Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn

In August 1723, slightly less than four months after his arrival in Leipzig, Bach wrote Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn (Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem) in homage to his new home. The charming tenor aria, with its mellow woody oboes d’amore, is an affectionate evocation of Leipzig’s once famous avenues of lime trees but, brimming with civic pride, the text soon reveals the work’s true purpose—the inauguration of the new Leipzig town council. Bach clearly didn’t regard this as a prosaic commission. The music is actually more splendid than for most of his sacred cantatas. Indeed, this special “praise cantata” is full of fanfaring trumpets—four of them—rousing choruses and colourful instrumental touches, like Bach’s virtuoso writing for recorders and oboes. The magnificent opening chorus is set in the manner of a French overture—the ultimate ceremonial form of the late Baroque—with grand gestures from the orchestra sandwiching a vigorous central section for the choir. About J.S. Bach’s Cantatas Although Bach seldom used the word, “cantata” has become the accepted term for the multi-movement church pieces and celebratory secular works composed in large numbers by Bach and his contemporaries. Bach himself wrote more cantatas than anything else, mostly during two bursts of creativity between 1713 and 1716 in Weimar, and 1723 and 1729 in Leipzig. Around 200 works survive in a wide range of styles but usually including a chorus, solo arias, linking (speech-like) recitatives and a hymn (chorale). Bach probably completed five annual cycles of church cantatas for regular Sunday worship, festivals and celebrations. Because they were occasional pieces for court and public entertainment, fewer secular cantatas survive, though some were later revised for church use.