Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, 65, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in 1724 in Leipzig for Epiphany and first performed it on 6 January 1724 as part of his first cantata cycle. Bach wrote the cantata to conclude his first Christmas season as Thomaskantor in Leipzig which had been celebrated with five cantatas, four of them new compositions, the Magnificat and a new Sanctus. The text by an anonymous author, who possibly supplied texts of two of the Christmas cantatas as well, combines the prescribed readings for the feast day, the prophecy from the Book of Isaiah and the gospel of Matthew about the Wise Men from the East. The librettist begins with a quotation from the prophecy, comments it by a stanza of the early anonymous Christmas carol "Ein Kind geborn zu Bethlehem", says in a sequence of recitatives and arias that the prophecy was fulfilled in Bethlehem, concluding that the Christian should bring his heart as a gift. The cantata ends with a chorale, stanza 10 of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn". Bach festively scored the seven-movement cantata, for two vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two horns, two recorders, two oboes da caccia, strings and basso continuo. All recitatives are secco, but the full orchestra plays for the opening chorus, the last aria and the closing chorale.
History and words
Bach wrote the cantata in 1724, in his first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, to conclude his first Christmas season on the Feast of Epiphany. For the celebrations on three days of Christmas, New Year's Day and the following Sunday, he had performed five cantatas, four of them new compositions, the Magnificat and a new Sanctus in D major:
The prescribed readings for the feast day were taken from the Book of Isaiah, the heathen will convert, and from the Gospel of Matthew, the Wise Men from the East bringing gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense to the newborn Jesus. The unknown poet of the cantata text may be the same as for BWV 40 and BWV 64 for the Second and Third Day of Christmas, a person "theologically competent and poetically skilfull ", as the Bach scholar Klaus Hofmann writes. The librettist begins with the final verse of the epistle reading, Isaiah's prophecy "all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense". The poet juxtaposes the prediction by a chorale, stanza 4 of the old anonymous Christmas carol "", which describes the arrival of the "Kön'ge aus Saba", related to the epistle. The first recitative proclaims that the gospel is the fulfillment of the prophecy and concludes that it is the Christian's duty to bring his heart as a gift to Jesus. This idea is the theme of the following aria. The second recitative equals the gifts of the contemporary Christian to those of the kings: Faith to the gold, Prayer to the incense, and Patience to the myrrh. The last aria expresses that the devoted Christian offers his heart as a present. The cantata ends with a chorale. The text is not extant, but it is assumed to be stanza 10 of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn". Bach first performed the cantata for Epiphany on 6 January 1724. In his Christmas Oratorio of 1734, Bach dedicated Part VI, Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben, to the topic and the occasion and first performed it on 6 January 1735.
Music
Structure and scoring
Bach structured the cantata in seven movements. The opening chorus is followed by a chorale, then the two soloists sing a sequence of recitative and aria each, and work closes with a chorale. Bach scored the cantata for two vocal soloists and bass ), a four-part choir and a festive Baroque instrumental ensemble of two horns, two recorders, two oboes da caccia, two violins, viola, and basso continuo. Bach employed a pair of horns before in his Christmas cantata Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40, and later in his cantata for Christmas 1724,. The keys and time signatures are taken from the book on all the Bach cantatas by the Bach scholar Alfred Dürr, using the symbol for common time. The continuo, playing throughout, is not shown.
Movements
Bach uses scoring and especially instrumentation to illustrate the contrast between poverty and abundance. While all recitatives are secco, and the strings are silent for the first aria which is supported only by the oboes da caccia in low register, a festive orchestra with three kinds of wind instruments and strings accompanies not only, as usual, the opening chorus and the closing chorale, but also the penultimate movement, a tenor aria expressing how the believer gives his heart as a present. Hofmann notes that Bach "combines high art with the folk style".
1
The opening chorus, "Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen", depicts, that "alle", not just the wise men, gather and move to adore. Horn signals call first and prevail throughout the movement. Canonical and imitative developments depict the growing of a crowd. The central section is an extended choral fugue, framed by two sections with the voices embedded in a repeat of the instrumental introduction. John Eliot Gardiner remarked in connection with his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage that the instrumentation resembles Near Eastern music, the recorders representing "the high pitches often associated with oriental music and the oboes da caccia to evoke the shawm-like double-reed instruments of the Near East".
2
The same idea is rendered in a stanza from the Christmas carol, "Die Kön'ge aus Saba kamen dar", telling of the Kings from Sheba as mentioned by Isaiah. Its melody, in triple time, is set for four parts.
3
The first recitative, "Was dort Jesaias vorhergesehn, das ist zu Bethlehem geschehn.", applies the situation to the individual Christian, who has nothing to offer as a gift but his heart, explained in an arioso ending. The musicologist Julian Mincham notes unexpected harmonies when the stable of Bethlehem is mentioned, as if to illustrate the "lowliness of that birthplace".
4
The first aria, "Gold aus Ophir ist zu schlecht", is accompanied by the oboes da caccia, whose low register together with the bass voice conveys the humility expressed in the words. The instruments keep repeating the first motif, recalling the initial idea that gold is not good enough.
5
The tenor recitative, "Verschmähe nicht, du, meiner Seele Licht, mein Herz", begins with a plea, expressed in a line descending through a ninth. It ends on the notion "des größten Reichtums Überfluß mir dermaleinst im Himmel werden".
6
To show the abundance, the dance-like aria, "Nimm mich dir zu eigen hin", is accompanied by all the wind instruments, playing concertante and together. Instead of a conventional da capo aria, Bach creates a bar form by repeating the text of the second idea on new musical material. A long ritornello of 32 measures "contains an almost unprecedented variety of instrumental colouring", as Mincham writes.
7
The closing chorale, "Ei nun, mein Gott, so fall ich dir getrost in deine Hände.", is sung on the melody of "Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit", which Bach used frequently later, as the base for his chorale cantataBWV 111 and movement 25 of his St Matthew Passion.
Recordings
The entries are taken from the selection on the Bach Cantatas Website. Choirs with one voice per part and instrumental groups playing period instruments in historically informed performances are highlighted green.
