Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir
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Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (We thank you, God, we thank you) is a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. In Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of Bach's works, it is BWV 29.
The piece was written for the occasion of the election of a new town council in Leipzig in 1731 (the cantatas number 119, Preise Jerusalem, den Herrn, and 120, Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille, were written for a similar occasion). It was first performed on August 27 of that year.
The instrumentation reflects the festive occasion for which it was written: soprano, alto, tenor and basso soloists, four-part choir, solo organ and an orchestra consisting of two oboes, three trumpets, timpani, violins, violas and basso continuo.
The piece is in eight movements:
- Sinfonia - an arrangement of the prelude from Bach's E major Partita for solo violin. A solo organ plays the original violin part, while the orchestra adds an accompaniment.
- "Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir" - a chorus sung and played by the whole ensemble. This was later adapted as the Gratias and Dona Nobis of Bach's Mass in B minor. The text is from the 75th psalm.
- "Halleluja, Stärk und Macht" - a tenor da capo aria, accompanied by a solo violin and continuo.
- "Gottlob! es geht uns wohl!" - a recitative sung by the solo bass.
- "Gedenk an uns mit deiner Liebe" - an aria for the soprano in the rhythm of a siciliana, accompanied by oboe, strings and continuo.
- "Vergiß es ferner nicht, mit deiner Hand" - a recitative sung by the alto with a final "Amen" from the chorus.
- "Halleluja, Stärk und Macht" - a reprise of the first part of the tenor aria, but now with solo organ rather than violin, and sung by the alto.
- "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" - the fifth verse of Johann Gramann's chorale, "Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren" played and sung by the whole ensemble.
20th Century adaptation
The Sinfonia movement experienced a period of crossover popularity in 1968 when Wendy Carlos created an exuberant rendition of it for electronic synthesizer (at the time a novelty) for the album Switched On Bach.
See also
External links
- Information from bach-cantatas.com (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV29.htm)
- Original text in German (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~wfb/cantatas/29.html)
- English translation of the text (http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV29.html)