J.S. Bach's Cantata: "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott", BWV.80

Continuing my series of program notes:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV.80 - cantata

In 1723 Bach arrived in Leipzig to begin what was to become his 27-year tenure as the town’s kapellmeister or ‘kantor’. He would be responsible for music at the Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Matthäeikirche and Petrikirche, as well as the university church, the Paulinerkirche, which housed his favourite Leipzig organ.

Bach’s work for the town’s churches involved the preparation of music for the weekly services. It was a gruelling workload. Bach wrote enough church cantatas during his time in Leipzig to cater for nearly five years’ worth of Sundays; and that on top of selecting, preparing and rehearsing music by other composers and instructing the students of the Thomasschule. No wonder he refused to teach Latin as well, as had been the custom with past kantors.

For the Paulinerkirche, Bach provided music for the major festivals of Christmas Day, Easter Day, Whit Sunday and Reformation Day, celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Protestant Reformation launched by the founder of the Lutheran Church, Martin Luther in 1517 when he nailed his 95 theses on indulgences on a Catholic church door in Wittenberg.

Cantata no.80 was, therefore, written to celebrate a Reformation Day probably between 1727 and 1731, not for a regular Sunday. It followed the usual structure of a cantata, however, based on a chorale (or hymn) whose message reflected the theme of the day’s Bible reading. The musical structure consisted, as was usual, of choruses, arias, and duets, sometimes employing the chorale melody as a cantus firmus, descant, or some other thread, and ending with a straightforward rendition of the chorale, with which the congregation possibly joined in.

It was appropriate that the chorale for this Reformation Day’s cantata was Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. It was one of the most popular chorales, and written by Luther himself. Bach used the chorale text and melody in movements one, two, five and seven. For the other verses he used a text by Salomo Franck (1659-1725), a former Weimar colleague, which complemented the idea of God as a mighty fortress, or ‘feste Burg’.

Though Bach’s cantatas were, by necessity, written in haste, they followed a neat and aesthetically-satisfying structure. Ein feste Burg begins with a chorale fugue in which the chorus, singing the first verse of the hymn, ornament and paraphrase the tune. The tune itself appears as a cantus firmus in the oboes (Bach’s son, Wilhelm Friedemann, later added trumpets.)  In the second number, the soprano threads the melody and text of the chorale’s second verse into the bass’s rendition of Franck’s Alles, was von Gott geboren. Erwäge doch, Kind Gottes sets Franck’s text as a bass recitative followed by arioso; there is no hint of the chorale melody. Nor is there, in the soprano aria Komm in mein Herzens Haus.

As a kind of structural pivot, the chorus returns in the next number singing the third verse of the chorale in unison. Bach now presents the remaining solo voices. The tenor sings Franck’s So stehe denn bei Christi blutgefärbter Fahne. Then the tenor and alto sing another duet Wie selig sind doch die. In such a short space of time does Bach provide his congregation with a pattern of the familiar and newly-interesting. Finally the choir sings the last verse of the chorale, Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn.

Cantata no.80 did not mark the first time Bach had used Franck’s text. He had previously set it in a cantata known as Alles, was von Gott geboren on 15 March 1716 (in Weimar). At that time, he ended the cantata with the second verse of Luther’s hymn. Thus, through comparison of these slight variations, may we glimpse the almost infinite variety with which Bach invests this standardised repertory.

Gordon Kalton Williams © 2011


This note first appeared in program booklets of orchestras associated with Symphony Services International (http://symphonyinternational.net/). Please contact me if you would like to reprint this note in a program booklet. If you would like to read more of my notes on this blog please see:

Edward Elgar's Froissart, published 2 July 2013
Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait, published 3 July 2013
Franz Waxman's Carmen-fantaisie, published 6 July 2013
Jan Sibelius's Oceanides, published 8 July 2013
Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod, published 12 July 2013 
Aaron Copland's Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, published 18 July 2013
John Williams' Escapades, published 22 July 2013 
Thomas Adès's Violin Concerto Concentric Paths, published 26 July 2013