Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
BWV 647 performed by Ton Koopman
Stadtkirche St Wenzel, Naumburg, Germany
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
From vocal to instrumental and back again
In this organ arrangement of both chorale and cantata, the chorale melody stands out
In Bach’s chorale arrangements for organ, the chorale that forms the basis provides a second layer that is always present. At times, the source material remains somewhat hidden, while at others it resounds throughout the organ arrangement. Whether hidden or not, for Bach’s audience, chorales were mainly hymns and were therefore simple melodies with well-known words. So in Bach’s chorale arrangements for organ, there is always an interaction between vocal and instrumental music.
In the case of the Schübler chorales (BWV 647 included), this interaction has yet another layer. At least five of the six Schübler chorales are based on parts of cantatas that Bach wrote earlier. The basis for BWV 647 is formed by a duet for soprano and alto from the cantata BWV 93, Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten. So there is a connection not only with the original chorale, but also with Bach’s use of it in his cantatas.
These two layers – chorale and cantata – do not always play the same role in the vocal-instrumental interaction. Sometimes the chorale melody is heard in the cantata not as a sung part, but as an instrumental part instead. This is also the case in cantata BWV 93. In the duet, the two voices sing music that is based on the chorale melody only at the beginning – through which the strings play the unornamented chorale melody in straightforward notes. So in this organ version, BWV 647, the accompanying voices hark back to music that was sung, while the chorale melody was already instrumental in the cantata. But precisely because everything is instrumental in the organ version, the simple chorale melody stands out prominently again – making it easy to sing along to.
Schübler Chorales, BWV 645-650
They may have a number and an epithet, but that does not necessarily mean that Bach wrote the six enchanting Schübler Chorales himself. Five of them are arrangements of known cantata movements – and the sixth may well be an arrangement too, from a lost work. Whereas some people, as organist Wolfgang Zerer, do not doubt the hand of the master and identify a well-considered construction in it, other specialists see a big gap between Bach’s own refined transcriptions and these works that have often been transferred rather literally to the organ. Did the master give this task to his son Wilhelm Friedemann, for example? Did he want to give opportunities to players of more popular music in Clavier-Übung III, as well as to the most virtuoso organists? Were these hits also bestsellers when arranged? Although we do not know the answers, it is a fact that Bach himself owned a copy of Schübler’s publication, which is very interesting for its abundance of improvements and changes by a composer in the latter years of his life.
- BWV
- 647
- Title
- Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
- Instrument
- organ
- Genre
- organ works
- Serie
- Schübler-Choräle (organ)
- Year
- 1747-48
- City
- Leipzig
- Special notes
- Organ version of the aria 'Er kennt die rechten Freudenstunden' from cantata BWV 93
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 7 November 2024
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- Recording date
- 14 September 2020
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- Location
- Stadtkirche St Wenzel, Naumburg, Germany
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- Organist
- Ton Koopman
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- Organ
- Zacharias Hildebrandt, 1746
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- Director and editor
- Robin van Erven Dorens
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Bastiaan Kuijt
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Robin van Erven Dorens, Onno van der Wal
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- Lights
- Ernst-Jan Thieme
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Interview
- Robin van Erven Dorens, Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Jessie Verbrugh
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