SKU: CA.3110907

ISBN 9790007048020. Key: D minor / a minor. Language: German/English.

Score available separately - see item CA.3110900.

SKU: CA.3500811

ISBN 9790007212995. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery! Score and part available separately - see item CA.3500800.

SKU: CA.3500805

ISBN 9790007162061. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery! Score available separately - see item CA.3500800.

SKU: CA.3500819

ISBN 9790007143251. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery! Score and parts available separately - see item CA.3500800.

SKU: CA.3108107

ISBN 9790007045449. Key: E minor. Language: German/English.

Bach composed the cantata Jesus schlaft, was soll ich hoffen [Jesus sleeps, what hope have I] BWV 81 for the fourth Epiphany Sunday, 1724. The cantata is structured as a little drama: In the beginning, fear prevails. The seas rage and Jesus is asleep. The threateningly foaming waves are vividly depicted in the soughing string accompaniment of the tenor aria. Jesus's words Ihr Kleinglaubigen, warum seid ihr so furchtsam? [You of little faith, why are you so fearful?] are set as a bass arioso at the center of the cantata; they provide the turning point. In the subsequent bass aria, the towering seas are silenced. A recitative - Wohl mir [Well for me] - leads into the closing chorale with its certainty Unter deinen Schirmen bin ich vor den Sturmen aller Feinde frei [Under Your protection I am spared the tempests of my enemies]. Score available separately - see item CA.3108100.

SKU: CA.2730119

ISBN 9790007201333. Key: F minor. Language: Latin.

In 1856, the year in which Mozart's one-hundredth birthday was elaborately celebrated, Franz Lachner composed the Requiem in F minor op. 146. It became his most well-known and most important work. Lachner's intensive study of Mozart's music on the occasion of the commemorative year lends credence to that fact that it was not inspired by a personal loss, such as a death in the family or among his friends. Although closer examination proves that his music differed essentially from Mozart's, Lachner's work shows a clear expression of his admiration for him. The parallels between the two Requiems range from the characteristics of the organization of the text and the formal structure, to the similar treatment of individual sections, themes and motives. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.2730100.

SKU: CA.2730100

ISBN 9790007091149. Key: F minor. Language: Latin.

In 1856, the year in which Mozart's one-hundredth birthday was elaborately celebrated, Franz Lachner composed the Requiem in F minor op. 146. It became his most well-known and most important work. Lachner's intensive study of Mozart's music on the occasion of the commemorative year lends credence to that fact that it was not inspired by a personal loss, such as a death in the family or among his friends. Although closer examination proves that his music differed essentially from Mozart's, Lachner's work shows a clear expression of his admiration for him. The parallels between the two Requiems range from the characteristics of the organization of the text and the formal structure, to the similar treatment of individual sections, themes and motives.

SKU: CA.3110807

ISBN 9790007047931. Key: A major / b minor. Language: German/English. Text: von Ziegler, Christiane Mariane. Text: Christiane Mariane von Ziegler.

The cantata Es ist euch gut, dass ich hingehe [It is well that I go forth] BWV 108 for Cantate Sunday is one of the cantatas composed on texts by the Leipzig poetess Christiane Mariane von Ziegler with which Bach concluded his second annual cycle of cantatas after he had abandoned the annual cycle of chorale cantatas at Easter 1725. The text contains two sayings by Jesus which are taken directly from the Sunday gospel reading (John 16:5-15). The quotation opening the cantata was set by Bach as a bass aria with solo oboe d'amore; it breathes tranquility and assurance. The second quotation, however, is set as an extended choral fugue in three sections; it forms the center of the cantata. The free text surrounding the biblical quotations is divided into two arias in which the emphasis is on melodic lines; there is only one single recitative, the original text of which was substantially abridged by Bach. A four-part chorale concludes the cantata. Score available separately - see item CA.3110800.

SKU: CA.3118407

ISBN 9790007050481. Key: G major / e minor. Language: German/English.

The Pentecost cantata Desired ray of light BWV 184 is based on a Kothen composition, probably a congratulatory cantata, whose instrumental parts (only these have survived) Bach reused in the Leipzig Pentecost cantata. Only the chorale setting was evidently newly composed. Despite the narrow leeway that the already finished composition left for the librettist, he nevertheless succeeded in crafting a coherent Pentecost text. The fact that the cantata begins with a long tenor accompagnato with two flutes followed by a pastoral duet is surprising. The placing of the chorale not at the end of the work but before the concluding chorus is unusual. Bach was evidently aware of the effect that the ending of this lively movement would have and wanted to retain this in its sacred form as well. The sacred version was first performed on the third day of Pentecost in 1724, probably after a parody version of another Kothen cantata (BWV 173) had already been performed on the second day of Pentecost. Score available separately - see item CA.3118400.

SKU: CA.3101207

ISBN 9790007102937. Key: F minor / b flat major. Language: German/English. Text: Franck, Salomo. Text: Salomo Franck.

On the 2nd March 1714 Bach, who until then had been employed as a chamber musician and organist at he Court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar, was promoted to the position of concert master, and was instructed to relieve the ailing Kapellmeister Johann Samuel Drese by composing and performing new pieces monthly for the church. Following the cantata Himmelskonig, sei willkommen, BWV 182, the present cantate was the second work which Bach composed under the terms of his new contract. The extraordinary musical ambition evident in the first Weimar cantatas may have had its roots in the fact htat Bach aspired to become Drese's successor as Court Kapellmeister. Score available separately - see item CA.3101200.