October 15
A few days ago, I rediscovered a movement that I now believe to be among Bach’s greatest, equal in standing to the opening movement of the St Matthew Passion. I’m certain you will find it as beautiful, profound and awe-inspiring as I do... and I have since discovered that other commentators on Bach think similarly.
Craig Smith writes: “BWV 127 has always been recognized as one of the finest of the cantatas. The scholar Arnold Schering even went so far as to call it the greatest of all of the cantatas. There is a sense that Bach knows that this will be the last music parishioners will hear for many weeks.”
Julian Mincham writes: “Whether or not Bach knew at this stage that he was coming to the end of his cycle of chorale fantasias is a matter of conjecture ... What is unarguable, however, is that he displays no lack of commitment in these final works. He is certainly not running out of steam because the final two fantasias (Cs 127 and 1) are magnificent pieces, combining the highest degree of technical skill with incomparable artistry and invention. These are amongst the very best cantatas in what, by any standards, must be judged to be an outstanding and unique canon of work.”
Cantata 127 was written for the last Sunday before Lent, and so would be the last music parishioners would hear for a long time, as Smith wrote, because no music was played during the solemn 40-day period of penitence. Bach prepares the church members for the lessons they are to learn in the next weeks with a cantata of incredible profundity and messages of central importance to the Christian faith.
The introduction is a full minute long and features extremely long-held pedal points in the bass that recur frequently. The motif you hear present in every bar of the piece, passed along the instrumental groups and lower voices, is derived from the beginning of the main chorale tune, which is sung in long notes by the soprano and sets the words: “Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God.” These are the key words of this piece; it is as if this declamation of Jesus as God in human form is repeated as a mantra throughout the fantasia by every instrument and singer.
A second chorale melody, played in the long notes of cantus firmus, can be found embedded in the purely instrumental parts and is passed throughout the piece from the strings to the oboes (heard for example at 0:32) to the recorders. This chorale melody comes from the Lutheran Agnus Dei, a prayer in celebration of Jesus as the “Lamb of God”.
Another element that appears throughout the work is the dotted rhythms of the wind instruments, which have been compared to angel wings. Mincham continues, “There is an infinite profundity suggested by the comforting major harmonies and the quietly inexorable forward movement of the dotted rhythms. ... Bach’s use of the minor modes at unexpected places endows the music with dark colourings and touches of unforeseen profundity.”
Musicians often write about a kind of ‘universal’ sound found in Bach’s music more than any other. It is as if the sound represents and encompasses the Universe itself. Precisely this quality in his music makes the idea of Bach as a human so uniquely unfathomable. We do not so much hear the persona of Bach when we listen to his works, rather we hear a musical architecture that communicates something about existence, our reality itself. These qualities make Bach seem beyond the capacities of the virtuous, genius human, and more like a god. Many musicians think of Him that way in their deepest convictions.
I believe the work below is among Bach’s greatest because it has so much of that uniquely universal sound. The great pedal points, the slowness of the main cantus firmus in the sopranos, the ever-presence of the “True Man and God” theme, the angel-wing-like dotted rhythms, the expanses of major mode harmonies, the effortless modulations to distantly related minor keys … all of this combines in this fantasia to suggest a profundity without measure.