
The gloomy, earnest key F minor perfectly illustrates this typically Lutheran “Gottergebenheit” (devotion to God) which one finds in most of Bach’s cantata librettos. And undoubtedly dedicated to a mother who had to bury so many of her children, like Anna Magdalena herself. As such, it is a touching sample for Johann Sebastian’s and Anna Magdalena’s ‘spiritual strategies‘ to cope with problems which could otherwise drive one easily to the verge of despair and hopelessness.
The Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
Shortly after their arrival in Leipzig in 1723, Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach revealed themselves as a cultural power couple. Although Anna Magdalena gave up her successful public singing career, she joined her husband in running a thriving music business, alongside looking after a large and growing family. We have at least two tangible traces of their married life in the form of two Notenbüchlein from 1722 and 1725.
Whereas the first Notenbüchlein was still a sort of notebook, containing things like early versions of five ‘French Suites’ (and who knows what else, as two-thirds of the pages are missing), the second one was definitely intended as a gift from Johann Sebastian to his wife. In fair copy, he notated two Partitas and all sorts of other music of Anna Magdalena’s own choosing, such as the aria from the Goldberg Variations and the song Dir, dir Jehova, as well as music by composers like Couperin and Anna Magdalena’s stepson Carl Philipp Emanuel. Together, the Notenbüchlein form a colourful mix of arias, chorales and suites.
- BWV
- 516
- Title
- Warum betrübst du dich
- Instrument
- tenor
- Genre
- songs and arias
- Serie
- Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach
- Year
- 1733-1734
- City
- Köthen/Leipzig
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Warum betrübst du dich
und beugest dich zur Erden,
Mein sehr geplagter Geist,
mein abgematter Sinn?
Du sorgst, wie will es doch
noch endlich mit dir werden,
Und fährest über Welt
und über Himmel hin.
Wirst du dich nicht recht fest
in Gottes Willen gründen,
Kannst du in Ewigkeit
nicht wahre Ruhe finden.
Translation
Why are you troubled so,
and let yourself be ground down,
my ever-tortured soul,
my dull and weary mind?
You worry what will come,
when someday your time comes round,
and you yourself beyond the earth
and heaven find.
If you don't let God’s will
securely ground and lead you,
Then in eternity
true peace too will elude you.
translation © Ruth van Baak Griffioen, 2024
Credits
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- Release date
- 31 October 2024
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- Recording date
- 29 May 2024
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- Location
- Walburgiskerk, Zutphen
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- Tenor
- Daniel Johannsen
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- Organ
- Matthias Havinga
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- Instrument
- Henrick Bader, 1639/1643
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- Director and editor
- Gijs Besseling
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Danny Noordanus, Manon Hoskens, Remco van Leest
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- Grip
- Wouter Visser
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok
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