What are you doing Thursday night?
I only ask because, this Thursday evening at 7pm, I'm conducting an hourlong concert of 18th century music at St. John's. The whole thing will be sung in German. You should totally come.
This is a concert from a series we call The St. John's Bach Project. We started the Bach Project in 2013 and have presented over 20 concerts since. Each one features a cantata or two by the great J.S. Bach (1685-1750).
You may be asking: What's a cantata? Why will you be singing in German? Isn't Bach boring? And, most importantly, why should I leave the house for this?*
A cantata is a multi-movement work for voices and instruments. In the context in which Bach was working -- the church -- his cantatas involved chorus, soloists, and instruments, and were on Biblical or other sacred texts.
Seen as a whole body of work, the Bach cantatas are nothing short of miraculous. As the music director in several Lutheran churches in his lifetime, Bach composed original cantatas for the weekly Sunday liturgy, as companions to the sermon and to illustrate the feast of the day. Scholars believe that he composed close to five complete cycles of cantatas for each Sunday in the church year. An original, multimovement piece, 30 minutes or so on average, for each weekly worship service. There is nothing comparable in music history.
(On the days that I feel ovewhelmed by my job, I give thanks that I am not expected to compose an original 30-minute piece of music every week, orchestrate it, and then get it rehearsed and ready to perform in worship on Sunday. Really, I have it easy.)
There are just over 200 cantatas that remain in performable editions, and scholars estimate that the scores for more than 100 others may have been lost. (Bach famously had over twenty children, and it's said that a few of them -- sons, of course -- lost some of his most priceless manuscripts in poker games. There's bound to be a few questionable characters in a family that large.)
But what's extraordinary about the cantatas is not only the sheer volume of the compositions, but how breathtakingly dramatic and powerful they are. They were designed to open the congregation's hearts in a way that the spoken word could not. They contain some of Bach's most heartfelt writing, and some of his most dramatic and expressive music for instrumentalists and vocalists alike. These are tremendously special pieces.
Thursday evening, our group of 16 singers (including superb soloists Ingela Onstad, Stephanie Reyes, Lore Alán, and Michael Hix) will be joined by a chamber orchestra of wonderful local professionals. (Instrumentalists are generally thrilled if you invite them to play Bach cantatas. Already, they're in a good mood.) We're performing two cantatas that premiered in the same year: 1726. Both Cantata 39, "Break Bread With the Hungry" and Cantata 102, "Lord, Your Eyes See Truth" feature fantastic, virtuosic opening choruses. (The chorus gets to sing the first and last movements of these pieces.) There are also beautiful solo arias for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, often with accompanying solo instruments. The orchestra will include two flutes, two oboes, bassoon, strings, and organ. It think this will be a really special performance.
We're singing in the original language (I generally feel like hearing the actual words that a composer set to music is part of the experience. Good composers set texts in a way that make it expressive and singable, and translation messes with that.), but there WILL be simultaneous translations on the sanctuary screens, so you will know exactly what we're singing at all times.
And, as is true with almost all of our concert at St. John's, there is no admission charge. (We will collect an offering at the end, as we trust that the music will inspire you to be generous.) There will also be an opportunity for you to win a nifty St. John's Bach Project coffee mug. Won't your friends be envious.
You could do worse on a Thursday night. Please join us!
Matthew Greer
Director of Music and Worship
*Technically speaking, you don't have to, of course. The concert will be livestreamed to our YouTube channel.
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