Emmanuel Music

Boston, MA

Program:
Bach Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76

Lasser The Dinner Guests (premiere)

Notes:

Bach Cantata 76 Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (The Heavens are telling the glory of God) is a magnificent cantata written around the time when J.S. Bach had just arrived in Leipzig. It tells the biblical story of an invitation to a dinner and treats the theme symbolically of the grace of God as the one who invites people to eternal salvation.

I chose for my motet a poem by Paul Langley "The Dinner Guests" that speaks of a dinner where the guests invited are the stars and the moon themselves. Both stories are beautifully congruous as they mix images of the skies, of faith, of human life and of the Divine. Though told through very different lenses, both the cantata and the motet teach the wisdom of the Heavens and how much we can gain from listening to them. I let Bach's music infuse moments in my setting, especially from the gorgeous alto aria near the end of the 2nd part "Liebt, ihr Christen in der That." Miraculously, in that aria, one hears Bach's own genetic understanding of compound meter in G major. One can recognize fragrances of the movement "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring" from another cantata (Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV 147) also written in the first year of Bach's tenure in Leipzig.

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