Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (You shall weep and wail),
BWV 103, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, a
church cantata for the third Sunday after Easter,
called Jubilate (Jubilate Sunday).
Bach composed the cantata in his second year as
Thomaskantor in Leipzig and first performed it on 22
April 1725. It is the first of nine cantatas on texts
by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, which Bach composed
at the end of his second annual cycle of cantatas in
Leipzig. Based on the Gospel reading...(+)
Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (You shall weep and wail),
BWV 103, is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, a
church cantata for the third Sunday after Easter,
called Jubilate (Jubilate Sunday).
Bach composed the cantata in his second year as
Thomaskantor in Leipzig and first performed it on 22
April 1725. It is the first of nine cantatas on texts
by Christiana Mariana von Ziegler, which Bach composed
at the end of his second annual cycle of cantatas in
Leipzig. Based on the Gospel reading from the Farewell
Discourse, where Jesus, announcing that he will leave,
says "your sorrow shall be turned into joy", Bach
contrasts music of sorrow and joy, notably in the
unusual first movement, where he inserts an almost
operatic recitative of Jesus in the fugal choral
setting. The architecture of the movement combines
elements of the usual concerto form with the more
text-related older form of a motet. Bach scores an
unusual flauto piccolo (descant recorder in D) as an
obbligato instrument in an aria contemplating the
sorrow of missing Jesus, who is addressed as a doctor
who shall heal the wounds of sins. Bach scores a
trumpet in only one movement, an aria expressing the
joy about the predicted return of Jesus. The cantata in
six movements closes with a chorale, the ninth stanza
of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Barmherzger Vater, höchster
Gott".
The cantata begins in B minor, illustrating sorrow, but
in movement 4 shifts to the relative major key of D
major, illustrating the theme of consolation in
Ziegler's text.
The opening chorus has an unusual structure, which
includes an arioso passage for the bass voice. All
instruments except the trumpet play a ritornello, after
which a choral fugue pictures the weeping and wailing
of the text in unrelated musical material, rich in
chromaticism. In great contrast the following line,
"aber die Welt wird sich freuen" (But the world will
rejoice), is conveyed by the chorus embedded in a
repeat of the first part of the ritornello. The
sequence is repeated on a larger scale: this time the
fugue renders both lines of the text as a double fugue
with the second theme taken from the ritornello, then
the ritornello is repeated in its entirety. The bass as
the vox Christi (voice of Christ) sings three times,
with a sudden tempo change to adagio, "Ihr aber werdet
traurig sein" (But you will be sad) as an accompagnato
recitative. Musicologist Julian Mincham notes: "This
recitative is a mere eight bars long but its context
and piteousness give it enormous dramatic impact.
Bach's lack of respect for the conservative Leipzig
authorities' dislike of operatic styles in religious
music was never more apparent!" Klaus Hofmann compares
the recitative's "highly expressive melody and harmony"
to Bach's Passions. Finally, the extended sequence of
fugue and ritornello with chorus returns transposed, on
the text "Doch eure Traurigkeit soll in Freude
verkehret werden" (Yet your sorrow shall be changed
into joy). According to Alfred Dürr, the architecture
of the movement is a large scale experiment combining
elements of the older style of a text-related motet
with the form of a concerto of instrumental groups and
voices, as typically used by Bach.
John Eliot Gardiner, 2007
John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the Bach Cantata
Pilgrimage with the Monteverdi Choir in 2000, notes
that Bach's "strategy is to superimpose these opposite
moods, binding them in a mutually enlightening whole
and emphasising that it is the same God who both
dispenses and then ameliorates these conditions.
Movement 2 is a secco recitative for tenor, concluding
in an arioso section with a "deeply moving" melisma on
the word "Schmerzen" (sorrows). Movement 3, "Kein Arzt
ist außer dir zu finden" (Besides You is no doctor to
be found) is an aria for alto with the obbligato flauto
piccolo, which according to Mincham, employs a
"figuration ever striving upwards, moderates the
underlying sense of potential tragedy". The alto
recitative "marks a change of scene", it begins in B
minor, like the opening chorus, but modulates to
D-major and ends with a wide-ranging coloratura marking
the word "Freude" (joy). Movement 5, "Erholet euch,
betrübte Sinnen" (Recover now, O troubled feelings),
picks up the joyful coloraturas, supported by the
trumpet and fanfares in triads in the orchestra,
Mincham notes that the trumpet "bursts upon us with an
energy, acclamation and jubilation unheard, so far, in
this work". The cantata is closed with a four-part
setting of the chorale, sung to the melody of "Was mein
Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit" which Bach used
frequently, including in his St Matthew Passion.
Although originally scored for three vocal soloists
(alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, trumpet,
flauto piccolo (descant recorder in D), two oboes
d'amore, two violins, viola and continuo, I created
this arrangement for String Trio (Violin, Viola &
Cello).
