Bach: Cantata No. 165 “O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad” / Gustav Leonhardt

A cantata from the Weimar period based on a text by Salomon Frank. The instrumentation is the usual string ensemble and bassoon, but the bassoon does not have an independent melody part, and the reason for its presence is not quite clear. The first movement, the soprano aria “O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad” begins with a fugue theme, but unusually for a Bach fugue, it has a “broken down” sound. The cause is the “cross-relation” of F♮ and F♯, but the trouble is that in this piece, it appears repeatedly until it ends. I call this piece “P.D.Q. Bach’s aria” (LOL). Following the bass recitative, the alto aria “Jesu, der aus großer Liebe” is sung with only bass accompaniment. From this point on, we are back to Bach’s usual routine. Following the bass recitative, the tenor aria “Jesu, meines Todes Tod” is sung in unison with violin obbligato. The piece closes with the chorale “Sein Wort, sein Tauf, sein Nachtmahl”.　#baroque #bach #cantata #片山俊幸 https://excelkobo.net/bachwerke/archive/BWV0165.pdf