Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
Encyclopedia
Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life), BWV 147, is a cantata
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....

 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

. It was written originally in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 in 1716 (BWV 147a) for Advent and expanded in 1723 for the feast of the Visitation in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, where it was first performed on 2 July 1723.

Weimar

The cantata is based on a cantata text written by Salomo Franck for the fourth Sunday of Advent
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...

. The lyrics contained only movements 1, 3, 7, 5, 9 and a different closing chorale
Chorale
A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....

, Bach composed the music, BWV 147a, in 1716 in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 but possibly did not finish nor perform it then.
1. Chorus: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (1. of BWV 147)
2. Aria: Schäme dich, o Seele nicht (3.)
3. Aria: Hilf, Jesu, hilf, dass ich auch dich bekenne (7.)
4. Aria: Bereite dir, Jesu, noch heute die Bahn (5.)
5. Aria: Laß mich der Rufer Stimme hören (9.)
6. Chorale: Dein Wort laß mich bekennen

Leipzig

As Leipzig observed tempus clausum (time of silence) from Advent II to Advent IV, Bach could not perform the cantata there in Advent and rewrote it for the feast of the Visitation. The original words were suitable for a feast celebrating Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...

 in general, more specific recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...

s were added, the order of the aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

s changed, the closing chorale was replaced and repeated on a different verse to expand the cantata to two parts. The words are the verses 6 and 16 of the chorale Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne (1661) by Martin Jahn.

The prescribed readings for the day are Isaiah 11: 1—5 and Luke 1: 39—56.

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for four soloists and a four-part choir, a festive trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

, two oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

s (oboe d'amore
Oboe d'amore
The oboe d'amore , less commonly oboe d'amour, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, between the oboe itself and the cor...

, oboe da caccia
Oboe da caccia
The oboe da caccia is a double reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family, pitched a fifth below the oboe and used primarily in the Baroque period of European classical music...

), two violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

 and basso continuo including bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...

. Its ten movements are in two parts, movements 1 to 6 to be performed before the sermon, the others after the sermon.

1. Chorus: Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
2. Recitativo (tenor): Gebenedeiter Mund!
3. Aria (alto, oboe d'amore): Schäme dich, o Seele nicht
4. Recitativo (bass): Verstockung kann Gewaltige verblenden
5. Aria (soprano, violin): Bereite dir, Jesu, noch itzo die Bahn
6. Chorale: Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe
Parte seconda
7. Aria (tenor): Hilf, Jesu, hilf, daß ich auch dich bekenne
8. Recitativo (alto): Der höchsten Allmacht Wunderhand
9. Aria (bass, trumpet, oboes): Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen
10. Chorale: Jesus bleibet meine Freude

Music

The opening chorus renders the complete words in three section, the third one a reprise
Reprise
Reprise is a fundamental device in the history of art. In literature, a reprise consists of the rewriting of another work; in music, a reprise is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the...

 of the first one and even the middle section not different in character. An instrumental sinfonia is heard in the beginning and in the end as well as, slightly changed, in all three sections with the choir woven into it. In great contrast all three sections conclude with a part accompanied only by basso continuo. Sections one and three begin with a fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

 with colla parte instruments. The fugue subject stresses the word Leben (life) by a melisma
Melisma
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...

 extended over three measures. The soprano starts the theme, the alto enters just one measure later, tenor after two more measures, bass one measure later, the fast succession resulting in a lively music as a good image of life. In section three the pattern of entrances is the same, but building from the lowest voice to the highest.

The three recitatives are scored differently, the first accompanied by chords of the strings, the second by continuo, the third as an accompagnato of two oboes da caccia which add a continuous expressive motive, interrupted only when the child's leaping in the womb (in German: Hüpfen) is mentioned which they illustrate.

The three arias of the original cantata are scored for voice and solo instruments (3., 5.) or only continuo, whereas the last aria, speaking of the miracles of Jesus, is accompanied by the full orchestra.

The chorale movements 6 and 10, ending the two parts of the cantata, are the same music based on a melody by Johann Schop
Johann Schop
Johann Schop was a German violinist and composer, much admired as a musician and a technician, who was a virtuoso and whose compositions for the violin set impressive technical demands for that area at that time. In 1756 Leopold Mozart commented on the difficulty of a trill in a work by Schop,...

, Werde munter, mein Gemüthe, a melody which Bach also used in his St Matthew Passion on the words Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen (#40). The simple four-part choral part is embedded in a setting of the full orchestra dominated by a motive in pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...

 triplets derived from the first line of the chorale melody.

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

The music of the chorale movements is now best known for the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 transcription by Dame Myra Hess
Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE was a British pianist.She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the Gold Medal...

 of Hugh P. Allen's choral version of Bach's arrangement, and is notable under the title Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the most common English title of the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. A transcription by the English pianist Myra Hess was published in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet...

which approximately relates to "Jesus bleibet meine Freude", more closely translated as "Jesus shall remain my gladness".

Recordings

  • J.S. Bach Fritz Werner, Fritz Werner
    Fritz Werner
    Fritz Werner was a German choral conductor, church music director, conductor, organist and composer...

    , Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
    Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
    Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, full German name: Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, full English name South West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim, is an internationally known German chamber orchestra based in Pforzheim.- History :...

    , Ingeborg Reichelt
    Ingeborg Reichelt
    Ingeborg Reichelt is a German soprano singer. She is known for singing works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Biography :...

    , Margarethe Bence, Helmut Krebs
    Helmut Krebs
    Helmut Krebs was a distinguished German tenor in opera and concert, who sang a wide range of roles from Baroque to contemporary works.-Professional career:...

    , Franz Kelch
    Franz Kelch
    Franz Kelch is a German bass-baritone lied and oratorio singer. His discography includes works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, George Frederick Handel and Claudio Monteverdi.- Biography :...

    , Erato
    Erato Records
    Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 to promote French classical music. In 1992 it became part of Warner Bros. Records. In 1999 Erato launched a subsidiary Detour Records....

     1957
  • Bach Cantatas Vol. 3 - Ascension Day, Whitsun, Trinity, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
    Münchener Bach-Chor
    Münchener Bach-Chor is a mixed choir for concert and oratorio in Munich. Performances, international tours and recordings with Karl Richter and the Münchener Bach-Orchester made the choir internationally known.- Heinrich-Schütz-Kreis :...

    , Münchener Bach-Orchester, Ursula Buckel
    Ursula Buckel
    Ursula Buckel was a German soprano singer, known for singing works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Professional career :...

    , Hertha Töpper
    Hertha Töpper
    Hertha Töpper is an Austrian contralto opera singer.Töpper, the daughter of a music teacher, began her singing studies at the Graz Conservatorium while still at high school. In 1954, she began her career at the Graz Opera in the role of Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera...

    , John van Kesteren
    John van Kesteren
    John van Kesteren was a Dutch operatic tenor.Van Kesteren first worked as an electronic telex specialist for the Dutch Telegraph Company PTT. His very first appearance as a non-professional singer was in 1942 with an operetta company in Apeldoorn in the French operetta The Bells of Corneville...

    , Kieth Engen, Archiv Produktion
    Archiv Produktion
    Archiv Produktion is a subsidiary label of Deutsche Grammophon founded in 1948.The first head of Archiv from 1948–1957, was Fred Hamel, a musicologist who set out the early Archiv releases according to 12 research periods from 1. Gregorian Chant to 12. Mannheim and Vienna...

     1961
  • Bach Cantata BWV 147, Motets BWV 226, BWV 228, BWV 230, David Willcocks, King's college choir, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Elly Ameling
    Elly Ameling
    Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling is a Dutch soprano.-Career:Ameling was born in Rotterdam. She studied with Bodi Rapp, Jo Bollekamp, Sem Dresden and Jacoba Dresden-Dhont and later French art song with Pierre Bernac...

    , Janet Baker
    Janet Baker
    Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten...

    , Ian Partridge
    Ian Partridge
    Ian Partridge CBE is a retired English lyric tenor, whose repertoire ranged from Monteverdi, Bach and Handel, the Elizabethan lute songs, German, French and English songs, through to Schoenberg, Weill and Britten, and on to contemporary works. He formed a renowned vocal-piano duo with his sister...

    , John Shirley-Quirk
    John Shirley-Quirk
    John Shirley-Quirk CBE is an English bass-baritone.He was born in Liverpool, England, and sang in his high school choir. He played the violin and was awarded a scholarship. While studying chemistry and physics at Liverpool University, he studied voice with Austen Carnegie...

    , EMI
    EMI
    The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

     1970
  • Bach: 13 Sacred Cantatas & 13 Sinfonias, Helmut Winschermann, Nederlands Vocaal Ensemble, Deutsche Bachsolisten, Ileana Cotrubas
    Ileana Cotrubas
    Ileana Cotrubaş is a Romanian opera soprano whose career spanned from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was much admired for her acting skills and facility for singing opera in many different languages.-Biography:...

    , Julia Hamari
    Julia Hamari
    Julia Hamari, originally Hamari Júlia , is a Hungarian mezzo-soprano and alto singer in opera and concert, appearing internationally. She is an academic voice teacher in Stuttgart.- Professional career :...

    , Kurt Equiluz
    Kurt Equiluz
    Kurt Equiluz is an Austrian classical tenor in opera and concert, known for recording works of Johann Sebastian Bach with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Helmuth Rilling, a member of the Vienna State Opera as a tenor buffo from 1957 until 1983.- Professional career :Kurt Equiluz was an alto soloist of...

    , William Reimer, Philips
    Philips
    Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

     1972
  • Die Bach Kantate Vol. 12, Helmuth Rilling
    Helmuth Rilling
    Helmuth Rilling is an internationally known German choral conductor, founder of the Gächinger Kantorei , the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart , the Oregon Bach Festival , the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and other Bach Academies worldwide, and the "Festival Ensemble Stuttgart"...

    , Frankfurter Kantorei, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
    Bach-Collegium Stuttgart
    Bach-Collegium Stuttgart is an internationally known German instrumental ensemble, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1965 to accompany the Gächinger Kantorei in choral music with orchestra...

    , Arleen Augér
    Arleen Auger
    Joyce Arleen Auger was an American soprano singer, admired for her coloratura voice and interpretations of works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Monteverdi, Gluck, and Mozart.-Biography:...

    , Helen Watts
    Helen Watts
    Helen Watts CBE was a Welsh contralto. She was born at Wales in Milford Haven and educated at the School of S. Mary and S. Anne, Abbots Bromley and the Royal Academy of Music. She began her career with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, and was a regular broadcaster on the Welsh Home Service...

    , Kurt Equiluz
    Kurt Equiluz
    Kurt Equiluz is an Austrian classical tenor in opera and concert, known for recording works of Johann Sebastian Bach with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Helmuth Rilling, a member of the Vienna State Opera as a tenor buffo from 1957 until 1983.- Professional career :Kurt Equiluz was an alto soloist of...

    , Wolfgang Schöne
    Wolfgang Schöne
    - Biography :Schöne was born in Bad Gandersheim. He began his studies of voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Naan Pöld in 1964 and moved with him to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in 1986, achieving his diploma as a concert singer and music teacher in 1969.His...

    , Hänssler
    Hänssler Classic
    Hänssler Classic is a German classical record label based in Holzgerlingen.Friedrich Hänssler Senior founded Musikverlag Hänssler in 1919 to publish church music. Since 1972 Hänssler Classic has also published contemporary and jazz music...

     1977
  • J.S. Bach: 6 Favourite Cantatas, Joshua Rifkin
    Joshua Rifkin
    Joshua Rifkin is an American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist. He is best known by the general public for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records, and to classical musicians for his...

    , One voice per part
    OVPP
    One Voice Per Part - this musical term and neologism and its abbreviation refers to the practice of performing Baroque choral music, and Bach's works in particular, with single voices on each vocal line...

    , The Bach Ensemble, Jane Bryden, Drew Minter, Jeffrey Thomas, Jan Opalach, L'Oiseau-Lyre
    Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre
    Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre is a music publishing company financed and established in Paris in 1932 by Louise Dyer , an Australian pianist and philanthropist....

     1985
  • J.S. Bach: Cantatas, John Eliot Gardiner
    John Eliot Gardiner
    Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...

    , Monteverdi Choir
    Monteverdi Choir
    The Monteverdi Choir was founded in 1964 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. A specialist Baroque ensemble, the Choir has become famous for its stylistic conviction and extensive repertoire, encompassing music from the early...

    , English Baroque Soloists
    English Baroque Soloists
    The English Baroque Soloists is a chamber orchestra playing on period instruments, formed in 1978 by English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Its repertoire comprises music from the early Baroque period to the Classical period...

    , Ruth Holton
    Ruth Holton
    -Training:Holton won a choral exhibition at Clare College, Cambridge and studied music there. Her later musical studies were with Elizabeth Lane, Nancy Long and Julie Kennard.-Career:...

    , Michael Chance
    Michael Chance
    Michael Chance CBE is an English countertenor.Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing up as a chorister he attended Eton College, Berkshire, and later King's College, Cambridge...

    , Anthony Rolfe Johnson
    Anthony Rolfe Johnson
    Anthony Rolfe Johnson, CBE was an English operatic tenor.-Life and career:Born in Tackley in Oxfordshire, Rolfe Johnson studied with Ellis Keeler and Vera Rosza at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He first appeared in opera in the chorus and in small roles at the Glyndebourne Festival...

    , Stephen Varcoe
    Stephen Varcoe
    Stephen Varcoe is an English classical bass-baritone singer, appearing internationally in opera and concert, known for Baroque and contemporary music and a notable singer of Lieder.- Professional career :...

    , Archiv Produktion
    Archiv Produktion
    Archiv Produktion is a subsidiary label of Deutsche Grammophon founded in 1948.The first head of Archiv from 1948–1957, was Fred Hamel, a musicologist who set out the early Archiv releases according to 12 research periods from 1. Gregorian Chant to 12. Mannheim and Vienna...

     1990
  • J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 7, Ton Koopman
    Ton Koopman
    Ton Koopman is a conductor, organist and harpsichordist.Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the organ , harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam...

    , Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
    Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
    The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam.The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979 and the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in...

    , Lisa Larsson
    Lisa Larsson
    - Biography :Larsson studied in Basel and since 1993 appeared in the Internationales Opernstudio of the Zurich Opera House under conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Christoph von Dohnányi....

    , Bogna Bartosz
    Bogna Bartosz
    Bogna Bartosz is a Polish classical mezzo-soprano and alto.- Biography :Bogna Bartosz studied voice at the Academy of Music in Gdansk and graduated with distinction...

    , Gerd Türk
    Gerd Türk
    - Biography :Gerd Türk received his first musical training as a choir boy at the cathedral of Limburg. He studied in Frankfurt and then at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Richard Levitt and René Jacobs, continuing in master classes with Ernst Haefliger and Kurt Equiluz.In the field of...

    , Klaus Mertens
    Klaus Mertens
    Klaus Mertens is a German bass and bass-baritone singer who is known especially for his interpretation of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.-Professional career:Klaus Mertens took singing lessons while attending school...

    , Antoine Marchand 1997
  • J.S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 12 - Cantatas from Leipzig 1723, Masaaki Suzuki
    Masaaki Suzuki
    is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan.He was born in Kobe to parents who were both Christians and amateur musicians...

    , Bach Collegium Japan
    Bach Collegium Japan
    Bach Collegium Japan is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specialising in Baroque music, playing with period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music. Suzuki still remains its music director...

    , Yukari Nonoshita, Robin Blaze
    Robin Blaze
    - Childhood and education :The son of a professional golfer Peter, Robin Blaze grew up in Shadwell, near Leeds and was educated at Leeds Grammar School, Uppingham School, and Magdalen College, Oxford....

    , Gerd Türk
    Gerd Türk
    - Biography :Gerd Türk received his first musical training as a choir boy at the cathedral of Limburg. He studied in Frankfurt and then at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Richard Levitt and René Jacobs, continuing in master classes with Ernst Haefliger and Kurt Equiluz.In the field of...

    , Peter Kooy
    Peter Kooy
    Peter Kooy is a Dutch bass singer specialized in baroque music.- Biography :Peter Kooy started his musical career at 6 years as a choir boy. However he started his musical studies as a violin student...

    , BIS
    BIS Records
    BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden.BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings....

     1999

External links

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