The Sacred and Secular Johann Sebastian Bach

This week on GBW and ACDA ChoralNet Radio your host Stan Schmidt has a visit called the sacred and secular J.S. Bach.  Your will hear the only Bach cantata written for Bass and Harpsichord…it’s called  Oh Treacherous Love.  You will also enjoy two Dialogue Cantatas for Soprano, Bass and Orchestra….Plus two great choruses from some secular cantatas.  BWV 208 and “Ye Delightful Prospects, ye Joyful Hours” (the last chorus) is a happy composition to enjoy.   Then you have the opening chorus of BWV 215 which is a celebratory  and quite political cantata that Bach was sort of rushed into performing early…”Praise your fortune, Blessed Saxony”….and later Bach revised the music and used it for the Osanna chorus of the B Minor Mass.  The two Dialogkantaten for Soprano and Bass #57 “Blessed is the man that endoureth tempation” the text is a dialogoue between a Soul, a Soprano and Jesus a Bass and as in Opera of the Period the discourse is carried forward in recitative while the arias expand on the thoughts and feelings raised.    The other, #58 “Oh God How often grief confronts me”  is again the soul having a conversation with Jesus.    Cantata #203 is just a pleasure to hear and is secular in nature for Bass and Harpsichord.  The text says O Treacherous Love, You will deceive me no more…..All in all a great view of Bach’s Sacred and Secular creativity.

For a look at the CD used and a complete list of the music heard, go to the blog of WWW.GONGBEYONDWORDS.COM website and click on show 2440