PF-2092

phonic chorale sections executed tutti. For this purpose, the
indications “tutti“ and “solo“ have been added in movements
1 and 7 for the sake of improved comprehension.
On the Completion of the Missing
Vocal Parts
This completed version of the cantata Welt adieu, ich bin
dein müde was created on the occasion of a CD production
dedicated to Johann Kuhnau’s cantatas with five vocal
parts. Alongside the fact, mentioned above, that it is one of
the only surviving purely choral cantatas of Kuhnau, it is
especially interesting that this is a relatively modern cantata
by the composer, as reflected by the colourful instrumental
ensemble. The only difficulty, and one that can hardly be
overcome, is the complete lack of three vocal parts that were
apparently already lost when the parts found their way into
Carl Ferdinand Becker’s collection. We can be sure that this
must have been a setting of a chorale text – due to the surviving
song texts and to the designation of the individual movements
in the instrumental parts as “versus“.
Moreover, some conclusions can be drawn concerning the
use of the lost parts; despite their loss, some decisive information
has survived indirectly. Before the backdrop of his
intensive experience and vocal expertise regarding the vocal
work of Kuhnau, and regarding the music of the 17 th and 18 th
centuries in general, the editor has dared to make an attempt
at a stylistically authentic and singable reconstruction of the
lost parts. Orientation was provided by all the other surviving
vocal works of Kuhnau, as well as his extraordinarily
text-related manner of composing. It was also important to
transfer the already available musical material of the corresponding
movements to the vocal parts yet to be composed,
to the greatest possible extent, in order to create the most
homogeneous overall texture possible.
In the two outer movements, a special role of the two
soprano parts is revealed through a specific direction
(“2 Cant.“) in the continuo part. This has been complied
with by taking up the sparingly scored instrumental bars of
the corresponding text in Canto I and Canto II prefixed in
the tutti chorale lines and developing them in an interpretative
manner in the style of the chorale melody. In “Versus 3“
and “Versus 4“ such indications are missing, which is why it
was of the highest priority to add the vocal parts as organically
as possible into the already existing, at times complex
instrumental writing, and that the musical material should
imitate this as much as possible, always taking into consideration
the special relationship to the text in Kuhnau’s vocal
works.
For the text, various contemporary song books were consulted,
but none of these provided complete agreement with
Kuhnau’s version used in the surviving Tenore and Basso
parts. The editor ultimately decided in favour of the already
mentioned and cited version from the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch,
most likely in the possession of Kuhnau himself.
A particularly striking deviation in the surviving parts has
been followed, however: the next-to-last line of each verse
consistently received the text version “aber hier ist allezeit“
(but here is at all times).
In the awareness that the loss of the original material always
means creating only one of many further possible variants,
the editor hopes to present, with the result shown in
this edition, a completion that comes as close as possible to
Kuhnau’s musical language. May this cantata, via the CD
mentioned at the beginning, also contribute to helping the
music of Johann Kuhnau to receive the attention it undoubtedly
deserves in the future as well.
David Erler
XVI