- Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit
Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's Time is the very best Time)
BWV 106 also known as "Actus tragicus" is a sacred cantata composed byJohann Sebastian Bach . It is primarily intended to be played at funerals.History
The work is one of the earliest Bach cantatas. It was probably composed in 1708 in
Mühlhausen , possibly as a cantata for the funeral of Mayor Strecker.Theme
The text consists of different
Bible verses of the Old and New Testament, as well as individual verses of old church songs byMartin Luther and Adam Reusner, which all together refer to finiteness and dying. There are two distinct parts to the cantata: the view of the Old Testament on death shown in the first part is confronted by the second part, representing the view of the New Testament; the separation of the old by the new determines the symmetrical structure of thecantata .Voices and Instrumentation
*
Soprano ,Alto ,Tenor , Bass
* 2 alto recorders, 2viola da gamba s andbasso continuo Characteristics
Bach was probably only 22 years old when he composed the opening
sonatina , in which twoobbligato alto recorders mournfully echo each other over a sonorous background ofviola da gamba s andcontinuo . The cantata ranks among his most important works. Inspired directly by its biblical text, it exhibits a great depth and intensity. Alfred Dürr [citation
first=Alfred|last =Dürr|title=The Cantatas of J.S. Bach|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|id=ISBN 0-19-929776-2] called the cantata "a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve ... The Actus Tragicus belongs to the great musical literature of the world".Notes
Literature
*Alfred Dürr: "Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kantaten." Bärenreiter, Kassel 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1476-3
*Werner Neumann : "Handbuch der Kantaten J.S.Bachs", 1947, 5.Auf. 1984, ISBN 3-7651-0054-4
* Hans-Joachim Schulze: "Die Bach-Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs". Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006 (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig) ISBN 3-374-02390-8 (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), ISBN 3-89948-073-2 (Carus-Verl.)
*Christoph Wolff/Ton Koopman : "Die Welt der Bach-Kantaten" Verlag J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2006 ISBN-13: 978-3-476-02127-4External links
*
* http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV106.htm
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