O angenehme Melodei, BWV 210a

History and words#

Bach first performed cantata in 1729 and adapted it for two other occasions. The first version, performed on 12 January 1729, paid homage to Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels on the occasion of his visit to Leipzig. Only the soprano part and a separate printed textbook of the earliest version survived into the twentieth century. The soprano part was lost in World War II. Bach used the five arias, the first recitative and the beginning of the last recitative later in his wedding cantata , therefore the music can be reconstructed. Alexander Ferdinand Grychtolik edited a reconstruction, published by Edition Güntersberg. He chose the third text version as the most general one.

Scoring, structure and music#

The cantata in ten movements is probably scored as the surviving , for soprano, flauto traverso, oboe d’amore, two violins, viola, and basso continuo with violone and harpsichord. # Recitative: # Aria: # Recitative: # Aria: # Recitative: # Aria: # Recitative: # Aria: # Recitative: # Aria: Richard D. P. Jones notes in his book The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach that the text deals with the power of music, inspiring Bach to music of “quite exceptional quality”.

External links#

• Cantata BWV 210a O angenehme Melodei: history, scoring, sources for text and music, translations to various languages, discography, discussion, Bach Cantatas Website
• BWV 210a – “O angenehme Melodei!”: English translation, discussion, Emmanuel Music
• BWV 210a O angenehme Melodei!: English translation, University of Vermont
• BWV 210a O angenehme Melodei!: text, scoring, University of Alberta