Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben?, BWV 8
Cantata for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
First performance: Leipzig, September 24, 1724
Soloists: Soprano, alto, tenor, bass
Chorus (S-A-T-B)
Orchestra: Flute, 2 oboes d'amore, strings, continuo
(horn colla parte with chorus sopranos)
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Chorus
Aria (tenor)
Recitative (alto)
Aria (bass)
Recitative (soprano)
Chorale
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Bach's cantata, BWV 8 was first performed at the Sunday service at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on September 24, 1724, during his second season of writing a weekly cantata. Its opening chorus and the closing chorale are based on the seventeenth-century hymn Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben? (Dearest God, when will I die?), for which Daniel Vetter, one of Bach's organist predecessors in Leipzig, had written the melody.
In the opening movement, the chorus sings the phrases of the chorale on the text, "When will I die? My time is constantly running out…" Against this sustained music, two oboes d'amore play a duet over pizzicato violins and viola. It is a beautiful, transparent sonority over which a flute periodically plays repeated bell-like sixteenth notes. Each group of the flute's sixteenths has twenty-four notes, suggesting the passing of time as mentioned in the words of the hymn. A colla parte horn plays the chorale tune along with the sopranos of the chorus.
In the aria that follows, a tenor is accompanied only by a solo oboe d'amore and continuo. The bass line continues the pizzicato from the opening chorus, as the beats of its four-note motive emphasize the fear in the words "wenn meine letzte Stunde schlägt" ("if my last hour strikes"). Following an accompanied recitative for alto, the bass aria banishes fears of death and turns to Jesus. It is a joyful aria in the character of a gigue, with a prominent flute solo accompanied by strings and continuo. A secco recitative for soprano then leads into the closing chorale. It is, as mentioned above, the chorale by the Leipzig organist Daniel Vetter, but here Bach, atypically for him, does not harmonize the chorale tune himself but uses Vetter's full harmonization.
Bach seems to have had a particularly fine flutist for several months around the time of this cantata, for he wrote expressive and sometimes quite difficult flute parts during that time. The flute in the opening chorus and in the bass aria of this cantata has extreme high notes for a Baroque flute, its music in the aria going up to a high "A." Whether the original flutist could play the highest notes is unknown, but Bach subsequently made some alterations, first adjusting the part for a "flauto piccolo" (perhaps a recorder), then making other alterations for a performance in the late 1730's, and finally transposing the cantata down a step in the 1740's. But since transposing this music sacrifices some of the beautiful sonority of the opening chorus, the cantata is normally played in its original form today. The high notes are easily playable on a modern flute, and there are now a number of Baroque flute players, as well, who can manage them.
Boston Baroque Performances
Liebster Gott, wann werd ich sterben?, BWV 8
April 12, 1985
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Sharon Baker, soprano
Sergio Pelacani, countertenor
Frank Kelley, tenor
James Maddalena, bass