Sacred and Profane – on cantatas by Bach and arias by Händel

If the arias in Bach's Cantatas are true meditations integrated into a liturgical narrative, Handel's are theatrical, serving very well the dramas they represented.

---

Cultural journalist Milton Ribeiro comments with lightness and erudition on the repertoire of our concert on July 7th, in Porto Alegre, which presents the vocal music of Bach – through a cantata and an excerpt from a mass – and the opera arias of Handel.

Check out the repertoire and ticket information here .

---

The Baroque Symphony

The first piece in the Concerto is the Sinfonia from Bach's Cantata BWV 156. Perhaps we should explain that the term Sinfonia, at the time, was a short instrumental piece that mainly introduced operas, oratorios and cantatas. This Sinfonia is one of the most interesting cases of musical reuse by Bach. It appears slightly altered in the Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1056 — probably composed before the cantata. Bach often reused his themes in new contexts. It was a custom of the time.

Concerto em salão durante o período barroco, onde sinfonias introduziam cantatas e oratórios. c. 1730, França ou Alemanha, pintura de salão de música.

The sublime Christ election

The Christe eleison from Bach 's Mass in B minor BWV 232 is one of the most sublime and intricate moments in the work. It is the second movement in the Mass after Kyrie eleison I and before Kyrie eleison II . It is a duet for soprano and alto, with accompaniment by solo violin and basso continuo. The Mass is one of Bach's most important works.

Gravura da c. 1720–1740 mostrando a fachada e a praça em frente à Thomaskirche em Leipzig, provável palco simbólico da estreia completa da Missa em Si Menor—apesar de ter sido executada apenas em 1859, também em Leipzig, pelo Riedel‑Verein na St. Thomas Church.

The Cantata BWV 28: A Handbook on How to Die

We can say that Bach lived with death a lot. It was his constant companion. His parents died when he was a boy. His first wife died young. He suffered the deaths of six of his 20 children, including a six-month-old son, before he wrote Cantata BVW 82 .

Bach’s Ich habe genug, Cantata BWV 82 , is commonly translated as “I am content” or, more literally, as “I have had enough.” At the heart of the cantata is a lullaby of consoling sweetness and benediction, the melody of which is incomparable. In effect, Cantata 82 provides a “manual” for how to die peacefully, mapping the path to paradise.

In his brilliant study of Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven , John Eliot Gardiner says that the theology of the time saw the world as “a madhouse peopled with sick souls whose sins fester like festering boils and yellow excrement.” But in BWV 82, Bach radically allows us to aspire to be angels. Death is not transformation or punishment; it is mission accomplished, a good night’s sleep and a joyful journey home.

Trecho do autógrafo de Bach da ar ‘Ich habe genug’, c. 1727, Leipzig; manuscrito autógrafo com vocal, oboé (ou flauta) e baixo contínuo

The cantata’s format is simple: a singer—Bach created versions for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and bass-baritone—and three arias connected by two short recitatives. A small string ensemble accompanies him. A solo oboe (or flute in the soprano version) spins acrobatic melodies that provide a sophisticated counterpoint to the vocal line. Over the soft strings, the opening aria begins with the oboe or flute introducing the five-note melodic phrase that will carry the words “Ich habe genug.”

And he, Bach, begins to take us by the hand somewhere.

The lullaby aria Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen seems to represent death as sleep. But here Bach produces a musical miracle. Sleep becomes not death, but a dream, a fleeting vision of death, from which we wake up refreshed. That is why the short, joyful final aria can be shockingly lively, paradoxically joyful.

Handel's arias

If Bach's arias are true meditations integrated into a liturgical narrative, Handel's are theatrical, serving very well the dramas they represented. They are a world apart in Baroque music, combining beautiful melodies, dramatic expressiveness, vocal virtuosity and emotional depth.

This commentator has a special fondness for the aria Ombra mai fu , featured in this recital. It is a beautiful melody in which the protagonist sings while addressing a plane tree (his beloved shade), in a moment of surreal and almost comical lyricism. The irony is that of a powerful king declaring his love for a tree. The music, however, is so sublime that it transcends the context. The melody seems to float, as if Handel had captured the very concept of peace.

Ombra mai fùdi vegetabile, cara ed amabile, soave più.

(“There was never the shade / of a tree, / so dear and lovely, / so gentle.”)

Representação de Gaetano Majorano (Caffarelli), o castrato que criou o papel-título em Serse e original intérprete de Ombra mai fu. c. 1738, Itália, desenho contemporâneo. Caffarelli foi um dos maiores castrati da época, com vozes agudas e poderosas, ideais para encarnar o lirismo irônico da ária — um rei declamando amor por uma árvore — realçando a teatralidade dramática característica de Händel

Milton Ribeiro Cultural journalist and bookseller, he is the owner of the Bamboletras Bookstore. More about the writer: https://miltonribeiro.ars.blog.br/about/