Dieterich Buxtehude Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit

BuxWV 102

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This setting of Luther’s hymn perfectly typifies the basic concept of a chorale cantata as Buxtehude probably envisaged it. The first two verses are set, line by line, in a four-part homophonic texture. The two violins add interludes to the chorale, and lead in a kind of ritornello to the next verse. In the third and last verse Buxtehude departs from this model as the violins also play the chorale, and in which the lines of the hymn follow each other without a break. This cantata has come down to us in a tabulatur from the Düben Collection. It belongs in the context of a number of chorale cantatas which were copied around 1685.
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  • Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit
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  • If God were not on our side this day,
    Israel should say,
    if God were not on our side this day,
    we would have had to resign,
    being such a poor little band,
    despised by so many sons of man,
    all at war with us.

    So great is their wrath against us,
    that if God had allowed it,
    they would have swallowed us up
    life and limb entirely;
    we would have been engulfed
    and overwhelmed by the tide
    and drowned with violence.

    Praise and thank God, who did not let
    us be caught in their chasm.
    As a bird evades the snare,
    our soul has escaped.

    ...
  • Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit,
    so sollt Israel sagen,
    wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit,
    wir hätten müssn verzagen,
    die so ein armes Häuflein sind,
    veracht’ von so viel Menschenkind,
    die an uns setzen alle.

    Auf uns ist so zornig ihr Sinn,
    wo Gott das hätt zugeben,
    verschlungen hätten sie uns hin
    mit ganzem Leib und Leben;
    wir wärn als die ein Flut ersäuft
    und über die groß Wasser läuft
    und mit Gewalt verschwemmet.

    Gott Lob und Dank, der nicht zugab,
    dass ihr Schlund uns möcht fangen.
    Wie ein Vogel des Stricks kommt ab,
    ist unser Seel entgangen.

    ...
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full score Carus 36.017/00, ISMN 979-0-007-09105-7 20 pages, DIN A4, paperback
available
12,95 € / copy
choral score Carus 36.017/05, ISMN 979-0-007-11258-5 4 pages, DIN A4, without cover Minimum order quantity: 20 copies
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from 20 copies 2,60 € / copy
from 40 copies 2,34 € / copy
from 60 copies 2,08 € / copy
set of parts, complete orchestral parts Carus 36.017/19, ISMN 979-0-007-29392-5 DIN A4, without cover
available
30,00 € / copy
  • 1 x full score (36.017/00)
    each: 12,95 €
    3 x individual part, violin 1 (36.017/11)
    each: 2,50 €
    3 x individual part, violin 2 (36.017/12)
    each: 2,50 €
    3 x individual part, basso continuo (36.017/13)
    each: 2,50 €
text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, english translation Carus 36.017/00-360-000
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5,00 € / copy
text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, original Carus 36.017/00-380-000
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3,00 € / copy
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  • There are few documents concerning Buxtehude’s life. From a contemporary article in Nova literaria Maris Balthici, published soon after his death, we know that he regarded “Denmark as his homeland, from where he came to our region.”Dieterich Buxtehude, to use the spelling of his forename which he used when signing letters, was born about 1637 in Helsingborg, so he was a subject of the King of Denmark. His father, Johannes Buxtehude, was an organist, and taught his son sufficiently for him to become, in 1657 or 1658, an organist in Helsingborg and later in Helsingør. On the 11 April 1668 he was chosen to succeed Franz Tunder as organist at St. Marien in Lübeck, and until his death on 9 May 1707 Buxtehude remained in that position, one of the most important in northern Germany. After his death in 1707 musical experts praised Dieterich Buxtehude particularly for his keyboard music. For example, Johann Mattheson referred to him as a “highly regarded, former Lübeck organist.” That appreciation was based not on printed works, but on manuscript copies of his keyboard compositions, and on his reputation as a virtuoso which he enjoyed throughout Germany. Thus in 1703 Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Mattheson were in Lübeck, and during the winter of 1705–06 Johann Sebastian Bach also went to Lübeck to study under Buxtehude so as to perfect his technique in composition and organ playing. Together with vocal music and music for keyboard instruments, two publications of his trio sonatas are extant. We know of the “Abendmusiken” in Lübeck from libretti printed for those occasions, but unfortunately the music is lost. That tradition of events similar to concerts was taken over by Buxtehude from his predecessor Franz Tunder. Personal details

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