Music for Meditation: Bach
June 4th, 2020
By Mark George, President and CEO
Music for Meditation is a weekly recommendation of music of a reflective nature. Find a comfortable chair or lie down, turn on a smart speaker or put in earbuds, and just listen.
My recommendation this week is the opening movement from a Cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. As part of his responsibilities as Kapellmeister (music director) at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Leipzig, Bach composed a cantata for each Sunday and holiday of the liturgical year. Cantatas were typically written for various combinations of vocal soloists, choir, and small orchestra and structured as multi-movement works. Bach composed more than 200 cantatas in his career.
The cantata known as Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot (Break with hungry men thy bread), catalogued as BWV 39, was written for the first Sunday after Trinity, which occurs this year on Sunday, June 14. I chose this movement because of its beautiful setting of a German text, adapted from the Book of Isaiah, which seemed particularly appropriate at this moment of uncertainty and struggle for humanity. The piece was premiered in 1726 and the opening movement is about 6‘ 45” in length.
Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39 (Chorus)...............Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750)
Recording by the Bach Ensemble, directed by Helmuth Rilling