(also spelled ; "Christ lay in death's bonds" or "Christ lay in the snares of death"), 4, is a cantata for Easter by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his earliest church cantatas. It is agreed to be an early work partly for stylistic reasons and partly because there is evidence that it was probably written for a performance in 1707. Bach went on to complete many other works in the same genre, contributing complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. John Eliot Gardiner described it as Bach's "first-known attempt at painting narrative in music".
is a chorale cantata, a style in which both text and music are based on a hymn. In this instance, the source was Martin Luther's hymn of the same name, the main hymn for Easter in the Lutheran church. The composition is based on the seven stanzas of the hymn and its tune, which was derived from Medieval models. Bach used the unchanged words of a stanza of the chorale in each of the seven vocal movements, in the format of chorale variations (for all stanzas), and he used its tune as a cantus firmus. After an opening sinfonia, the variations are arranged symmetrically: chorus–duet–solo–chorus–solo–duet–chorus, with the focus on the central fourth stanza about the battle between Life and Death. All movements are in E minor, and Bach achieves variety and intensifies the meaning of the text through many musical forms and techniques.
is Bach's first cantata for Easter – in fact, his only extant original composition for the first day of the feast – and his earliest surviving chorale cantata. It was related to his application for a post at a Lutheran church at Mühlhausen. He later twice performed it as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, beginning in 1724 when he first celebrated Easter there. Only this second version survives. It is scored for four vocal parts and a Baroque instrumental ensemble with two components, an instrumental "choir" of cornetto and three trombones doubling the choral voices (only in the 2nd Leipzig performance in 1725 were these used), and a string section of two violins, two violas, and continuo. While this scoring reflects the resources at Bach's disposal (the cornetto and brass players would have been available because of the city band tradition in Leipzig), it was old-fashioned and exemplifies a 17th-century (chorale concerto) style; the lost scoring of the earlier performances was perhaps similar.
Gardiner calls Bach's setting of Luther's hymn "a bold, innovative piece of musical drama", and observes "his total identification with the spirit and letter of Luther's fiery, dramatic hymn".
Composition history Background
Bach is believed to have written in 1707. He was a professional organist aged 22, employed from 1703 in Arnstadt as the organist of the New Church (which replaced the burned Bonifatiuskirche, and is today known as the Bach Church). At age 18, he had inspected the new organ built by Johann Friedrich Wender, was invited to play one Sunday, and was hired. The organ was built on the third tier of a theatre-like church. Bach's duties as a church musician involved some responsibility for choral music, but the exact year he began composing cantatas is unknown. is one of a small group of cantatas that survive from his early years. According to the musicologist Martin Geck, many details of the score reflect "organistic practice".
In Arnstadt, the Kantor (church musician) Heindorff was responsible for church music in the Upper Church and the New Church where Bach was the organist. He typically conducted music in the Upper Church and would appoint a choir prefect for vocal music in the New Church. Musicologist Christoph Wolff notes that "subjecting his works to the questionable leadership of a prefect" was not what Bach would have done. Therefore, most cantatas of the period are not for Sunday occasions, but restricted to special occasions such as weddings and funerals. is the only exception, but was most likely composed not for Arnstadt but for an application to a more important post at the church of Divi Blasii in Mühlhausen.
Bach's early cantatas
Bach's early cantatas are (chorale concertos) in the style of the 17th century, different from the recitative and aria cantata format associated with Neumeister that Bach started to use for church cantatas in 1714. Wolff points out the relation of Bach's early cantatas to works by Dieterich Buxtehude, with whom Bach had studied in Lübeck. shows similarities to a composition of Johann Pachelbel based on the same Easter chorale. Although there is no evidence that Bach and Pachelbel met, Bach grew up in Thuringia while Pachelbel was based in the same region, and Bach's elder brother and teacher Johann Christoph Bach studied with Pachelbel in Erfurt. Another of Pachelbel's works appears to be referenced in the early Bach cantata , and there has been recent speculation that Bach wanted to pay tribute to Pachelbel after his death in 1706.
The texts for Bach's early cantatas were drawn mostly from Biblical passages and hymns. Features characteristic of his later cantatas, such as recitatives and arias on contemporary poetry, were not yet present, although Bach may have heard them in oratorios by Buxtehude, or even earlier. Instead, these early cantatas include 17th-century elements such as motets and chorale concertos. They often begin with an instrumental sinfonia or sonata (sonatina). The following table lists the seven extant works composed by Bach until 1708, when he moved on to the Weimar court.
+ Bach's early cantatas Date Occasion BWV Incipit Text source ? Penitence 150 Psalm 25, anon. ? Easter 4 Luther ? Penitence 131 Psalm 130 ? New Year's Day 143 mainly Psalm 146, two stanzas of Jakob Ebert's hymn "" Inauguration of the town council 71 mainly Psalm 74, with added biblical quotations ? Wedding? 196 Psalm 115:12–15 ? Funeral 106 (Actus tragicus) compilation of seven biblical quotations, three hymns and free poetry
Bach uses the limited types of instruments at his disposal for unusual combinations, such as two recorders and two viole da gamba in the funeral cantata , also known as . He uses instruments of the continuo group as independent parts, such as a cello in and a bassoon in . The cantata for the inauguration of a town council is richly scored for trumpets, woodwinds and strings. Wolff notes:
The Bach scholar Richard D. P. Jones notes in The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach:
Readings and chorale
The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the First letter to the Corinthians ("Christ is our Easter lamb" – ) and from the Gospel of Mark (the Resurrection of Jesus – ).
The reformer Martin Luther wrote several hymns in German to be used in church services. His hymn "" was based on the Latin hymn "", and first published in 1524. It became a main Easter hymn in German Lutheranism. The hymn stresses the struggle between Life and Death. The third stanza refers to the "sting of death", as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15. The fifth stanza relates to the "", the Paschal Lamb. The sacrificial "blood" ("Its blood marks our doors") refers to the marking of the doors before the exodus from Egypt. The final stanza recalls the tradition of baking and eating Easter Bread, with the "old leaven" alluding again to the exodus, in contrast to the "Word of Grace", concluding "Christ would ... alone nourish the soul." In contrast to most chorale cantatas that Bach composed later in Leipzig, the text of the chorale is retained unchanged, which he did again only in late chorale cantatas.
Performances
survives in a version from the 1720s when Bach held the position of Thomaskantor (director of church music) in Leipzig. There is documentary evidence suggesting that this Easter Sunday cantata was premiered in 1707. It is known that Bach performed a cantata of his own composition at Easter in 1707 as a part of his application for the post of organist of Divi Blasii in Mühlhausen, and this may have been . By this time, Bach was already demonstrating ingenuity in keyboard music, as known from the early works in the Neumeister Collection. is a significant milestone in his vocal music. It was completed seven years before his sequence of Weimar cantatas, begun in 1714 with , and 17 years before he started a complete annual cycle of chorale cantatas in Leipzig in the middle of 1724 with .
Bach would have been attracted to Mühlhausen for its status as a free imperial city and the tradition of vocal music in its churches. Wolff notes that Bach possibly sent two other cantata scores with his application, and once he knew the date of the audition may have composed in addition. A month after Easter, on 24 May 1707, an agreement was reached to hire Bach, who seems to have been the only candidate considered seriously.
Bach performed the cantata again while Thomaskantor in Leipzig, notably at his first Easter there on 9 April 1724. He also performed it the following year on 1 April 1725, in his second cycle of Leipzig cantatas, a cycle of chorale cantatas based on Lutheran hymns. It followed in the cycle some forty newly composed cantatas. This early work fits the cycle in the sense that it is based on a chorale, but its style is different from the others.
Music Structure and scoring Bach structured the cantata in eight movements: an instrumental sinfonia and seven vocal movements corresponding to the stanzas of the hymn. The duration is given as 22 minutes.
The title of the original parts of the first Leipzig performance is (in Johann Christoph Altnickol's handwriting): "Feria Paschatos / Christ lag in Todes Banden / a.4. Voc: / Cornetto / 3 Trombon. / 2 Violini / 2 Viole / con / Continuo / Di Sign. Joh.Seb.Bach", In this late version, Bach scored the work for four vocal parts (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T), and bass (B)), and a Baroque instrumental ensemble consisting of strings, brass and continuo. The brass parts, a choir of cornetto (Ct) and three trombones (Tb) playing colla parte with the voices at times, may have been added in the 1720s. They may also possibly represent the original scoring, in the style of the 17th-century polychoral tradition.
The scoring of the cantata has been described as "archaic" and its style "medieval": The string section consists of two violin parts (Vl) and two viola parts (Va); this indicates an older practice as for instance found in 17th-century church cantatas by Bach's ancestors (see Altbachisches Archiv), and in Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet, a Passion setting from the early 18th century (or older) which Bach had performed a few years after composing the cantata . In the first half of the 18th century the standard for a string section soon evolved to two violin parts, one viola part and continuo. The cornett used in the cantata was an instrument that belonged to an earlier age: by the second quarter of the 18th century it had almost entirely disappeared from Bach's compositions. The brass instruments were only used for the 1 April 1725 version of the work. The other performances (24 April 1707, 8 April 1708, and 9 April 1724) were performed without brass instruments (i.e., Cornetto and three Trombones). The first version (1707 and 1708) concluded with the words of Verse 7 of the Chorale, but the music was that of Movement 2 (Verse 1 of the Chorale). In 1724 and 1725, Bach changed this out to the now-used 4-part Chorale setting.