BWV 1, "How beauteous beams the morning star".
This Church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach had composed in 1725 in Leipzig and conducted the first performance on the feast of the Annunciation of the blessed virgin Mary, 25 March 1725, which in that year fell on palm Sunday. Bach by the time he wrote cantatas for the second year served as a Cantor in Leipzig, and this festival was the only instance during lent, when I was allowed to festive music. A hymn expressing the longing for the coming of the Savior, is associated with the announcement to Mary about the birth of Jesus (the Annunciation). The theme of arrival, also suitable for palm Sunday, marking the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem.
The text of this heraldnew cantata based on the hymn by Philip Nicolai (Philipp Nicolai) (1599). Left literal: stanza 1 and 7 (steel 1 and 6). Rewritten (unknown author) verses 2 through 6 (of steel 2 through 5). The unknown poet kept, as in other chorale cantatas of the second cycle of Bach cantatas, the first and last verse of a hymn but rephrased the theme of the inner stanzas to a sequence of alternating recitatives and arias. Bach performed the cantata for three vocal soloists (tenor, soprano and bass), choir of four voices and instrumental ensemble in Baroque style with two horns, two oboes da Caccia, two solo violins, strings and continuo.
The cantata was the last chorale cantata of the cycle, perhaps because Bach lost his librettist, who inspired him. But after a century after Bach's death it was his work opened the first published the complete works of Bach. In 1850 Bahovskoj society (Bach-Gesellschaft, Leipzig) — based society to the centenary of Bach's death, the German musicologists and composers have decided to publish the Complete works of composer Johann Sebastian Bach in print. For his first volume, the editors chose a number of choral cantatas (with one exception — BWV 6). Chorale cantatas - works, the text and the melody which is taken from the Church hymnal. Bach wrote most of these cantatas between the resurrection of the Trinity of 1724 and Easter 1725, when he wrote no less than forty new works for just ten months! In the next ten years Bach completed these cantatas to create a loop for the entire Church year.
During lent, the last seven weeks before Easter, festive music was banned in churches of Leipzig. However, the ban have been suspended for the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, if fall in a post. On this occasion, Bach wrote the cantata "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". Melody Philip Nicholas was borrowed from two medieval melodies: the Latin hymn "Ecce nomen domini Emmanuel" and its later German version, "Herr Groß und ist Gottes Nam Emanuel". In fact, the anthem was conceived for the Epiphany, but the hymnbooks in the days of Bach has also offered it for the Annunciation and for the first Sunday in Advent, as the text contains clear references to the text "the Savior is coming". Bach also uses the verses of this hymn in his Advent cantatas BWV 36 and BWV 61.
The Original German text
1. Coro
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
Voll Gnad und Wahrheit von dem Herrn,
Die süße Wurzel Jesse!
Du Sohn Davids aus Jakobs Stamm,
Mein König und mein Bräutigam,
Hast mir mein Herz besessen,
Lieblich,
Freundlich,
Schön und herrlich, groß und ehrlich, reich von Gaben,
Hoch und sehr prächtig erhaben.
2. Recitativo
Du wahrer Gottes und Marien Sohn,
Du König derer Auserwählten,
Wie süß ist uns dies Lebenswort,
Nach dem die ersten Väter schon
So Jahr’ als Tage zählten,
Das Gabriel mit Freuden dort
In Bethlehem verheißen!
O Süßigkeit, o Himmelsbrot,
Das weder Grab, Gefahr, noch Tod
Aus unsern Herzen reißen.
3. Aria
Erfüllet, ihr himmlischen göttlichen Flammen,
Die nach euch verlangende gläubige Brust!
Die Seelen empfinden die kräftigsten Triebe
Der brünstigsten Liebe
Und schmecken auf Erden die himmlische Lust.
4. Recitativo
Ein irdischer Glanz, ein leiblich Licht
Rührt meine Seele nicht:
Ein Freudenschein ist mir von Gott entstanden,
Denn ein vollkommnes Gut,
Des Heilands Leib und Blut,
Ist zur Erquickung da.
So muß uns ja
Der überreiche Segen,
Der uns von Ewigkeit bestimmt
Und unser Glaube zu sich nimmt,
Zum Dank und Preis bewegen.
5. Aria
Unser Mund und Ton der Saiten
Sollen dir
Für und für
Dank und Opfer zubereiten.
Herz und Sinnen sind erhoben,
Lebenslang
Mit Gesang,
Großer König, dich zu loben.
6. Choral
Wie bin ich doch so herzlich froh,
Daß mein Schatz ist das A und O,
Der Anfang und das Ende;
Er wird mich doch zu seinem Preis
Aufnehmen in das Paradeis,
Des klopf ich in die Hände,
Amen!
Amen!
Komm, du schöne Freudenkrone, bleib nicht lange,
Deiner wart ich mit Verlangen.
The translation into English language
How beauteous beams the morning star
1. Chorus
How beauteous beams the morning star
With truth and blessing from the Lord,
The darling root of Jesse!
Thou, David’s son of Jacob’s stem,
My bridegroom and my royal king,
Art of my heart the master,
Lovely,
Kindly,
Bright and glorious, great and righteous, rich
in blessings,
High and most richly exalted.
2. Recitative
O thou true son of Mary and of God,
O thou the King of all the chosen,
How sweet to us this word of life,
By which e’en earliest patriarchs
Both years and days did number,
Which Gabriel with gladness there
In Bethlehem did promise!
O sweet delight, O heav’nly bread,
Which neither grave, nor harm, nor death
From these our hearts can sunder.
3. Aria
O fill now, ye flames, both divine and celestial,
The breast which to thee doth in faith ever strive!
The souls here perceive now the strongest of feelings
Of love most impassioned
And savor on earth the celestial joy.
4. Recitative
No earthly gloss, no fleshly light
Could ever stir my soul;
A sign of joy to me from God has risen,
For now a perfect gift,
The Savior’s flesh and blood,
Is for refreshment here.
So must, indeed,
This all-excelling blessing,
To us eternally ordained
And which our faith doth now embrace,
To thanks and praise bestir us.
5. Aria
Let our voice and strings resounding
Unto thee
Evermore
Thanks and sacrifice make ready.
Heart and spirit are uplifted,
All life long
And with song,
Mighty king, to bring thee honor.
6. Chorale
I am, indeed, so truly glad
My treasure is the A and O,
Beginning and the ending;
He’ll me, indeed, to his great praise
Receive into his paradise,
For this I’ll clap my hands now.
Amen!
Amen!
Come, thou lovely crown of gladness, be not long now,
I await thee with great longing.