Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

96 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.In the cantatas written by Bach in early life, on hymnsunaltered in form, he had frequently indulged his fancy withplayful imitations of the melody. In this respect he now returnedto the strict rules of sacred composition.^rThe choralemelody is something sacred and unalterable. It serves asa central point round which the music crystallises, withoutitself being drawn into the movement and action consequentupon the process of formation. The most that is allowableis to surround and adorn it. The most effective treatmentwhich can be applied is the combination of the melody witha poetic effusion of a more subjective character. The middleparts more especially of the chorale cantatas present tous interesting examples of Bach's adherence to this fundamentalprinciple. In these we not seldom find fragments ofpoems in madrigal style built upon detached lines of thechorale melody. They are always perfectly clear anddefinite, and are inserted with admirable art into the freeflow of the piece. In only one case that I know of issuch a line of a chorale set to new words. In the tenoraria in the cantata " Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut,"in bars 41 — 43 and 53 — 55, the last line of the melody comesprominently forward in both cases in an adorned form tothe words " dein Sund ist dir vergeben." It may have beenbecause the text of the aria stands only in a very loose connectionwith one verse of the hymn— viz., the fourth ; andso this reference in the music may be in order to unite itmore closely to the hymn. It is, however, observable thatthe words are not in a free madrigal form, but are takenfrom the Bible.^^^As a general rule, the line of the melody is set to theproper words in the particular verse which forms thebasis of the poet's madrigal paraphrase. Examples ofthis occur in the duet from the same cantata. It isfounded on the seventh verse of the hymn, and of thisthe first, third, fifth, and seventh lines are introduced wordfor word ;^^^these lines are united to the proper fragments'3^ Spoken by Christ on various occasions : Matt, ix., 2 ; Luke vii., 48.138 The third line, which is not very happy in its original form, receives aslight alteration.