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Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47

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Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden
BWV 47
Church cantata by J. S. Bach
Nikolaikirche, 19th-century depiction
Occasion17th Sunday after Trinity
Cantata textJohann Friedrich Helbig
Bible textEphesians 4
Chorale"Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz"
Performed13 October 1726 (1726-10-13): Leipzig
Movements5
Vocal
Instrumental
  • 2 oboes
  • 2 violins
  • viola
  • organ
  • continuo

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden (Whoever exalts himself, will be abased),[1] BWV 47, in Leipzig for the 17th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 13 October 1726.

The cantata is the only work that Bach set to a cantata text by Johann Friedrich Helbig. The poet took the final line from the Gospel for the opening chorus and then focused on the warning of pride. The closing chorale is the eleventh and final stanza of the hymn "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz". Bach structured the cantata in five movements and scored it for soprano and bass solo, a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes, strings, obbligato organ and basso continuo.

History and words

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Bach wrote the cantata in his fourth year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig for the 17th Sunday after Trinity.[2][3] It is regarded as part of his third annual cycle of cantatas. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Ephesians, the admonition to keep the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:1–6), and from the Gospel of Luke, healing a man with dropsy on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1–11).[2][3]: 556  The librettist Johann Friedrich Helbig [de] (1680–1722) was a court poet at the ducal court of Saxe-Eisenach from 1718. He published an annual cycle of cantatas in 1720, Aufmunterung der Andacht (Encouragement of Devotion), which included this cantata.[4] It is the only cantata text of Helbig which Bach composed.[5] It is not known whether Bach knew the publishing of the text or rather a composition by Georg Philipp Telemann, who composed several of Helbig's texts in Eisenach. The poet took the final line from the Gospel as a starting point in the first movement and then focused on the warning of pride, leading to a prayer for humility.[3] The closing chorale is the eleventh and final stanza of the hymn "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz",[6] which Bach had used in 1723 in his cantata Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz, BWV 138.

Bach first performed the cantata on 13 October 1726 at the Nikolaikirche.[2][3] Bach performed it again between 1736 and 1740, when some autograph revisions were added to the fourth movement. For another performance around 1742, a handwritten note called for a solo violin in the second movement instead of the organ.[2]

Scoring and structure

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Bach structured the cantata in five movements and scored it for two vocal soloists (soprano and bass), a four-part choir, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), organ obbligato (Org) and basso continuo.[2][3]: 564–565  Alfred Dürr gives the duration as 24 minutes in his book Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach.[3]: 564 

Movements of Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47
No. Title TypeVocalWindsStringsOrgan Key Time
1 Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden Chorus SATB 2Ob 2Vl, Va, Bc G minor cut time
2 Wer ein wahrer Christ will heißen Aria Soprano Bc Org (obbligato) D minor 6/8
3 Der Mensch ist Kot, Stank, Asch und Erde Recitative Bass 2Vl, Va, Bc common time
4 Jesu, beuge doch mein Herze Aria Bass 1Ob 1Vl, Bc Eb major common time
5 Der zeitlichen Ehrn will ich gern entbehrn Chorale SATB 2Ob (col Soprano) 1Vl (col Soprano),
1Vl (coll'Alto),
Va (col Tenore),
Bc		 C minor common time

Music

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The opening chorus is the most elaborate of the five movements. Bach used for the long ritornello music from his organ prelude in C minor, BWV 546, transposed to G minor.[5] The oboes play a motif, rising in sequences, which becomes a vocal theme of a fugue, illustrating the haughty self-exaltation in the first half of the Gospel text. A countersubject moves in the opposite direction to illustrate the self-humiliation. The fugue is concluded by a homophonic "summary". The sequence of fugue and summary is repeated.[3] Finally, the complete ritornello is repeated like a da capo, but with the voices additionally embedded, stating the complete text once more in homophony.[5][7]

The soprano aria was originally accompanied by an obbligato organ, as was, three weeks later, the aria Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen, BWV 49. In a later performance of the cantata, Bach assigned the obbligato part to a violin. The da capo aria depicts humility in the first section, pride in the middle section, in rough rhythm both in the voice as in the obbligato, whereas the continuo plays the theme from the first section to unify the movement.[3] John Eliot Gardiner describes the "harsh, stubborn broken chords" as illustrating arrogance.[5] The only recitative, accompanied by the strings, is the central movement.[7] Gardiner observes that Bach's "autograph score shows, for example, how he sharpened the rhythm of the word "Teufelsbrut" (devil's brood) to make its impact more abrupt and brutal."[5] The second aria is in three parts, but without a vocal da capo. Oboe and violin are equal partners with the bass voice in a prayer for humility.[3] The closing chorale[8] is set for four parts in utmost humility.[3]

Recordings

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References

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  1. ↑ Dellal, Pamela. "BWV 47 – Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden". Emmanuel Music. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden BWV 47; BC A 141". Bach Digital. 2026. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Dürr, Alfred; Jones, Richard D. P. (2006). "Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47". The Cantatas of J.S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text. Oxford University Press. pp. 564–568. ISBN 978-0-19-816707-5.
  4. ↑ "Johann Friedrich Helbig (Librettist)". Bach Cantatas Website. 2003. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Gardiner, John Eliot (2009). Cantatas for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (PDF) (Media notes). Soli Deo Gloria. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
  6. ↑ "Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz / Text and Translation of Chorale". Bach Cantatas Website. 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  7. 1 2 Mincham, Julian (2010). "Chapter 27 Bwv 47 – The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach". jsbachcantatas.com. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  8. ↑ "Chorale Melodies used in Bach's Vocal Works / Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz". Bach Cantatas Website. 2005. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
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