Bach’s cantatas part 7. Pure Joy!
Cantata BWV 68, and Sergey’s Malov visit to Vicenza.
It’s May 1725, and J. S. Bach is super enthusiastic about the violoncello piccolo. Only eight days after the BWV 183, he is employing it again, in the cantata for Wit Monday BWV 68. As in the previous week, the violoncello piccolo separate part is written in tenor clef (when in the higher register). Most probably, the instrument and the player were the same as the BWV 183, and I’d like to imagine that he was so happy with their results that he decided to write a real hit, to highlight them the most.
Bach, for this cantata used some material from the cantata BWV 208, written in 1713 in Weimar, best known as “The Haunting Cantata”, a secular cantata employing strings and French horns, oboes, taille, recorders and bassoon.
The continuo part of the soprano aria Weil die wollenreichen Herden was here reused and modified into an obbligato violoncello piccolo part. Also, the subsequent trio for violin, oboe and continuo, also known as canonic trio sonata BWV 1040, based on the same continuo material, is repurposed here. The soprano, instead, is given completely new material.
The aria n. 2 Mein gläubiges Herze, is thus a fantastic piece for solo violoncello piccolo, with a brilliant soprano part and (only in the closure, like a final ritornello) the intervention of an oboe and a violin. The writing of the violoncello piccolo part is very confident and joyful, using the whole register of the instrument. It is a presto movement, with elegant phrasing and such beautiful music that will not easily leave you alone once heard. You’ll have to play it! Here you’ll find free parts!
In this video Violoncello da Spalla made and played by Dmitry Badiarov
News from da Spalla world
This week Sergey Malov travelled all the way to Vicenza to be in Aquila strings and work with Mimmo Peruffo at the synthetic set. They worked mainly on the G and C, until Sergey was super happy, as you can easily see from the video of the week below. So now you can buy this same set at this link!
Updates from our workshop
I am happy with my new Violoncello da Spalla, and I’d just love to have more time to play it so that I can get into his voice and maybe have a couple of video playing it. Hopefully next week!
Instead, these are hectic weeks, those when you can hardly do the indispensable things. Not even those, I still have only t-shirts in my wardrobe! Still couldn’t find the time to get the warm clothes out!
Featured video of the week
In this video, taken live with an iPhone X and published without any post-production, you can appreciate the enthusiasm of Sergey Malov with his new set of Aquila Synthetics. This is a sparkly 6th suite!! I think Bach would have loved it. 😍😍😍
Malov’s strings don’t look red like the ones in the catalog.