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J.S. Bach: Cantata 169 Gott soll allein mein Herze haben.

Alexander G. Lane

In the Lutheran liturgical cycle, the Gospel reading for the 18th Sunday after Trinity is Matthew 22:34-40. In this famous passage, the Pharisees ask Jesus which is the great commandment in the law, and Jesus answers, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. In his Treatise on Good Works (1520), Martin Luther expounds upon this intimate link between faith (i.e., love for God) and good works (i.e., love for one's neighbors), arguing that the only good works which can be considered genuine are those which are motivated by absolute faith in God.1 Those who perform good works out of a desire for temporal honor and praise commit, by Luther's reckoning a sin more grievous before God than murder or adultery.2 Those who place all their trust in God, on the other hand, regard Him as the highest good, for the sake of which [they] let go and give up all other goods.3 It is upon this doctrine that Bach's Cantata Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169, is premised. This cantata, which was written for the 18th Sunday after Trinity in 1726, illustrates how, by giving his heart to God alone, the Christian may free himself from all worldly ambition, thereby enabling himself to love his neighbors. This three-stage progression is underscored not only by the cantatas text and its text painting, but also by its large-scale tonal plan.

Cantata 169 is scored for alto solo, obbligato organ, three double-reeds (2 oboes + taille, which appear only in the first movement and the last), strings and continuo; in addition to this ensemble, a choir is introduced in the concluding chorale. The librettist of Gott soll allein mein Herze haben is unknown, but the 5th movement's text is a paraphrase of I John 2.15-16, and the final movement is the third verse of Luther's hymn Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist (1524).4 Aside from the chorale, two other movements of Cantata 169 are based upon pre-existing works: the introductory Sinfonia and the second aria (movement 5) are derived, respectively, from the first and second movements of a lost concert for an unknown solo instrument, a piece which was later reincarnated as the Harpsichord Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053. Although the precise characteristics of the lost concerto must remain conjectural, there is good reason to believe that it bore a closer resemblance to BWV 1053 than to the first and fifth movements of Cantata 169; whereas there would have been no need to alter the harmony, form, or pitch levels of the original concerto if it was merely being transcribed for different performing forces, there were a number of reasons, which I shall discuss below, why these modifications would have been needed in order to integrate the concerto movements into the cantata. Consequently, the following analysis is premised on the assumption that BWV 1053 is a more or less faithful transcription of the lost original. Even a cursory glance at the scores to the first movement of BWV 1053 and the opening Sinfonia of BWV 169 will reveal that the former was substantially reworked for its incorporation into the latter. Among the alterations Bach made to the concerto movement in adapting it for the cantata are the addition of two oboes and a taille (a baroque doublereed instrument, similar to the English horn) to the original's string ensemble, the

transposition of the piece from E major to D major, and the paring away of certain nonessential elements. An example of this tendency towards simplification can be found in the opening ritornello of the Sinfonia: whereas the corresponding passage in the concerto is played tutti from the very beginning, the cantata begins with an unaccompanied statement of the ritornello's head motive in violin 1. When the full orchestra, minus the solo organ, enters at the upbeat to m. 3 with the series of first-inversion chords that constitutes the ritornello's second element, the arrival of new material is thrown into relief by its orchestrational contrast with the preceding two bars. Also worthy of note is Bach's differing treatment of the solo keyboard in the concerto and in the Sinfonia. In BWV 1053, there is not a single bar of rest in the solo harpsichord part throughout the entire work. In the Sinfonia to BWV 169, on the other hand, the right hand of the organ part is occasionally silent (cf. mm. 1-8, 31-5, and 84) and it is unclear whether Bach intended the bass line to be doubled by the organist's left hand, realized as a figured bass by a second keyboard instrument, or simply played unadorned by a bass instrument. Moreover, the elaborate passagework of the concerto's solo part is simplified somewhat in its organ counterpart. As far as the movement's structure is concerned, the two versions are identical, except that m. 13 of the earlier work, which occurs at the end of the first solo episode, is omitted from the Sinfonia; the effect of this revision is to transform what was a tonicization of V in the former into a half cadence in the latter. When taken together, the alterations that Bach made in his reworking of this movement represent a stripping away of all that is unessential and ostentatious so that what is essential may speak more plainly. As will soon become apparent, these revisions are perfectly in keeping with the Cantata's theological message.

Movement II, an arioso for alto and continuo, is also in D major, a key area which throughout the cantata is associated with the Christians joy in his devotion to God. The movement begins with a gently flowing theme in the continuo, its 3/8 meter and two-bar hemiolas suggesting a passepied. It is to this melody that the alto proclaims, in m. 9, the cantata's motto: Gott soll allein mein Herze haben. This untroubled and rather pastoral music is interrupted in m.17 by the first of the movement's three recitative passages (Ex. 1). Here the soloist sings, Indeed I remark of the world, which holds its dung as priceless, since it is so friendly to me, that it alone would be the beloved of my soul.

Example 1. Mvt. II, mm 17-22

The unsettled quality of this circle progression is at least partly attributable to the fact that it is founded on first-inversion triads. Thus, the bass line consists of a series of leading tones, the first two of which never resolve. I would interpret this sequence as a depiction of the transience and insubstantiality of worldly happiness: the ungrounded sound of these non-diatonic first-inversion chords represents the helpless state of a soul whose faith rests on temporal things instead of on God. It becomes possible to return to D Major only after

the worlds temptations have been rejected (Doch nein!, m.22). At m. 23, the arioso theme and motto words return, this time extended melodically and textually to include the phrase, ich find' in ihm das hchste Gut (possibly a paraphrase of Luther), which leads into the next recitative, where the text is, We see indeed on earth here and there a brooklet of contentment, which springs from the goodness of the highest; but God is the source, overflowing with streams, where I create what for all time shall nourish me truly and satisfyingly. This recitative is approached by a tritone leap, from A to D-sharp, in the bass, which takes the harmony from V to V6/ii. In m. 37, the continuo plays an ascending sixteenth-note b-minor scale, depicting the verb springs (quillet') and transporting the music from the key area of e minor and the imperfect worldly happiness it represents back to the serenity of D major. The recitative ends on another rising sixteenth-note scale in the continuo, this time outlining the V6 chord of b minor. When the arioso theme returns once more in m. 42, it begins on a b minor chord, but this is immediately followed by the IV6 and V65 chords of D major. In this final arioso section, the tonality isn't as firmly rooted in D major as it was in the two previous arias. Now there are tonicizations of e minor and G major, and the section end on a deceptive cadence. A two-measure recitative reaffirming that Gott soll allein mein Herze haben brings the movement to a close, surprisingly enough, in f-sharp minor. As Eric Chafe observed, every key area of the D-major ambitus is tonicized within the course of this relatively short movement, with especial emphasis on the relative minor (b) and on the mediant minor (f-sharp), the major form of which acts as the dominant to b minor.5 The significance of movement II's ending in f-sharp minor will be revealed later in the cantata.

Movement III is a da capo aria in D major for alto, organ obbligato, and continuo. This movement is linked to the preceding movement not only by its tonality, but also by its reuse of the motto, Gott soll allein mein Herze haben It might also be argued that the the head motive of the alto part in movement III is an inexact inversion of the previous movement's head motive, but this loose resemblance may be purely coincidental. One other connection that may exist between the two movements is to be found in the organ part's ornate filigree, which, as Chafe suggests, represents the believer's awareness that the 'streams of contentment' that 'we see here and there on earth' are gifts stemming from God the source.6 At the start of this aria's B section, which begins with the words, He loves me in times of evil, the tonality shifts to b minor and subsequently modulates through the cycle of 5ths to f-sharp minor. Movement IV is a ten-measure recitative for alto and continuo. Despite its brevity, this movement has several interesting features worthy of mention, not least of which is its subtle text-painting. In m. 5, for instance, the alto sings of God's love, It closes off hell; this phrase ends with the hellish leap of a tritone down to A-sharp, the solo part's lowest pitch in this movement and its second lowest pitch in the whole cantata. In m. 7, at the mention of Elijah's chariot, the bass leaps up a tritone from a first-inversion b-minor chord to a first-inversion E-major chord, thereby effecting a direct modulation from b minor to A major, a perfect musical symbol for Elijah's deathless ascension from this world into heaven (incidentally, the word Wagen is set on the E a 10th above middle C, the upper limit of the alto's range in this piece.) Although this entire recitative bears a key signature of two sharps, it actually passes through several tonal areas: it begins in the one-sharp key of G major, which is followed by its relative minor, and then passes into the two-sharp key

of b minor; at the mention of Elijah's Chariot, the music modulates to the three-sharp key of A major and finally ends in f-sharp, the relative minor. It could be that Bach meant this progression from the natural to the sharp side of the D-major ambitus to depict a metaphorical ascent from earth to heaven. The cantata's fifth movement is another aria, Stirb in mir, Welt und alle deine Liebe. Here, Bach reintroduces the strings, which have been silent since the Sinfonia, and the organ, while retaining the alto soloist and continuo. As mentioned above, this movement is derived from movement II, a siciliano, of the lost concerto. Like the introductory Sinfonia, this movement was transposed down a tone (in this case, from csharp minor to b minor) and subjected to several other modifications in its transplantation from concerto to cantata. The most significant of these changes was the insertion of the movement's first six measures, transposed to the dominant, into the middle of the movement's central episode, thereby transmuting the {ritornelloepisoderitornello} form of the original into {ritornelloepisoderitornelloepisoderitornello}. As is also the case in the Sinfonia, the solo organ part of this movement uses less elaborate figuration than the harpsichord part in the corresponding concerto movement, and it also contains rests that are filled in with figuration in the concerto. Of course, the addition of alto voice adds a new dimension to the preexisting music. As Chafe puts it, this aria, owing in part to its concerto origins[,]...projects an unusually intimate relationship between the voice and obbligato organ parts, both of which were derived from the same solo part of the lost concerto. The two parts frequently move in unison for passages of varied length, diverging and converging again throughout the movement. Bach took the opportunity provided by the reworking process to mirror the union of God and the believer through the working of love

in the human breast. As the only minor-key movement of the cantata, Stirb in mir deals with the negative side of the Christian's acceptance of God as the only source of good. This entails the abandonment of pride, wealth, greed, and all other depraved urges of the flesh, so that the soul may on earth for ever and ever practice the love of God. The movement's tonality of b minor and its secondary key area of f-sharp minor reflect the text's negative aspects in that they are the relative minor keys of, respectively, D major, the Cantata's primary key, and its dominant, A major. In transforming the concerto movement into an aria, Bach made some subtle, but exquisite, changes to the piece's harmony in the name of text-painting. For instance, there is a cadence in the relative major at m. 10 (Ex. 2) of the concerto's siciliano which uses the progression of V65/V, iii6, (V), I. In the aria, the corresponding cadence (Ex. 3), which accompanies the words stirb in mir is based on this progression: V42, i64, (V), I. The resolution of a second-inversion minor chord to its root-position parallel major and the motion from a third-inversion dominant chord to a six-four chord are, of course, highly unconventional, but the bittersweet effect they produce is perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the text. Another highly evocative setting of these same words can be found in m. 22. Here the voice and organ make a quick melismatic descent from the D a 9th above middle C to the alto's lowest pitch in the whole cantata, the A below middle C. Could this be the anguished wailing of a soul torn between its love for God and its love of the world?

Example 2. BWV 1053. Mvt.II, m.10

Example 3. BWV 169. Mvt V, m. 10

Movement VI is a five-measure recitative for alto and continuo. Now that the previous movement's spiritual struggle has been won, it is time for the believer to recall that the scriptures also enjoin us to love our neighbors. Neighborly love is, of course, compatible with the rejection of love for the world, for whereas pride, wealth, and greed have their origins in the selfish depraved urges of the flesh, love for one's neighbors springs from the disinterested altruism that, according to Luther, can only be attained by surrendering one's heart, soul, and mind entirely to God. A Christian's love for his neighbor, then, is the

inevitable manifestation of both his love for God and of God's love for humanity. Musically, this recitative's function is to push the tonality from D major into A major, the key in which the cantata will end. The seventh and final movement of Cantata 169 employs the piece's full instrumental forces (including the three double-reeds that have been tacet since the Sinfonia) plus a fourpart choir. The text and tune of this chorale are the third stanza of Luther's own Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist: O sweet love, bestow your favor on us, / let us feel the fervor of love, / so that we might love each other from our hearts / and remain of one mind in peace. / Kyrie eleison. Harmonically, the chorale never strays very far from A Major: of its five internal cadences, two are on the tonic, and there is one each on submediant, subdominant, and dominant. Moreover, the soprano sings an A on every cadence, except of course for the half cadence in m.13. As Chafe points out, solo cantatas feature prominently in Bach's output for the 1726 Trinity season (cf. Cantatas 170, 35, 55, 52, etc.), and these cantatas tend to deal with the individual's struggles and fears, or with his personal relationship to God.9 As we have seen, Cantata 169 deals with both the individual's struggles with worldly temptation and with his striving for total submission to God. After these personal issues have been resolved, the believer may return to human society, represented by the choir in this movement, so that he may perform the good works that will inevitably arise from his faith. As I had mentioned near the beginning of this paper, Bach's inclusion of two movements from BWV 1053 into the cantata has deeper significance than might be supposed from merely internal evidence. The significance of which I speak can only be found in another

cantata, namely, No. 49, Ich geh' und suche mit Verlangen, which was composed for the 20th Sunday after Trinity in 1726, just two weeks after 169. Based largely upon the Song of Songs, BWV 49 is an allegorical depiction of the soul's marriage to Christ. One of the small number of Bach's cantatas in E major, the sharpest, and hence the most optimistic key to be found in any of his cantatas, Ich geh' und suche mit Verlangen is an expression of the almost undiluted joy experienced by the believer at the certainty of his own salvation.8 Interestingly, this cantata's introductory Sinfonia is an untransposed arrangement of the third movement from the Harpsichord Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053. Thus, BWV 49 completes the concerto that was begun in movements I and V of Cantata 169. We now have all the information necessary to map out an eschatological narrative and a corresponding tonal scheme encompassing both cantatas: The D-major first part of Cantata 169 represents the antepenultimate stage in a Christian's salvation, the establishment of complete faith in God; movement V's b-minor aria simply represents a negative but necessary step in this process, after which the believer may progress to the penultimate stage of his salvation (represented by the move to A major), in which all his actions are manifestations of God's will; finally, after all worldly tribulations have ceased, the Christian enters into eternal union with Jesus, symbolized by the key of E Major. Thus, the three movements derived from BWV 1053 serve to propel the narrative of this musical diptych through the three final stages of the individual's salvation, which are mirrored by the music's motion into progressively sharper tonal areas.

Works Cited 1. Luther, Martin. A Treatise on Good Works. 1520. Released by Project Gutenberg on January 24, 2008. ebook# 418. Site address: http://www.gutenberg.net. Part I, II 2. ibid. Part I, XXI 3. ibid. Part I, XXVIII 4. Drr, Alfred. The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text. Trans. Jones, Richard D.P. Oxford University Press, USA, 2006. 984 pages. Originally published Barenreiter-Verlag,1992. Page 572 5. Chafe, Eric. Classroom discussion. December 2, 2008 6. Chafe, Eric. The Obbligato Organ as Eschatological Voice. Unpublished. Page 20. 7. ibid. Page 22 8. ibid. Page 29, fn. 36 9. ibid. Page 26

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