Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211

History and text#

Bach regularly directed a musical ensemble based at Zimmermann’s coffee house called a collegium musicum, founded by Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702. The libretto suggests that some people in eighteenth-century Germany viewed coffee drinking as a bad habit. However, the work is likely to have been first performed at the coffee house in Leipzig. The cantata’s libretto (written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander), features lines like “If I couldn’t, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat”. Bach wrote no operas: the cantata was written for concert performance, but is frequently performed today fully staged with costumes.

Scoring#

The work is scored for three vocal soloists in the roles * Narrator, tenor * Schlendrian (Stick in the Mud), bass * Lieschen, his daughter, soprano. The orchestra consists of flauto traverso, two violins obbligato, viola, cembalo and basso continuo.

Recordings#

• Emma Kirkby, Rogers Covey-Crump, David Thomas, Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood. J.S. Bach: Coffee Cantata / Peasant Cantata. L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1987.
• Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Ton Koopman. J.S. Bach: Complete Cantatas Vol. 4. Antoine Marchand, 1996.
• Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki, Makoto Sakurada, Carolyn Sampson, Stephan Schreckenberger. Bach Secular Cantatas BWV 210 and BWV 211. BIS, 2004.

External links#

• Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211: performance by the Netherlands Bach Society (video and background information)
• Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht: history, scoring, Bach website
• BWV 211 Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht: English translation, University of Vermont
• Bach Cantata Translations: German libretto with parallel English translation by Pamela Dellal