Music TheoryPrint

Johann Sebastian Bach

Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 192

(Now thank ye all our God), BWV 192, is a church cantata for Trinity Sunday composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in 1730. It is an incomplete cantata, because its tenor part is missing. It is

History and text#

Bach composed Nun danket alle Gott as a chorale cantata for Trinity, setting the unmodified text of the three stanzas of Martin Rinckart’s hymn of thanksgiving “Nun danket alle Gott”. It was first performed on 4 June 1730. Alfred Dürr assumed that it could have been written for a wedding. The cantata is not always seen as included in Bach’s chorale cantata cycle. The original score is held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. and Alfred Dürr.

Scoring and structure#

The cantata is scored for soprano and bass soloists, a four-part choir, two flutes, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. The work has three movements: # Chorus: Nun danket alle Gott # Duet aria (soprano and bass): Der ewig reiche Gott # Chorus: Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott

Music#

The cantata begins with a chorale fantasia. Unusually, the ritornello is not immediately followed by the chorale melody, but by a three-part or even four-part imitative preparation. The first phrase of the chorale melody appears in the soprano over further imitation in the lower voices and by staccato chords in the accompaniment. The other lines of the chorale are handled similarly. The duet aria is introduced by a ritornello “with a double hiatus suggestive of modesty or diffidence”. The movement is structurally like a da capo aria but lacks a contrasting middle section. Unusually, the work ends not with a closing chorale, but with another chorale fantasia with a “rollicking gigue melody”. Again, the soprano carries the chorale melody. As in the first movement, the lower voices sing imitative lines.

Recordings#

  • Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman. J. S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 20. Antoine Marchand, 2002.
  • Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki. J. S. Bach: Cantatas Vol. 51. BIS, 2011.
  • Frankfurter Kantorei / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling. Die Bach Kantate Vol. 12. Hänssler, 1974.
  • Holland Boys Choir / Netherlands Bach Collegium, Pieter Jan Leusink. Bach Edition Vol. 12. Brilliant Classics, 1999.
  • Monteverdi Choir / English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner. Bach Cantatas Vol. 10. Soli Deo Gloria, 2000.
  • “Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 192”, performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)
  • “BWV 192 Nun danket alle Gott”, English translation, University of Vermont
Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach