"Spiritual Instructions": Practice and Experience "Upadesha Manjari" is just one of the daily conversations of the Maharshi with visitors, recorded by his devotee Sri Nathanananda, but he tried to arrange the questions and answers in such a way that the first systematic

CHAPTER 27 Spiritual Surprises It's interesting that for many years I just went about my business and career and hardly noticed God's presence in my life or His actions in the lives of my friends. Now that I have walked a certain spiritual path, I notice the action of God

(Bach, Johann Sebastian)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, a small Thuringian town in Germany, where his father Johann Ambrosius served as the town musician and his uncle Johann Christoph as organist. The boy began to study music early. Apparently, his father taught him to play the violin, his uncle taught him the organ, and thanks to his good soprano voice he was accepted into the church choir, which performed motets and cantatas. At the age of 8, the boy entered a church school, where he made great progress. A happy childhood ended for him at the age of nine, when he lost his mother, and a year later his father. The orphan was taken into his modest home by his elder brother, an organist in nearby Ohrdruf; there the boy went back to school and continued his music studies with his brother. Johann Sebastian spent 5 years in Ohrdruf.

When he turned fifteen, on the recommendation of his school teacher, he was given the opportunity to continue his education at the school at St. Michael in Lüneburg in northern Germany. To get there, he had to walk three hundred kilometers. There he lived on full board, received a small scholarship, studied and sang in the school choir, which enjoyed a high reputation (the so-called morning choir, Mettenchor). It was very important stage in the education of Johann Sebastian. Here he became acquainted with the best examples of choral literature, began relationships with famous master organ art by Georg Böhm (his influence is obvious in Bach's early organ compositions), gained insight into French music, which I had the opportunity to hear at the court of neighboring Celle, where it was held in high esteem French culture; in addition, he often traveled to Hamburg to listen to the virtuoso playing of Johann Adam Reincken.

Essays

Bach's work represents all the main genres of the late Baroque era with the exception of opera. His legacy includes works for soloists and choirs with instruments, organ compositions, keyboard and orchestral music. His powerful creative imagination brought to life an extraordinary wealth of forms: for example, in numerous Bach cantatas it is impossible to find two fugues of the same structure. However, there is a structural principle that is very characteristic of Bach: the symmetrical concentric form. Continuing a centuries-old tradition, Bach uses polyphony as his main means of expression, but at the same time his most complex contrapuntal constructions are based on a clear harmonic basis - this was undoubtedly a trend new era. In general, the “horizontal” (polyphonic) and “vertical” (harmonic) principles in Bach are balanced and form a magnificent unity.

Cantatas

Most of Bach's vocal and instrumental music consists of sacred cantatas: he created five cycles of such cantatas for every Sunday and for the holidays of the church year. About two hundred of these works have reached us. The early cantatas (before 1712) were written in the style of Bach's predecessors, such as Johann Pachelbel and Dietrich Buxtehude. The texts are taken from the Bible or from Lutheran church hymns - chorales; the composition consists of several relatively short sections, usually contrasting in melody, tonality, tempo, and performing composition.

A striking example of Bach's early cantata style is the beautiful Tragic Cantata (Actus Tragicus) No. 106 (The Time of the Lord - best time, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit). After 1712, Bach turned to another form of spiritual cantata, which was introduced into Lutheran use by Pastor E. Neumeister: it uses not quotations from Scripture and Protestant hymns, but paraphrases of biblical fragments or chorales. In this type of cantata, the sections are more clearly separated from one another, and between them solo recitatives are introduced with the accompaniment of an organ and a general bass. Sometimes such cantatas have two parts: during the service, a sermon was preached between the parts. TO this type belongs to most of Bach's cantatas, including cantata No. 65. All of them will come from Saba (Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen), on the day of the Archangel Michael. Cantata No. 19. And there was a battle in heaven (Es erhub sich ein Streit), on the holiday

Reformations No. 80 Strong Stronghold our God (Ein" feste Burg), No. 140. Arise from sleep (Wachet auf). A special case is cantata No. 4 Christ lay in the chains of death (Christ lag in Todesbanden): it uses 7 stanzas of the chorale of the same name Martin Luther, and in each stanza the chorale theme is treated differently, and in the finale it sounds in simple harmonization. In most cantatas, solo and choral sections alternate, replacing each other, but there are also entirely solo cantatas in Bach’s legacy - for example, a touching cantata for. bass with orchestra No. 82. Enough for me (Ich habe genug) or the brilliant cantata for soprano and orchestra No. 51 Let every breath praise the Lord (Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen). Several secular Bach cantatas have also survived: they were composed on occasions of birthdays, name days, wedding ceremonies of high-ranking officials and other special occasions. The comic Coffee Cantata (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht) No. 211 is known, the text of which ridicules the German obsession with the overseas drink. In this work, as in Peasant Cantata No. 217, Bach's style approaches the style comic opera his era.

2. Early cantatas and traditions of German sacred music of the 17th century

Variety of early Bach cantatas

The early cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach are probably some of the most interesting for both the researcher and the listener. These cantatas are written in a very diverse, very individual way. If later, in Leipzig, Bach would write cantatas often, a lot, trying to follow a certain model and a certain chosen solution, then before he moved to Leipzig, his working conditions allowed him to experiment a lot, to try a lot. The results were very different. Everything depended not only on Bach, but, of course, on his librettists, on the words that he took as the libretto of his cantatas. But among these cantatas there are a lot of real pearls, and such pearls that, in general, have little resemblance to anything else, which are unique both in the history of music and in Bach’s work itself.

A turning point in the history of German church music

Here we must keep in mind that it was precisely Bach’s early work that occurred at a turning point in the history of German church music. This main musical event of the day - the liturgy - began to change dramatically. In the 17th century, works were created based on the biblical text, on Lutheran church songs, more or less all of this followed some specific tradition dating back to the 15th century, and at the same time a little shunned the latest pan-European trends that were determined in the first turn by Italy, then also partly by France. Well, for Germany – first of all, Italy. These trends came from musical theater, from opera, from secular style. And the music of the Germans was a little old-fashioned, especially when it came to church music.

This is actually good for church music; there is absolutely no need to write some kind of avant-garde. But at the same time, this new style, new operatic music opened up huge tempting prospects both for the composer and for his co-author, moreover, a full-fledged co-author, sometimes even he was considered the main author - librettist. Write poems and music that are very expressive, full of affects, full of passions! This is the temptation of expressiveness.

This was not the case in old German church music. It is very expressive in its own way and is primarily associated with the techniques of musical rhetoric. It was in Germany in the 17th century that a powerful theoretical teaching was developed on how to create musical works by imitating oratorical techniques. The Germans were very thorough. They analyzed already existing works of classics, starting with Orlando di Lasso, a remarkable Dutch composer who worked at the Bavarian court at the end of the 16th century. Further, of course, analyzing the works of their contemporaries and German church authors, they created a whole complex system of how expressive musical gestures can emphasize one or another meaning of words. It was high art, it had its own expressiveness, but at the same time they still did not have some kind of sea of ​​raging passions that could be found in operatic music.

Cantata and oratorio as genre forms

And times have changed. And by the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, when Bach turns about fifteen years old and he gradually turns from a youth, a teenager into mature composer, creating his first masterpieces - it was by this time that a need arose in Germany to update everything, including church music. And here poets played a crucial role.

The poets wanted to measure their fame with their Italian contemporaries; they wanted to write poetry for the musical genres that flourished in Italy. And this means cantata and oratorio. Cantata in Italy was an exclusively secular genre, but in Germany it immediately became a spiritual genre too, although secular cantatas were also written in Germany. Oratorio is a purely spiritual genre that was written both in Italy and from the beginning of the 18th century in Germany.

What was the peculiarity of this new spiritual versification? First of all, this versification made it possible to write recitatives and arias - something that we are accustomed to in operas, which arose in the second half of the 17th century in Italian opera and in the Italian oratorio. As a matter of fact, the oratorio was then understood in Italy primarily as a spiritual opera - simply an opera with a spiritual plot. Sometimes they even staged a dramatization, by the way. Those. it was almost an opera, only more modest, of course.

So, a recitative, in which one could talk about something with pathos, and an aria, which represents passion in pure form, this is the very feeling that is provoked by certain important words. Well, in opera these are, of course, all kinds of love passions, but here there are spiritual passions, in sacred music, associated with the fight against evil, first of all, either with original sin, or with sin in a person’s life.

Erdmann Neumeister - reformer of the cantata genre

And if we are talking specifically about the cantata genre, then it had its own reformer. His name was Erdmann Neumeister, he was an educated man, in the 90s of the 17th century he lectured at the University of Leipzig. They were subsequently published and received great acclaim. And besides, he, having become a pastor in 1697, decided to replace the traditional librettos for the main music of the church service with librettos in the new Italian spirit, such librettos that would be written freely, i.e. unrhymed, as a rule, verse, and at the same time would suggest the possibility of creating both recitatives and arias. And his first cycles of cantata texts were called: “Sacred cantatas instead of church music.” Kirchenmusik - this was the designation of an old play either on a biblical text, or on the text of a Lutheran song, or on some odes, as they said then, i.e. on strophic poetry in the 17th century. But something traditional in any case.

Instead of this very Kirchenmusik, or Kirchenstück, he proposes to write Geistliche Cantaten, i.e. sacred works based on poetry that was used in secular Italian cantatas. And he created the first cycle in 1700, published it in 1704, then his next cycles appeared in 1708, 1711, 1714 and 1716. In 1716, after he moved to Hamburg, he became a prominent clergyman there. But by that time he was already a generally recognized reformer, an innovator in the field of spiritual poetry.

Here I would like to remind you about these same cycles, because Neumeister and after him many other German poets wrote more than one libretto. They wrote a series of texts for all the holidays of the church year. Those. all Sundays and all holidays, both movable and immovable. It was a great poetic opus for which the composer could write a cycle of cantatas.

The history of the creation of BWV 4 – Christ lag in Todes Banden

And so composers willingly take on Neumeister’s cycles, poets begin to imitate him, and here somewhere nearby there is still a very young Johann Sebastian Bach, who also wants to try his hand at this new poetry. But not right away. Bach has wonderful works written in the old spirit. And just one of his first cantatas is cantata No. 4, Easter cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, “Christ lay in the shrouds of death.”

The date of its creation, of course, is not precisely known; Bach, like most composers of his time, rarely directly indicated the date of creation on the title page, for example, or somewhere else. He avoided this, although sometimes he uses such designations. Moreover, not all of the manuscripts of Bach’s early cantatas have survived. In Leipzig he had already begun to write regular cycles, and then he already selected all this, saved it and made such grandiose opuses.

But here not everything was preserved, and much was preserved due to the fact that, as in the case of the Fourth Cantata, when he arrived in Leipzig, he felt that he did not have time to write a cantata every Sunday and even learn it. It was incredibly difficult. And that's why he used old music. And it was this Fourth Cantata that he used in the first two Easters that he served in Leipzig. This gives us April 9, 1724 and April 1, 1725. But it is clear from everything that here he used a much earlier work. It is much earlier in style, and if we analyze the manuscripts (we will, of course, not go into these details now), it is also clear that there was a much earlier version.

And here, researchers of Bach’s work came to the conclusion that we are most likely talking about the very cantata with which Bach, as a test piece, got a job in Mühlhausen - one of those small towns where he worked as a very young man, and in 1707, then it turns out, on Easter, at the end of April, this work was written, and on May 24 it was approved as a musician in Mühlhausen. I really liked this work. What exactly it was is unknown, but there is a high probability that exactly what we will listen to today, what we will talk about, was voiced in Mühlhausen.

In the tradition of the old masters

This work is unusual in Bach's work. This is a pre-Neumeister cantata, written in the tradition of the old masters. Perhaps even in the tradition of Johann Pachelbel, who addressed this text and who was in close connection with the Bach family, was such a grandfather of Bach on the teaching side, one might say. And this cantata belongs to that type of German traditional church cantatas that are not even called cantatas, strictly speaking.

These were not called cantatas. This is a work per omnes versus, i.e. "through all the stanzas." This means that a Protestant spiritual song is taken, and each of its stanzas is musically processed in a unique, individual manner for a specific composition, and the composer presents the work as a sequence of stanzas of this Lutheran church song, but not sung easily, not as the community could sing - simple chords with a clear-sounding melody in the upper voice... However, the melody still, of course, must sound clearly; without clearly audible words, no Lutheran music is possible. But this requires great compositional skill.

Church song of Martin Luther: origin and features

What else is important here in connection with this cantata? Of course, the text is important. This is a work written on the words of Luther. After all, Luther was a wonderful and very skillful poet, his songs were highly revered by the church, and the composer’s appeal to these songs placed a very special responsibility on him. It must be said that Bach felt this certain archaism of Luther’s song very subtly and managed to use the archaic manner, based on musical rhetoric, with the expressiveness of a composer already at the beginning of the 18th century. Those. he took to the extreme this expression, which is inherent in traditional German musical rhetoric, and remained faithful to Luther’s early reform text.

Why are we talking about this? Firstly, here we need to understand the difference between these early reform texts. They are primarily doctrinal and dogmatic in nature. Luther created his texts so that believers could deeply understand the meaning of this song and perceive dogmas, i.e. the basic, unshakable tenets of faith, quite consciously, repeating these verses, repeating these vivid images, which were often paraphrases, of course, of the Gospel, but at the same time they were very clearly presented poetically and very vividly presented as images. Thanks to this, having truly learned, the person left the church. And we are, of course, talking primarily about the salvation of man, i.e. We talked about the doctrine that underlies Lutheranism at the very first lecture.

And this text - “Christ lay in the swaddling clothes of death” - is especially multi-layered in Luther. Its prototypes include the famous Easter medieval sequence “Christians offer praises to the Easter sacrifice.” Those. This is the line that we also talked about in the first lecture, which stretches from the first attempts to more meaningfully imagine and in our own way reform the faith within Catholicism, in the late Middle Ages. This Latin sequence was subsequently translated by an unknown, naturally, author into German; it was a pre-Reformation German song, the so-called Leise, because the Germans did not like these broad chants that were in South European, Roman Catholic music, they always wanted to subtext them, every syllable . They really liked it to always have clear texts. Luther took advantage of this, refined this Leise and presented it in his own edition. And the result was truly great poetry, I must say, in which there are seven stanzas, and these seven stanzas wonderfully set out the essence of what happens on Easter, and the whole Christian meaning of this holiday.

Bar form and first stanza

Now we will turn to this text, mainly I will, perhaps with some deviations, quote the wonderful translation of Pyotr Meshcherinov.

The very first stanza of this church song shows Luther's skill. Everything seems to be very simple. The usual form for Luther's songs, and indeed for many German Lutheran church songs, is the bar form, where there are two short verses, a couplet, and a chorus, Abgesang, which may have a number of lines too. And he divides everything very clearly. The first two lines: “Christ lay in the chains of death, // He died for our sins.” This is the first verse. Those. we turn to what we see, the death of Jesus. “He rose again and gave us life.” Here, in fact, is the second verse. Everything is very simple, everything is very strict at first. Strictly speaking, what is the meaning of the holiday? Here he is. Christ lay in these swaddling clothes, and He rose from the grave. And the chorus calls for a heartfelt response: “Let us rejoice, let us glorify God, // Let us thank Him and sing to Him: // Hallelujah!” Everything is very clear, and for Bach this is very convenient. He will follow this structure. And only then, in the following stanzas, Luther begins to explain in detail some individual details of the meaning, as if delving into the themes that the holiday outlines.

Cantata Symphony

What does Bach do? Well, first of all, Bach creates an absolutely brilliant symphony for this cantata. A symphony in those Baroque times, of course, is not a symphony of Mozart, Beethoven or Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as we are used to, not a classical or romantic cycle, but simply an instrumental piece. In this play, with all the rhetorical poignancy, he plays out the main intonations of Luther’s song, which really has both plaintive intonations and a melodic pattern that resembles a cross, this one famous theme cross, which is often found in Bach, sometimes for the purpose, sometimes not for the purpose. But here there really is this cross-shaped pattern - as if it was envisioned by Luther in this very song.

And here are the instruments that Bach plays... And it’s interesting there. There is, of course, a string ensemble, regular violins, violas, and cellos in the bass. But for the performance in Leipzig, at first he also intended to duplicate the voices with such an ancient composition - an ensemble of trombones, and the top of them was a cornet, baroque trombones and cornets with a very soft, very melodious sound. These are very special instruments, if you have the opportunity to search for their sound, this is not difficult to do on the Internet, you can appreciate all the melodiousness and all the depth of tone when it is duplicated. This is also a very archaic manner, which Bach, quite possibly, deliberately resorted to in order to emphasize the antiquity of both the poems and the plot itself.

Chorale fantasy

So, after this very expressive symphony, which seems to help the listener to renounce some worldly thoughts and tune in to the perception of the word... Because here it is very important, with Bach you not only need to remember the words, but also experience it all with heart, although If only the text were dogmatic. He writes the first part the way he will subsequently write in his cantatas, already in mature ones, in the Leipzig cantatas. This is a fantasy on the theme of this Lutheran song. Sometimes they say "chorale fantasy".

Those. the upper voice, the soprano, with long durations so that everything can be clearly heard, leads us through this song, and other voices imitate this sound, but not exactly, but as if imitating, with different intonations, a more lively sound, more mobile and, accordingly, conveying expressiveness . Here, all the instruments also continue to play, which is why a very thick and emotionally rich, sensually rich musical texture arises.

And with Bach everything follows Luther. The relative severity of the first two verses, and then the feelings are slowly released in the chorus. The movement becomes more and more alive, intense, and when we reach “Hallelujah”, there is already a feeling of jubilation. But Bach does not stop, he changes the signs indicating the musical size, so that the movement doubles as the hallelujah progresses, and in fact we hear a real dance. You will now hear this moment when indeed, as they say, King David danced while singing his psalms. Hallelujah is an exclamation precisely from the Easter psalms, both Luther and Bach knew this very well, they were very educated people.

And yes, such an ecstatic dance occurs at the very end of this first stanza. Which, in fact, is, of course, the main mood of the holiday.

It is interesting that, of course, the cantata is written in a minor key. And this is important, because the holiday itself is still surrounded by the mood of Holy Week. Everyone remembers how they experienced and empathized with Christ and his Passion, it all does not go away so quickly, there is no frivolity in it. And we will hear and see a lot of suffering in this cantata. But nevertheless, the rhythms themselves seem to lead us to this hallelujah and to this ecstatic dance.

The meaning of the Easter sacrifice

Then Luther begins to explain to us what happened and why. And, of course, the second stanza of Luther’s song precisely describes the meaning of what happened. Why, strictly speaking, did Christ need to save humanity, why did he need to make this Easter sacrifice? And the second stanza talks about how at one time death acquired enormous power thanks to original sin. Those. man became a slave to death. Just as the Jews were once enslaved by the Egyptians, so man could not do anything about death.

And this hopelessness, this greatest misfortune that could befall a person, Bach conveys with absolute genius in his music. He creates such musical dramaturgy. He retreats very far from this Easter joy, which sounded at the end of the first part, and creates music, a duet of soprano and alto, in which we hear words about death, separated by pauses, and as if the movement stops. Everything becomes numb. And this kind of lostness of a person, his weakness in the face of death is shown with amazing artistic power.

This is very good room for those modern performers who want to give maximum expressiveness to Bach's music. They slow down the pace here (and do so quite reasonably) and emphasize this state of confusion and weakness that arises at the very beginning of the Easter story.

And, in fact, the whole song talks specifically about the struggle for this very power. Does death have power over a person or not? Strictly speaking, Easter is a victory over the power of death. And already in the third stanza there are the famous words from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, his famous quote from the prophet Hosea: “Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory? - they are paraphrasing here, this is one of the paraphrases that Luther resorts to. “He took away all the power and power from death, // leaving it only an insignificant appearance.” Translation by Father Peter. Bach is even stronger: Da bleibet nichts // denn Tod's Gestalt, that is, nichts - “nothing.”

As a matter of fact, even among Bach’s predecessors this very nichts is always played out very expressively, in some Dietrich Buxtehude, for example, in cantatas. Buxtehude was not only a great organist, but also the author of numerous absolutely wonderful church vocal and instrumental works. And nichts is always emphasized by pauses (and this is also a rhetorical figure) and very expressive intonations. And we hear this in Bach too.

This third verse is shown, strictly speaking, as absolutely wonderful music. This is such a trio: bass, violin, which plays such smooth sixteenth notes, and tenor, which proclaims the words of the song, slightly embellished and rhythmized by Bach. And to this moment, when nothing remains of the power of death, Bach comes and makes very expressive pauses, and then writes out a change of tempo: adagio. Adagio is not only a slow tempo, but the violin scratches sixteenth notes, of course, quickly. In general, this is music that is associated primarily with something decisive in Bach, when the violin scratches sixteenth notes, quickly like that.

And indeed, Jesus comes, he is a warrior, he is a winner. But here everything stops and, on the one hand, the powerlessness of death in the face of Jesus is shown, and on the other hand, this adagio shows suffering. It reminds us of how bad it was for a person when death was alive.

And here we must understand that although we won, this is not yet such a moment of victory, when God knows how many years have passed and we are just celebrating the victory, not imagining what a terrible price it came at and what horror preceded this victory. And this most terrible, ancient enemy of man, death, he lies defeated right here nearby. And we look at him, and this horror has not yet left us, this pain has not left us. And this moment seems to be a reminder of what happened.

Image of battle - battle polyphony

And we see already after the third stanza that, in fact, here the military theme, military imagery in this cantata, in accordance, strictly speaking, with what Luther wrote, inevitably comes to the fore. Here is another very early discovery of Bach, quite possibly from 1707, which he would later use a lot in his cantatas - this is that he likes to arrange numbers symmetrically. And he really loves choir portals. If there are seven stanzas, then where will we have the choir? In the first, fourth and seventh stanza. And the fourth stanza is the chorus, which in this case is sung without solo string instruments, only with bass, which directly talks about the battle. A wonderful, amazing battle that happened between life and death. Here Bach again writes music polyphonically, i.e. all the voices are more or less equal, one voice echoes the other, and this rather reminds us of the confusion that happens during a battle. Those. the image of the battle appears as if right in front of us, and moreover precisely thanks to purely musical techniques.

But not only does Bach arrange all this battle polyphony. At the end he gives special expressiveness to his music when the result happens. One death swallowed up another, and this is again a biblical paraphrase, of course, and death was subjected to ridicule, ridicule. At this moment, Bach literally abandons all polyphony and makes the choir laugh, ridicule this very death. Because the greatest victory over the enemy is not just killing him, it is also ridiculing him, ridiculing what used to cause horror. And Bach really does this with some amazing fervor. He is still young, he is temperamental - well, how old is he, 22 years old. The degree of emotionality here is absolutely enormous.

And then, of course, Hallelujah. This, of course, is one of the emotional peaks of the cantata, and it is located in the center, as the result of this whole battle.

And it would seem that victory has been won, what else can be said? But after everything has happened on the emotional plane, there is still an intellectual plan. Namely, it is necessary to explain the connection between the new Easter and the old, Old Testament Easter.

Old Testament reminiscences in the bass part

And here Bach acts very wisely: he saved the bass, the lowest voice - we had a duet of soprano and alto, then a tenor solo, then a choir, but now he seems to have descended lowest of all. We are talking about a bass solo, but all the string instruments play there, which create a certain expressive background for it. And we are talking about the Paschal lamb, i.e., strictly speaking, about Christ. And the realities of the Old Testament Easter are remembered. About how the doors of the Israelites were marked with blood, about the fact that - here are very important words - faith overcomes death, well, it practically conquers, and the destroyer will no longer harm us.

And here Bach resorts to some absolutely amazing expressive techniques. We will probably not find such leaps from the very top register of the bass to the very bottom, such intense melodic moves in Bach anywhere else. Those. last time showing the power of death, he paints it with some of the naivety of a child, but at the same time with the skill of a great composer. And now this archaism is returning to us again.

Those. Yes, you and I see that Luther’s text constantly sends us there, to the very first times, this is typical for Luther’s texts. Original sin, Jewish Passover and such archaic ideas about death as some kind of almost mythological creature. And with the help of such exaggerated musical rhetoric, Bach shows us this unusually expressively. These are, of course, some super amazing things.

Soprano and tenor duet: light dispels darkness

And finally, the penultimate stanza. This is a duet this time of a soprano and a tenor. Here, of course, Luther’s main alternative is day and night, but Bach corrects this a little. First of all, it shows how light dispels darkness. That in reality the darkness is insignificant, and as soon as the light illuminates everything, it disappears. And this is the disappearance of darkness, it seems to disappear.

In chants, which still have such special rhythmic figures, where notes are grouped not in twos, as usual, but in threes, in music this is called triplets... These triplets have generally always been associated with a kind of rejoicing. And here they prepare for rejoicing, and at the same time they show how it all disappears. Strictly speaking, the night of sin is verschwunden, i.e. disappeared, evaporated. This is the word that Bach clings to; it is the main thing here. He no longer makes powerful contrasts here, why are they needed, to show deep night, then day... Everything has already happened. Those. This is also a very subtle approach, a very subtle portrayal of Luther's text. Not exactly against the grain. But at the same time, choosing your accents in order to build this musical dramaturgy, which still goes back to the final jubilation.

Final stanza

Well, and the final stanza. Her problem is very interesting. This is a problem also for modern performers. Because in Leipzig Bach followed the local tradition. There, at the end, it was necessary to perform the chorale in exactly this traditional choral texture, i.e. chords, when the community, in theory, could join in. True, Bach wrote these parts, these chords rather complicatedly, so it is unlikely that the community could really sing along. But at least theoretically, it could, especially if there was someone very musically gifted or, on the contrary, thought a lot about himself in musically, this happens in church sometimes. So, we hear these chords, they are very solemn, everything is announced by the text, the instruments duplicate the voices so that it all sounds solemn, so that there is such a shining portal in terms of sound. More precisely, it’s no longer a portal, but what should we call it... A backdrop. The solemn conclusion of this entire cantata.

This is, in fact, what was done in the Leipzig manuscripts. Here we are talking about Easter bread, that yes, it is, as you and I understand, unleavened bread, made without leaven, hastily, because Easter actually comes not when we have been preparing for it for a long time, but when we and we don’t wait, well, according to the entire Old Testament history. And it sounds very good. This is what most modern performers do.

But, apparently, there, in his youth, Bach did something different. He was not bound by the Leipzig rules, and he simply returned the music of the first movement - not a symphony, of course, but the first stanza of the second number. Although numbers are our entire unit, Bach never wrote the word “number” in his manuscripts. He returns at the end. Those. again these movements to “Hallelujah”. And a hallelujah dance.

Those. he once again returns us to this joyful dance, but now when we have comprehended everything, thought about everything and experienced everything. And this, of course, gives a very strong effect. I like it better when I hear this early version, which our wonderful performers also show wonderfully. It seems to me that indeed this archaic Bach is something completely special and absolutely wonderful.

Sources

1. Cherednichenko T.V. Interpretation of tradition in the art of J. S. Bach // T.V. Cherednichenko. Favorites / ed.-comp. T. S. Kyuregyan. M.: National Research Center "Moscow Conservatory", 2012. pp. 213–239.
2. Dürr A. The Cantatas of J. S. Bach. With their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text / rev. and transl. by Richard D. P. Jones. N. Y. and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. pp. 262–266.
3. Gardiner J. E. Bach. Music in the Castle of Heaven. N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Ch. 5.
4. Petzold M. Theologisches Todesverständnis und seine musikalische Umsetzung in der mitteldeutschen Kulturlandschaft am Beispiel der Musikalischen Exequien von Heinrich Schütz und der Kantate Christ lag in Todesbanden von Johann Sebastian Bach // Tod und Musik im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: XX VI Internationale wissenschaftliche Arbeitstagung Michaelstein , 12. bis 14. Juni 1998 / hrsg. von G. Fleischhauer. Blankenburg: Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein, 2001, pp. 15–29. (Michaelsteiner Konferenzberichte, Bd. 59.)

The leading genre in Bach's vocal and instrumental work is the spiritual cantata. Bach created 5 annual cycles of cantatas, which differ in their belonging to church calendar, according to textual sources (psalms, choral stanzas, “free” poetry), according to the role of the chorale, etc. Of the secular cantatas, the most famous are “Peasant” and “Coffee”.

The genre of spiritual cantata (No. 12 with choir “Weinen, Klagen”), in the sense that is characteristic of Bach’s mature works, took shape in German music precisely in his time and, to a large extent, through his efforts. The Italian cantata, then known in Europe, was close in its composition and the nature of the music to opera fragments. In the German cantata, Bach's predecessors relied heavily on the Protestant chorale and polyphonic forms. Bach, for his part, deepened the features of the German cantata and at the same time, much more boldly than others, implemented in it the achievements of the new art of his time, in particular opera. Bach's spiritual cantatas, despite the relatively small volume of the whole, include an unusually wide range of expressive means. Polyphonic choirs, chorale arrangements, arias and speeches of various types, ensembles, instrumental numbers are included in their composition

In Bach's spiritual cantatas there is usually no image or images of heroes as personified “characters”: the cantatas are not theatrical, but church concert works. At the same time, from the general content of the cantatas, the image of a seemingly implied hero gradually emerges, whose thoughts and feelings are primarily expressed here by the composer. Bach's hero turns out to be a simple, truly earthly man, close and similar to himself, patiently, without any external heroism, completing his life's journey, suffering in the earthly vale and feeling deeply.

The very first of Bach's surviving spiritual cantatas, “Aus der Tiefe rufe ich” (“From the depths I call,” No. 131), dates back to 1707 and still represents an ancient type of composition - without consistent division into separate developed and closed ones numbers. . And although it features solo episodes (bass-soprano and tenor-alto), the choir predominates; accompanied by strings, oboe, bassoon, basso continuo. The cantata is imbued with a mournful feeling, there is a lot of sorrowful expression and anxiety, which are gradually overcome by hope, and everything ends with a call to believe in salvation. The verbal text is taken from a psalm and two stanzas of a song by the poet B. Ringwald.

Bach's secular cantatas are to a certain extent connected with spiritual ones. Thus, five of them, created in 1717 - 1737, were then completely reworked into sacred ones (the music of the other three was included in the Christmas Oratorio), and individual numbers from the four became spiritual cantatas. Each time, of course, the text changed, but the music remained without significant changes, since, in principle, parodies assumed in each case a similar character of the images.

Bach clearly did not contrast his secular cantatas with his spiritual ones, but he also did not identify these types of genre. His spiritual cantatas contain almost everything that can be found in secular cantatas (with the exception of buffoonery or burlesque), but in secular cantatas there is a lot missing that is especially characteristic of spiritual ones - a rare depth of content, expression of mournful feelings up to tragedy. This is directly related to the purpose of secular cantatas, which in the overwhelming majority were written for the occasion, as congratulatory or welcoming ones. At the same time, the composer, apparently, was not so interested in the individuality of the person being honored, be it a duke, an elector, a crown prince, the king of Poland, a university professor or a Leipzig merchant. Other cantatas were redirected several times to different persons, and only the name in address was changed, and sometimes individual details of the text. The famous Hunting Cantata (No. 208) was dedicated successively to the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar and King Augustus III of Poland. Another cantata (No. 36a) existed in four versions, being reworked into a spiritual one.

The artistic value of Bach's secular cantatas depends least of all on their panegyric purpose. The composer each time sought to focus on something else - on the development of an independent plot, which gives a certain freedom to musical images, on a free, that is, more generalized interpretation of the allegory, the constant deepening of emerging images of nature, etc. So, for the main content and musical images of the Hunting Cantata are essentially indifferent to whom exactly it is dedicated: in connection with the festive hunt, the love relationship of Diana and Endymion is complicated, and then Pan - the personification of nature - and Pale - the goddess of herds, the personification of a rural idyll, appear... And only the conclusion The second choir glorifies the person in whose honor the hunt was organized.

Coffee Cantata(BWV 211) - piece of music, written by Johann Sebastian Bach between 1732 and 1734. Also known from the first line of the libretto - “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht” (German: “Be quiet, don’t talk”)

History of creation.

Bach wrote this work at the request of the Zimmermann coffee house in Leipzig, becoming the head of the Collegium Musicum, a secular ensemble in that city. Bach worked in this coffee house since 1729 and from time to time, at the request of its owner, wrote music performed in the house on Fridays in winter and Wednesdays in summer. Two-hour concerts at the Zimmermannsche Kaffeehaus were popular among the townspeople. The libretto for the cantata was written by the then famous German librettist Christian Friedrich Henricki (who then worked under the pseudonym Picander). The cantata was first performed in mid-1734 and first published in 1837.

This is the first work of art dedicated to coffee. One of the reasons Bach wrote this humorous cantata was the movement in Germany to ban coffee for women (it was assumed that coffee would make them sterile). Key aria of the cantata: “Ah! How sweet the taste of coffee is! More tender than a thousand kisses, sweeter than muscat wine!

Historical context.

At the beginning of the 18th century, coffee was just beginning to gain popularity among the middle classes, and visiting coffee houses was akin to visiting clubs in later times. Many Germans were distrustful of the new drink: they preferred traditional beer to it and generally did not perceive anything that was not German. In many places, the sale of coffee was subject to high taxes, and in some lands it was completely prohibited. The owner of a coffee shop, commissioning Bach to write a humorous work about coffee, wanted to popularize this drink.

There are 3 characters in the cantata:

narrator (tenor),

Mr. Shlendrian (bass) - an ordinary burgher who does not like coffee,

his daughter Lischen (soprano), on the contrary, is fond of this drink.

The work consists of 10 parts (alternating recitatives and arias, ending with the whole trio). The work begins with an introduction by the narrator, asking the listeners to sit quietly and introducing Shlendrian and his daughter to them. Shlendrian, having learned about his daughter’s hobby, tries to dissuade her from drinking the drink, but Lischen remains faithful to coffee, describing its wonderful taste to her father.

Shlendrian tries to come up with a punishment for Lischen, but she agrees to any inconvenience for the sake of coffee. In the end, the father promises not to marry her until she refuses the drink: Lischen pretends to agree, but then the narrator explains to the listeners that she will not marry someone who will not allow her to make coffee whenever she wants. The cantata ends with a verse from the trio, which states the commitment to coffee of all German girls.

Instrumental composition.

flute; 2 violins; alto; harpsichord

Cantata "The Contest of Phoebus and the Master". For his concerts, held in Leipzig with an orchestra composed of university students and which laid the foundation for the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bach wrote secular cantatas for several years, mainly based on poems by the local poet Picander (real name Christian Friedrich Henrypi, 1700-1764) . He also owns the text of the cantata “The Contest of Phoebus and Pan”, which is based on the ancient Greek myth set forth by Ovid (43 BC - ca. 18 AD) in his “Metamorphoses” (15 books, dates of creation are not established ). Picander made some changes to the story to suit the music. The summary of the work is as follows: the bright deity, the powerful patron of art Phoebus-Apollo and the god of herds, forests and fields Pan decided to find out which of them is the best singer. They are hindered by the winds, Momus (otherwise Momus, the deity of slander), the god of trade Mercury, the god of Mount Tmol, who bears her name, and the king of Phrygia Midas. Phoebus and Pan convince them to return to their cave so as not to interfere with the competition. An arbitration court has been elected; Phoebus asks Tmol to be his protector, Pan - Midas. Both sing their songs. Tmolus declares Phoebus the winner, Midas - Pan, because, as he says, this song “falls into the ears itself.” For this, Phoebus rewards Midas with donkey ears. In conclusion, all the characters glorify the music that pleases not people, but the gods.

“The Contest of Phoebus and Pan,” with its simple plot, is distinguished by its laid-back, sometimes crude humor and satirical features. Bach wrote the cantata at approximately the same time as “Coffee Room”, i.e. in 1732. It was first performed in the summer of 1732 in Leipzig, in the garden adjacent to Zimmermann's coffee house, under the direction of the author. In the middle of the 19th century, the famous German theorist Siegfried Dehn (teacher of Glinka and Anton Rubinstein) suggested that this cantata is a satire on certain individuals, in particular, on the main critic of Bach, Scheibe, who reproached Bach’s music for its pompous complexity, for the fact that it does not directly affect feelings.

Music

The cantata “The Contest of Phoebus and Pan” consists of 13 numbers, opens and ends with choirs, and within this arch recitatives and arias alternate. There are no duets, but there are dialogues in the recitative episodes. The orchestra of the cantata is small, but used ingeniously. The vocal line is not self-sufficient, but is one of the components of overall musical development. Phoebe’s aria “In a Thirst for Affection” (No. 5) is full of passionate languor. Pan’s aria “Oh, dancing and song - that’s where the beauty is” (No. 7) is a rural dance song, in a common folk spirit, similar to the dances performed at temple spring festivals. Tmol's aria “Phoebus, our great singer” (No. 9) is distinguished by an expressive, flexible melody. Midas's aria “Pan is our master, our poet” (No. 10) is designed, according to Schweitzer, “in the style of a village psalm-reader.” All characters take part in the subsequent recitative (No. 11). The cantata is crowned by the final chorus “Tease the heart, strings of the lyre” (No. 13), glorifying art.

Bach's vocal and dramatic works include about three hundred works - cantatas, chorales, motets, etc.

Bach's cantatas, especially the arias, are filled with enormous emotional power. They combine prayerful detachment with bright joy, and inner drama with lyricism. The composer's legacy includes solo (that is, written for one singer and orchestra) and solo-choral (including arias and duets of soloists, recitatives, choirs) works. The solo cantata conveys the innermost feelings of one person that arise when reading the text of Scripture, and the solo choral one conveys the entire church community. In addition to spiritual ones, Bach also created secular cantatas. "Coffee" (1732) and "Peasant" (1742) have features of a comic opera, and the cantata "Phoebus and Pan" (1731) can even be called satirical work. Among the secular cantatas Bach wrote for the occasion are “Country”, performed on behalf of two Saxon peasants, “Coffee”, which ridiculed the passion for the new drink coffee, “Hunting” - one of Bach’s first works of this kind, etc.

"St. Matthew Passion" by J. S. Bach. “Passion”, or passives (from the Latin passio - “suffering”) - musical composition on the Gospel text about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The main idea of ​​the “passion” is the self-sacrifice of the Son of God for the good of people. The roots of this genre go back to the long and solemn Gospel readings during Holy Week (the last week of Lent before Easter), which came into church use in the 4th century. In the Middle Ages, such actions were performed as readings. From the 13th century the text of the “passions” began to be pronounced in roles. The parts of the Evangelist stood out, later - of individual characters (Christ, Judas, Peter, Pilate, etc.), and replicas of the crowd. The Latin text was preserved in Catholic worship. With the emergence of Protestantism, "passions" appeared in German.

The heyday of the genre dates back to the 17th-18th centuries, and it is associated primarily with the work of Bach, who made significant changes to the “passions”. The St. John Passion (1724) and the St. Matthew Passion (1727 or 1729) are dramatically complex compositions. The Evangelista part (tenor) is a recitative (before Bach it was close to chanting). In addition to the gospel text, Bach used a modern poetic text: the arias that complete each siena were written on it. Arias convey the thoughts of the person reading the Gospel, his experiences and prayer, so they are intended for anonymous characters - only the voice (soprano, bass, etc.) is indicated in the notes. In each sienna there is a choir expressing the views of the entire church community. There are three types of choir in Bach's Passion: a prayer chorale choir; a chorus conveying a detached assessment of events; the choir as a direct participant in the action, i.e. the people. Thanks to such a complex structure, the Passion simultaneously shows both the gospel events and the worshiper who reflects on these events.

Mass in h-minor, features of interpretation, figurative structure, polyphonic mastery. One of Bach's greatest creations is the Mass in B minor (1747-1749). The composer created this work, realizing that it could not be performed in church (too large for worship). The complexity of the structure of the Mass is combined with the extraordinary subtlety and beauty of the music. There are arias, vocal ensembles, choirs; a variety of emotional states are conveyed - from jubilation to complaint, from heroism to lyricism. The vocal parts are written on short phrases of the Latin text, so the music conveys the meaning of each word. The emotional center of the mass is the choir “Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate...”; the music sounds deep tragedy and restraint, inner enlightenment.

The leading genre in Bach's vocal and instrumental work is the spiritual cantata. Bach created 5 annual cycles of cantatas, which differ in their belonging to the church calendar, in text sources (psalms, choral stanzas, “free” poetry), in the role of the chorale, etc. Of the secular cantatas, the most famous are “Peasant” and “Coffee”. The dramatic principles developed in the cantata were implemented in the masses, “Passion”, “High” Mass in h-minor, “John Passion”, “Matthew Passion”, which became the culmination of the centuries-old history of these genres.

His vocal works such as "Magnificat" (1723), Mass in B minor (1733-1738) - one of Bach's most important works, replete with captivating arias, dramatic choruses, touching chorales, "High Mass" (1730), "St. John's Passion" "(1723), "St. Matthew Passion" (1729), etc., belong to the best achievements of world choral art. Although these compositions were written based on gospel texts, the nature of their interpretation of the plots goes beyond the scope of church music. With exceptional power, the composer conveys real human feelings and experiences in them. Bach, translating into them the motives of heroic struggle and victory (“Magnificat”), created exceptionally impressive images of the grief of the people. In vocal works, Bach develops not only folk song melodies, but also dance themes in arias and symphonic episodes.

The chorale preludes are written in chamber style, in which Bach reveals the world lyrical images. His preludes are based on the melodies of Protestant chorales (an ancient spiritual 4-voice chant based on German folk melodies). Bach arranged over 150 chorales. Bach also turned in his work to the creation of vocal polyphonic works.

HAYDN'S ORATORIO (THE SEASONS, THE CREATION OF THE WORLD).

A special place in Haydn’s legacy belongs to the oratorios “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801), in which the composer developed the traditions of G. F. Handel’s lyrical-epic oratorios. Haydn's oratorios are marked by a rich, everyday character that is new to this genre, a colorful embodiment of natural phenomena, and they reveal Haydn's skill as a colorist.

Haydn's inherent bright color and sensitivity to genre and everyday impressions gave his oratorios a richness, relief, and national character unusual for that time. This is especially clearly manifested in the oratorio “The Seasons,” written in everyday story. And the detailing of folk life somewhat smoothes out the dynamism of Haydn’s statements, but does not reduce the overall artistic level, especially since in a number of sections of the oratorio Haydn gravitates toward a philosophical interpretation of the content. Such subtext “is present in the last part of the oratorio “The Seasons,” in which a parallel is outlined between the change of seasons and the course of human life, in the orchestral episodes and in the introduction to the oratorio “The Creation of the World.”

Oratorio (from Italian oratoria, from Latin oro - I say, I pray) is a large musical work for a choir, soloists - singers and symphony orchestra, usually written on a dramatic plot, but intended not for stage performance, but for concert performance. The oratorio appears almost simultaneously with the cantata and opera (at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries) and is close to them in its structure.

Joseph Haydn was the creator of a secular lyrical-contemplative oratorio. Folk themes, poetry of nature, morality of work and virtue are embodied in Haydn’s oratorios “The Creation of the World” (1797) and “The Seasons” (1800).

In the huge and diverse creative heritage of Haydn choral music occupies a significant place. He wrote 14 masses, a madrigal for choir and orchestra, known as “The Tempest”, “Stabat Mater”, choral composition"7 Words of the Savior on the Cross" and the three most significant works - the oratorios "The Creation of the World", "The Seasons", "The Return of Tobias".

Haydn's oratorios were created in the post-London period, in the last years of the composer's life. The immediate reason for writing them was his acquaintance with Handel’s oratorios, which made an indelible impression on Haydn.

The oratorio "The Seasons" was completed in April 1801 and was performed in Vienna at the same time. Perhaps no other work brought Haydn such triumphant success. “Seasons” is the last and brightest culmination of the musician’s creativity, after which the decline of his genius begins.

The text of the oratorio “The Seasons” (like the text of “The Creation of the World”) was written by Baron van Swieten (based on a translation from English and processing of materials from the tetralogy of poems by James Thomson “The Season” 1726-1730). According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Haydn complained that the text of “The Seasons” was not poetic enough and forced him to illustrate with music something that could not be illustrated in such a way. However, these difficulties were essentially successfully overcome by the composer.

The oratorio “The Seasons” is a work of generalized philosophical content: Haydn revealed in it his idea of ​​the most significant problems of existence, of man and the world around him, of the main values ​​of life. In this approach to the oratorio genre, the composer follows the established tradition, primarily the tradition of Handel. However, the very content of Haydn’s work was new; for the first time in the history of the genre, he turned to folk images and painted pictures rustic nature, peasant life. The most important figurative sphere of the work is the natural world. Pictures of nature doing its thing annual cycle, receive from him not only a colorful and picturesque, but also a philosophical interpretation.

Musical language The oratorio is close to the language of Haydn's mature symphonies. The composer here also relies on folk-genre thematics. At the same time, the tendency towards descriptiveness and picturesque thinking was manifested in the use of sound-imagery techniques and in the colorfulness of the orchestral palette. Picturesqueness and programmatic descriptiveness become the dominant principle of musical writing here.

The most striking number of the oratorio “The Seasons” is the Thunderstorm. The scene is written in a complex two-part form, in which the first part is a one-part strophic through form of a non-contrasting type, and the second is written in the form of a four-voice fugue with a choir.

BEETHOVEN AS A SYMPHONIST

Beethoven is the greatest symphonic composer. He created 9 symphonies, 11 overtures, 5 piano concertos, a violin concerto, 2 masses and other symphonic works. The highest achievements of Beethoven's symphony include the 3rd ("Eroica") and 5th symphonies; the idea of ​​the latter is expressed by the composer in the words: “Fight with fate.” Active heroic character The 5th piano concerto, created at the same time as the 5th symphony, is different; the 6th symphony, containing a number of realistic pictures of rural life, reflected Beethoven's enthusiastic love for nature.

The pinnacle of the composer's entire creative life is the 9th symphony. For the first time in the history of this genre, Beethoven introduced a choral finale (“To Joy” to the words of F. Schiller). The development of the main image of the symphony goes from the menacing and inexorable tragic theme of the first movement to the theme of bright joy in the finale. Close to the 9th Symphony in concept, "Solemn Mass" (1823) - majestic monumental work philosophical in nature, little connected with the traditions of cult music.

Since the beginning of the 19th century. Beethoven also began as a symphonist: in 1800. he completed his First Symphony, and in 1802 his Second.

His deep-rooted ideas of overcoming suffering through fortitude and the victory of light over darkness after a fierce struggle turned out to be consonant with the basic ideas of the French Revolution and liberation movements early XIX V. These ideas were embodied in the Third ("Heroic") and Fifth symphonies.

The composer was also inspired by the philosophical and ethical ideas of the Enlightenment, which he perceived in his youth. The natural world appears full of dynamic harmony in the Sixth ("Pastoral") Symphony.

The Fourth Symphony is full of powerful optimism, the Eighth Symphony is permeated with humor and slightly ironic nostalgia for the times of Haydn and Mozart.