Lost council election cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach

Mühlhausen#

On 1 July 1707 Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the position of organist in the (Divi Blasii), one of two major churches in Mühlhausen. In that town, the council election cantata was performed on 4 February in the other major church, the (St. Mary’s Church), with a repeat performance of the work in the on the first Sunday after the day of the première. Customarily, the music and text of that cantata were printed on the town council’s expenses. Notwithstanding that Bach had left for a new position in Weimar in the second half of June 1708, he kept in contact with his former employers at Mühlhausen, for instance supervising the remodelling of the organ of the according to his design, which was not completed until 1709, and also writing two more council election cantatas for the town. Both text and music of these cantatas are lost, not even their title is known. :;Extant :* 1708 (Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February): Gott ist mein König, BWV 71 – Bach’s first printed work. :;Lost :* 1709: second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192) :* 1710: third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2 (formerly BWV deest)

Second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (Anh. 192)#

Bach’s lost second council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 192), was composed for 4 February 1709.

Third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2#

Bach’s lost third council election cantata for Mühlhausen, BWV 1138.2, was composed for 4 February 1710.

Leipzig#

Bach was director musices of Leipzig’s principal churches from late May 1723 until his death in July 1750. In that town the council election service was held at the (St Nicholas Church) on the Monday following Bartholomew (Bartholomäus), 24 August. From 1723 to 1749 that were 27 occasions where Bach had to provide the music for this service. Four entirely extant cantatas cover, as far as known, only half a dozen of these occasions (1723, 1729 or earlier, 1731, 1739, 1748 and 1749). Another, partially lost, council election cantata was performed in 1727. :;Music partially lost :* Ihr Tore zu Zion, BWV 193.2 (formerly BWV 193), 25 August 1727 :;Only text extant :* Wünschet Jerusalem Glück, BWV 1139.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 4), 27 August 1725 and 28 August 1741 (libretto by Picander). :* Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige, BWV 1140 (formerly BWV Anh. 3), 28 August 1730 (libretto by Picander). :* Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (formerly BWV Anh. 193), 28 August 1740.

Wünschet Jerusalem Glück, BWV 1139.1 (Anh. 4)#

An extant contemporary print of the libretto, recovered in the first decade of the 21st century, shows that the council election cantata Wünschet Jerusalem Glück (Wish luck to Jerusalem), BWV 1139.1 (formerly BWV Anh. 4), was first performed on 27 August 1725. Picander, the author of the BWV 1139.1 libretto, published it in 1729, however without the second recitative, and with a minor adjustment in the text of the third movement. A variant version of the cantata, BWV 1139.2 (formerly BWV Anh. 4a) was performed on 27 June 1730, as last of three cantatas Bach performed for the 200th Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. Likely that version of the cantata, which is also lost apart from its libretto, shared the music of only three movements with the 1725 council election cantata. Another performance of BWV 1139.1 as council election cantata is documented for 28 August 1741. According to the libretto published in the Nützliche Nachrichten of 1741, the cantata was then performed in a six-movement version, that is, without the central arioso movement of the first version, but including the “Herr, weihe selbst das Regiment” recitative.

Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Könige, BWV 1140 (Anh. 3)#

Picander published his libretto (Cantata on the council election at Leipzig, 1730) in 1732. - ! # ! Incipit ! Type - 1 Gott, gieb Dein Gerichte dem Könige (Dictum) - 2 Höchster, zeige Dein Gerichte Aria - 3 Herr Zebaoth, Du bist getreu (Recitative and chorale) - 4 Wir schauen Wir bauen Aria - 5 Darum verleih, Daß unser Regiment geruhig sey (Recitative and chorale) The opening dictum quotes the first two verses of Psalm 72: The chorale lines figuring in the third and fifth movements are: is based on Nikolaus Selnecker’s hymn tune, Zahn 159, for Ludwig Helmbold’s hymn “Nun laßt uns Gott dem Herren”.

Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (Anh. 193)#

The libretto of the lost council election cantata for 28 August 1740, Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren, BWV 1141 (formerly BWV Anh. 193), was published in the Nützliche Nachrichten of 1740, under this header: - ! # ! Incipit ! Type - 1 Herrscher des Himmels, König der Ehren Chorus - 2 Gott, welcher selbst Regenten setzt (Recitative) - 3 Gerechte müßen wie Palmen Aria - 4 Gesegnete, beglückte Stadt (Recitative) - 5 Dancke Gott, daß er in Segen Aria - 6 So sencke doch, o Höchster, Geist und Kraft (Recitative) - 7 Es falle ietzt auf uns dein himmliches Feuer Chorus The music of the closing movement may have been an adaptation of the chorus that closes the Hunting Cantata (Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208), composed nearly three decades earlier.

Sources#

• Vol. II.
• Vol. I, Vol. II, Vol. III.