Voice(s) with various
inst.
SKU:
BR.DV-9515-01
The
people that walked in
darkness. Composed by
Johann Georg Reichard.
Edited by Wolfram Steude.
Voice; stapled. Deutscher
Verlag. Baroque period.
Full Score. 24 pages.
Deutscher Verlag fur
Musik #DV 9515-01.
Published by Deutscher
Verlag fur Musik
(BR.DV-9515-01).
ISBN
9790200490596. 9 x 12
inches. German /
English.
In the
latter half of the 18th
and in the 19th century
the Old Preface Testament
Christmas prophecy
(Isaiah 9, 1-6) formed
the basis for numerous
motetto- and cantata-like
compositions originating
from the Erzgebirge and
the Vogtland of Saxony.
From very early times,
this text was included in
Matins for Christmas day,
hut until the period
specified it was usually
intoned on a reciting
note. The present cantata
is one of the few
surviving testimonies to
musical activity in the
small Thuringian town of
Schleiz. The prophecy Das
Volk, so im Finstern
wandelt was written -
probably for performance
at court services - in
all likelihood by Johann
Georg Reichard, a
magistrate in the
Grafschaft (County) of
Reuss who later held
higher judicial
appointments. Reichard
was born at Oels
(Olefoica) in Silesia in
1710 and studied law at
Leipzig from 1732. He
then went to Schleiz and
rose from the position of
archivist to high legal
office, at the same time
succeeding Gottfried
Siegmund Liebich (d.
1736) as director of the
court chapel. He died in
Schleiz on 2 June 1782. A
few of his church
cantatas and other pieces
(serenades etc) written
for the court at Schleiz
once belonged to the
Fursten- and Landesschule
of St Augustine at Grimma
whose music holdings are
now preserved in Dresden.
Some of Reichard's
compositions are
autograph, some in copies
made by his son Heinrich
Gottfried Reichard
(1742-1801) who pursued
an active career at
Grimma both in music and
ancient philology, first
as cantor, finally as
co-rector. The 'Prophecy'
cantata survives
anonymously in a score
copied by Heinrich
Gottfried Reichard who
may well have sung it
himself when he was
fourteen, before bis
voice broke - as the date
Anno 17 56 suggests. He
probably prepared the
score in bis later years
from the original parts,
now no langer existent,
as he did in the case of
other works of his
father's. Whether he
revised the musical text,
and to what extent,
cannot now be
established. This short
and attractive work has
all the lightness and
exuberance of the rococo
as well as genuine
emotional depth. In
addition, it is easy to
perform and should prove
very popular.
Liturgically, it still
occupies a place in
Christmas matins or
vespers. Permission for
this publication was
kindly given by Dr.
Wolfgang Reich of the
Sachsische
Landesbibliothek Dresden,
Musikabteilung. Wolfram
Steude, Dresden, January
1972.