The cantata from which this aria is taken celebrates Jesus’ coming to earth from a personal, human standpoint – a common theme in the Lutheran belief of Bach’s time. In our reverence of Bach’s musical genius, we can sometimes forget that he also was human. The obbligato (originally for violin) in this da capo aria has a childlike quality, reminiscent of a toy music box. It is easy to imagine Bach the father writing it with his many children in mind.

The season of Christmas follows with this famous setting of the Christmas Hymn, “Good Christian Friends Rejoice.” The compositional tool of canon is used here – the pedal voice follows the soprano at a distance of one bar. For the season of Epiphany we hear “How brightly shines the morning star.” This is a curious work, in that directions are included, telling the organist which manuals, or keyboards, to use. The music is not curious; however, it is masterful. The main theme (entering 20 bars into the pieces) is in the pedal, but the accompaniment contains two levels of hierarchy. In the top line of the accompaniment we hear the first phrase of the chorale and in the supporting harmony, we hear references to different phrases of the chorale! We move on to Lent, where we hear an ornamented chorale, “O man, bewail your great sin.” Bach often wrote highly ornamented settings in which the tune of the chorale was completely obscured. Even though the melody is difficult to find, Bach has surrounded it with florid embellishments that become a lovely melody of its own. For Easter, we hear, “Joyful, we hail this glorious day.” For this work, Bach also employed a canon between the soprano and bass. We conclude our foray through the Liturgical Year with the Fantasy on “Come, Holy Ghost.” The cantus firmus or melody of this hymn is firmly stated in the pedal, while the hands play decorative figurations.

The Prelude and Fugue in G Major is simply a ray of sunshine – full of unbounded joy and buoyancy. The Fugue employs another compositional tool yet to be discussed – stretto. In the normal course of a fugue (a compositional style at which Bach excelled), one would hear the subject followed by an answer (the same subject either a fourth or a fifth away from the first subject). This process applies to each voice as it enters. Stretto occurs when one subject enters before the previous subject is finished. It requires particular talent for a composer to write such music, and it is very challenging for the organist! The stretto in this piece occurs after the dissonant held chord near the end of the fugue.

About the aria, “Gott versorget alles Leben,” Rachel Barham writes:

This lyrical aria for soprano and oboe obbligato is one of several that Bach later parodied or reworked. It appears in the Lutheran Mass BWV 235 as the Qui Tollis, where it is sung by a tenor and ends earlier, without the return of the instrumental solo. The contrast between the A and B sections is remarkable, as the tempo changes rather abruptly to support the new text, “Weicht ihr Sorgen” (“Retreat, you cares”).

One of Bach’s masterpieces is called the Klavierübung, or keyboard–study. This massive set of music is divided into four parts: the first is the Goldberg Variations and the Italian Concerto, the second is the complete Well–tempered Klavier, and the fourth is the unfinished Art of the Fugue. The third set is a large work, ironically titled, “The Little Organ Mass.” It has two bookends: The Prelude and Fugue in E-flat. The Prelude is in French–Overture style, with dotted rhythms and grand flair. Periodically the piece breaks into imitative sections, sometimes going as far as “echoing.” What follows the Prelude in the Klavierübung is a series of German Chorales meant to perform of the Ordinary of the Mass. In Bach’s time, congregational singing was pervasive throughout the service. Some examples: they sang a hymn called “Vater Unser in Himmelreich,” or, “Our Father in Heaven” as the Lord’s Prayer. They also sang hymn versions of the Kyrie, Gloria, the Creed, etc. Each of these hymns has been included in this “Little Organ Book” and they may have been used as introductions to the hymns themselves in the context of the service. I’ve decided to play four pieces from the Klavierübung to give a small taste of the treasures in this monumental volume. The Kyrie–Christe–Kyrie settings are all for manuals alone. With Bach’s prodigious talent at playing and writing music for organ pedals, the overwhelming majority of his music employs them. It is a breath of fresh air to hear these lighter-than-air pieces without pedals. Following the short Kyrie–Christe–Kyrie set, we hear the setting of the Creed, “Wir glauben all an einen Gott,” or “We all believe in one God.” The Fugue that closes the “Little Organ Mass” is the great E–flat Major Fugue. Long after Bach’s work was published, editors decided to call this the “St. Anne” fugue because of the subject’s resemblance to the hymn tune St. Anne (“O God, our help in ages past”); the reason was simply to distinguish it from another fugue in E–flat. This was never Bach’s subtitle, as most hymn-tune scholars say that St. Anne wasn’t written until after Bach’s death. The closing Fugue is closely associated with the Trinity; it is in three parts, the key signature has three flats and the time signature is most commonly divisible by three. The three sections can be described in the following way: the first section, slow and grand, represents the Father; the second section, moving quickly and sprightly, represents the Son; the third section, with many ascending and descending scale passages, represents the Holy Spirit.


Translations of Cantata movements

Auch mit gedämpften, schwachen Stimmen
aria from Cantata BWV 36 (Schwingt freudig euch empor) for the first of Advent

Even with muted, weak voices, God's majesty can be honored.
For as long as the spirit resounds in them, a cry goes up to heaven
where God himself can hear it.


Gott versorget alles Leben
aria from Cantata BWV 187 (Es wartet alles auf dich) for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

God takes care of all life, all things that breathe down here on earth.
Will he not also give to me what he has promised to everyone?
Retreat, you cares; his faithfulness is mindful of me as well,
and becomes new every day  through many gifts of fatherly love.

The Artists

Eric Plutz, originally from Rock Island, Illinois, is Organist and Director of Music at The Church of the Epiphany, Washington, D. C. There he oversees the entire music program, including directing and accompanying the semi–professional choir, and planning and implementing the popular Tuesday Concert Series. He is also Organist at Temple Sinai in Washington, Keyboard Artist of the Cathedral Choral Society, Accompanist of The Cantate Chamber Singers, and Rehearsal Accompanist of The Washington Bach Consort. Mr. Plutz also teaches organ at The Selma M. Levine School of Music, and is immediate Past Dean of the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He has been a featured performer at conventions of the Association of Anglican Musicians, most recently giving the world premiere of a work by Dr. Gerre Hancock. Mr. Plutz accompanied the Washington Men’s Camerata on their most recent recording, Sing We Noel. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree (magna cum laude) from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N. J. where he studied with Donald McDonald. Mr. Plutz received his Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N. Y., where he was a student of David Craighead. Before moving to Washington, he was Assistant Organist at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, Denver, Colo. While in Denver, he made four critically acclaimed CD recordings on the DELOS label, accompanying the choirs of St. John’s Cathedral: Sing We Merrily, Sing We Noel, Sing We Hallelujah, and Magnificat – choral music of Alan Hovhaness

Rachel E. Barham is a graduate student at The Catholic University of America with a special interest in early music. She has been a chorister and soloist with Washington Bach Consort, Cantate Chamber Singers, Carmina, and other Washington area ensembles. She is a soloist on the Cathedral Choral Society’s recording Hymns Through the Centuries, Vol. II. Rachel is two–time first place winner of the Northern Virginia Music Teachers’ Association Vocal Achievement Award, and she portrayed Poppea in Catholic University’s production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea in February.

The concert is free and open to the public. Ample parking is available behind the church, and the sanctuary is wheelchair–accessible. For more information, please contact Linda Hanson at (434)963–4690.