http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Blog.html Reflections on Bach, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Handel, Mozart and other past composers of serious music. iWeb 3.0 http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Blog_files/ApolloClementino310.jpg http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Blog.html http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Entries/2007/12/2_Here_he_comes....html bcd87542-54a2-4180-a830-e01acf71898a Sun, 2 Dec 2007 17:15:32 -0500 <a href="http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Entries/2007/12/2_Here_he_comes..._files/Bach%208x10.jpg"><img src="http://www.aegletes.com/musagetes/Blog/Media/object058.jpg" style="float:left; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:10px; width:100px; height:74px;"/></a>Today marks the 293rd anniversary of the first performance of Bach’s church cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (catalog number 61 in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis), written for the first Sunday in the Advent season in the Lutheran church calendar. The opening chorus announces that “Now he comes, the savior of the heathens” in a broad overture style with appropriate regal color. Typical of Bach’s church pieces, a series of recitatives and arias follow, a noteworthy one being the recitative for bass representing the voice of Christ himself (as an adult, of course). The word painting at Siehe, ich stehe vor der Tür und klopfe an, with Christ’s knocking on the door of the heathen symbolized by a plodding pizzicatto, is too obvious and remind us that this is the work of a relatively youthful (29 at the time) Bach. The final chorale (from Nicolai, 1599) is more elaborated than what is typical of later Bach. All told, this short piece from Bach’s Weimar years is unusual among his church cantatas, but one which shouldn’t be overlooked even in the shadow of his later Advent I cantatas, such as the more robust Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland from ten years later and Schwingt freudig euch empor (1731).