Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10

Heimsuchung, Rubens school, Unionskirche, Idstein

Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (My soul magnifies the Lord), BWV 10, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the feast of the Visitation and first performed it on 2 July 1724.

History and words

Bach composed the cantata for the Marian feast "Mariae Heimsuchung" (Visitation) in Leipzig as the fifth cantata of his second annual cycle of chorale cantatas and first performed it on 2 July 1724.^[1][2]

The prescribed readings for the feast day were Isaiah 11:1–5, the prophecy of the Messiah, and from the Gospel of Luke, Luke 1:39–56, Mary's visit to Elizabeth, including her song of praise, the Magnificat. At Bach's time, the German Magnificat was regularly sung in Leipzig in Vesper services in a four-part setting of the 9th psalm tone (Tonus Peregrinus) by Johann Hermann Schein.^[1] Different from the other chorale cantatas of the cycle, the base for text and music is not a Lutheran chorale, but the German Magnificat.^[3] The text is based on the Magnificat and the doxology, which is traditionally added to psalms and canticles in vespers. The music is based on the 9th psalm tone. The unknown poet kept some verses unchanged, 46–48 for movement 1, 54 for movement 5, and the doxology for movement 7. He paraphrased verse 49 in movement 2, 50–51 for movement 3, 52–53 for movement 4, and 55 for movement 6, expanded by a reference to the birth of the Saviour.^[1]

Bach had composed the Latin Magnificat the year before and first performed it, with Christmas interpolations, in the Christmas Vespers of 1723. He performed the cantata at least once more in the 1740s.^[2]

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for four soloists, soprano, alto, tenor and bass, a four-part choir, trumpet, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The trumpet is only used to highlight the cantus firmus and may have been a tromba da tirarsi, a slide trumpet.^[1]

1. Coro: Meine Seel erhebt den Herren
2. Aria (soprano): Herr, der du stark und mächtig bist
3. Recitativo (tenor): Des Höchsten Güt und Treu
4. Aria (bass): Gewaltige stößt Gott vom Stuhl
5. Duetto (alto, tenor) e chorale: Er denket der Barmherzigkeit
6. Recitativo (tenor): Was Gott den Vätern alter Zeiten
7. Chorale: Lob und Preis sei Gott dem Vater

Music

Bach begins the opening chorus with an instrumental introduction that is unrelated to the psalm tone, a trio of the violins and the continuo, the violins doubled by the oboes, the viola filling the harmony. The main motif of the chorale fantasia, marked vivace, stands for joy and is set in upward "rhythmical propulsion".^[2][3] The chorus enters after 12 measures with the cantus firmus in the soprano, doubled by a trumpet, whereas the lower voices add free polyphony on motifs from the introduction.^[1] Bach treats the second verse similarly, but with the cantus firmus in the alto, because the text "Denn er hat seine elende Magd angesehen" speaks of the "lowly handmaid".^[3] The movement is concluded by a vocal setting without cantus firmus embedded in the music of the introduction, framing the movement.^[1]

The soprano aria (Lord, you who are strong and mighty) is a concerto of the voice and the oboes, accompanied by the strings.^[2] The recitative (The goodness and love of the Highest) ends on an arioso, leading to the following aria (The mighty God casts from their thrones) for bass and continuo. In movement 5 (He remembers his mercy) the text returns to the original German Magnificat, and the music to the psalm tone, played by oboes and trumpets as the cantus firmus, while alto and tenor sing in imitation. Bach later transcribed this movement for organ as one of the Schübler Chorales, BWV 648. The recitative (What God, in times past, to our forefathers), referring to God's promise, begins secco. Starting with the added words "Sein Same mußte sich so sehr wie Sand am Meer und Stern am Firmament ausbreiten, der Heiland ward geboren" (His seed must be scattered as plentifully as sand on the shore and as stars in the firmament, the Savior was born), the strings stress the importance of the promise kept. In the final movement, the two verses of the doxology are set on the psalm tone for four parts, with all instruments playing colla parte.^[1]

Recordings

• J.S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 10, BWV 47; Sanctus BWV 241, Paul Steinitz, London Bach Society, English Chamber Orchestra, Sally Le Sage, Shirley Minty, Nigel Rogers, Neil Howlett, Oryx 1965
• Les Grandes Cantates de J.S. Bach Vol. 1, Fritz Werner, Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, Maria Friesenhausen, Emmy Lisken, Georg Jelden, Barry McDaniel, Erato 1965
• J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 10, Magnificat BWV 243, Karl Münchinger, Wiener Akademiechor, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Elly Ameling, Helen Watts, Werner Krenn, Marius Rintzler, Decca 1968
• J.S. Bach: Das Kantatenwerk - Sacred Cantatas Vol. 1, Gustav Leonhardt, King's College Choir, Leonhardt-Consort, soloist of the Regensburger Domspatzen, Paul Esswood, Kurt Equiluz, Max van Egmond, Teldec 1971
• Bach Cantatas Vol. 3 - Ascension Day, Whitsun, Trinity, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor, Münchener Bach-Orchester. Edith Mathis, Anna Reynolds, Peter Schreier, Kurt Moll, Archiv Produktion 1975
• Bach Made in Germany Vol. 4 - Cantatas II, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, Thomanerchor, Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, Mitsuko Shirai, Doris Soffel, Peter Schreier, Hermann Christian Polster, Eterna 1978
• Die Bach Kantate Vol. 17, Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Arleen Augér, Margit Neubauer, Aldo Baldin, Wolfgang Schöne, Hänssler 1979
• J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 10 - Magnificat BWV 243, Michael Gielen, Anton-Webern-Chor, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Christiane Oelze, Cornelia Kallisch, Christoph Prégardien, Anton Scharingere, SWF 1991
• J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 11, Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Sibylla Rubens, Annette Markert, Christoph Prégardien, Klaus Mertens, Antoine Marchand 1999
• J.S. Bach: Magnificat BWV in E flat major 243a - Cantata BWV 10, Roland Büchner, Regensburger Domspatzen, Musica Florea, Susanne Rydén, Drew Minter, Markus Brutscher, Peter Harvey, Pure Classics 2000
• Bach Edition Vol. 20 - Cantatas Vol. 11, Pieter Jan Leusink, Holland Boys Choir, Netherlands Bach Collegium, Ruth Holton, Sytse Buwalda, Knut Schoch, Bas Ramselaar, Brilliant Classics 2000
• Bach Cantatas Vol. 2: Paris/Zürich / For the 2nd Sunday after Trinity / For the 3rd Sunday after Trinity, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Lisa Larsson, Daniel Taylor, James Gilchrist, Stephen Varcoe, Soli Deo Gloria 2000
• J.S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 23 (Cantatas from Leipzig 1725), Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, Yukari Nonoshita, Matthew White, Makoto Sakurada, Peter Kooy, BIS 2002
• J.S. Bach: Cantatas for the Complete Liturgical Year Vol. 7, Sigiswald Kuijken, La Petite Bande, Siri Thornhill, Petra Noskaiova, Marcus Ullmann, Jan van der Crabben, Accent 2007

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Dürr, Alfred (1971) (in German). Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach. 1. Bärenreiter-Verlag. OCLC 523584. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} John Eliot Gardiner (2010). "Cantatas for the Second Sunday after Trinity / Basilique Saint-Denis, Paris". solideogloria.co.uk. http://www.solideogloria.co.uk/resources/sdg165_gb.pdf. Retrieved 27 June 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Julius Mincham (2010). "Chapter 6 BWV 10 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren". jsbachcantatas.com. http://www.jsbachcantatas.com/documents/chapter-6-bwv-10.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2011. 

External links

• Cantatas, BWV 1-10: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• Cantata BWV 10 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren on the bach cantatas website
• German text and English translation, Emmanuel Music
• Meine Seel erhebt den Herren on the Bach website (German)
• BWV 10 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren text, structure, instrumentation, University of Alberta
• BWV 10 Meine Seel erhebt den Herren English text, University of Vermont