Showing posts with label Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645. Show all posts

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Bach: Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27

This morning I listened to Bach's Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27.  A couple musical phrases at the beginning of the third movement sounded familiar:

(notation found here, although there seem to be some problems accessing it now; if you're that interested, you might have to search through the revision history)

The first eight notes in the oboe da caccia part are what first caught my attention (the same phrase is also in the vocal part later in the movement).  It took some research, but I eventually found the other work I knew this from; it's in the first movement of Vivaldi's Spring concerto from The Four Seasons (Concerto No. 1 in E major, RV 269).  Specifically the phrase that bridges the seventh and eighth measures, starting at the forte marking:


(notation found here)

I did some research, and Vivaldi's concerto is from 1723 where Bach's cantata is from 1726, so it seems that Bach took that phrase from Vivaldi.

There's also a six-note phrase in Wer weiß... that sounded familiar to me.  It's the one that bridges measures four and five in the oboe da caccia part.

I didn't recognize this immediately (because that part in BWV 27 is in alto clef), but that phrase is actually the exact same (save for the rhythm of the last two notes) as a phrase in Bach's Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645.  In that work, it bridges measures seven and eight:

(notation found here)

The only date I could find for BWV 645 is 1748, so it seems that the seven-note phrase there is derived from the six-note phrase in BWV 27.