Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
Cantata for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity ("and at any time")
For soprano with trumpet in C, strings, and continuo
Aria (full ensemble)
Recitative (soprano, strings and continuo)
Aria (soprano and continuo)
Chorale (soprano, two solo violins and continuo)
Alleluja (full ensemble)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Bach's popular cantata Jauchzet Gott was performed on September 17, 1730, but it may possibly have been composed earlier and performed earlier, as well. The manuscript says that it is for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity but adds the words "et in ogni tempo" (and at any time), since the text of the cantata is not specific to a particular date in the church calendar.
The work is one of only four religious cantatas by Bach for a solo soprano, and it is the only one for soprano with obbligato trumpet and strings. The virtuosic vocal part, full of coloratura and extending up to a high C, would have been extremely difficult for one of Bach's boy sopranos. While a highly talented boy may have sung the cantata, a few scholars have asked whether it might have been written not for Bach's church but for a court at which a female soprano could have sung the part. The trumpet part too is virtuosic, particularly in the opening movement, and may well have been designed for the great Leipzig trumpeter Gottfried Reiche.
The work is structured much like the solo motets of Vivaldi and others, including -- most famously -- that of Mozart in his Exsultate, jubilate: a first aria is followed by a recitative, a second aria, and finally an Alleluja. But in this case, Bach inserts a chorale movement before the Alleluja.
The opening movement features an intricate interplay between the coloratura of the soprano and the trumpet, a conversation in which the first violin also sometimes takes part. It is celebratory music with fanfares in both the trumpet and the strings. The recitative and second aria that follow are more intimate prayers of supplication. The recitative ends with a brief arioso and the aria has only a continuo accompaniment. In the fourth movement, the lively counterpoint of two solo violins and continuo is underpinned by one of the verses of the hymn "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" with instrumental interludes between the soprano's phrases. That leads without a break into the joyous Alleluja, in which the trumpet and the full string ensemble return for the first time since the opening movement.
Boston Baroque Performances
Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
January 1, 1994
Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, director
Sharon Baker, soprano
Friedemann Immer, trumpet
January 1, 1988
Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, director
Sharon Baker, soprano
Bruce Hall, trumpet
November 9, 1987
Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH
Martin Pearlman, director
Sharon Baker, soprano
Bruce Hall, trumpet
September 25, 1987
Brick Church Meetinghouse, Deerfield, MA
Martin Pearlman, director
Sharon Baker, soprano
Bruce Hall, trumpet