Bach, J.S.: Christmas Cantatas

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Cat No: 8554825

Release Date: 12 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943482520

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BACH, J.S.

Description
Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750)Cantatas Nos. 36, 132and 61Born in Eisenach in 1685 into a continuing dynasty of musicians, JohannSebastian Bach was orphaned in 1695 and went, with his older brother Jacob, tolive with their elder brother Johann Christoph Bach, organist at Ohrdruf. Hecontinued his schooling there until 1700, acquiring his early skill as anorganist and, it may be presumed, as an expert on the construction of theinstrument. From Ohrdruf he moved to Luneburg as a chorister, employment thatallowed his continuing education. After employment as a musician at the courtin Weimar in 1703, he next held positions as an organist at Arnstadt, then atMuhlhausen and then again at Weimar, now as court organist. He remained inWeimar until 1717, holding the position of Konzertmeister from 1714 andmoving in 1717 to Cothen as Court Kapellmeister to the young Prince Leopold ofAnhalt-Cothen. He only left after the Prince's marriage to a woman withoutmusical interests made a position that had been very congenial to him now verymuch less so. In 1723 he took what seemed to him socially inferior employmentas Cantor at the Choir School of St Thomas in Leipzig, with responsibility forthe training of choristers and the provision of music for the principal citychurches. He remained in Leipzig for the rest of his life, but was able tobroaden his musical activities when, in 1729, he also took over the directionof the University collegium musicum, founded earlier in the century byTelemann. Whereas in his earlier years there had been need for organ music,Cothen, with its Pietist court, called principally for secular music. Leipzigdemanded a quantity of church music, largely satisfied in the first years thatBach was there, but the collegium musicum itself allowed a return to thesecular instrumental music that had been a principal preoccupation of theCothen years.In Leipzig there was a requirement for sixty cantatas in the churchyear, covering Sundays, except in Lent and part of Advent, and major feastdays. For his first cycle, for 1723-4, Bach had recourse on occasions toearlier work. The second cycle, for 1724-5, brought the development of theunified chorale cantata, while the third cycle, written between 1725 and 1727,uses a variety of forms. In these first years in Leipzig he is said to havecompleted five cycles of cantatas, but of these a number is now lost. Latercantatas were presumably written to fill gaps in the complete annual cycles andthere were, of course, occasions when Bach used the work of other composers inthe course of his duties. In the Lutheran Hauptgottesdienst (principalservice) in Leipzig, which started at seven in the morning and would finish ateleven, the cantata was the main musical item, generally following the Credoand preceding the hour-long sermon. The text would be related to the gospelreading of the day.The cantata Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36, was written forthe first Sunday of Advent 1731 and is an arrangement of a secular bir
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