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Cantata No. 211, "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht," (Coffee Cantata), BWV 211 (BC G48)

 

Review

It is neither the lessons of the Lutheran faith nor the depth of his own spiritual beliefs that J.S. Bach explores in his 211th cantata, Schweige stille, plaudert nicht, BWV 211; rather, it is a simple, earthly pleasure that had recently taken hold of European society, moving poets first to extoll and then, as in the case of Christian Friedrich Menrici Picander's text for BWV 211, to satirize: namely, coffee. The citizens of Leipzig, the city that Bach called home from 1723 on, were by all accounts especially enamored of this new, stimulating, and as some people of the time felt, dangerous beverage; in the Coffee Cantata, a concerned Leipzig father seeks to break his daughter from her addiction to it. Finally, by threat of preventing her from marrying, he succeeds in doing so; but after he leaves to find a husband for her, she turns full circle and proclaims that no suitor need bother her unless he is willing to insert a clause into the marriage contract that she can make coffee whenever and however she pleases!

This most secular and comical work, which was probably composed sometime in the mid-1730s, is indeed a far cry from the Bach cantata as most people understand it. The Coffee Cantata has ten musical numbers (five of them recitatives) and three characters. Schlendrian, the father, is a bass; Lieschen, his daughter, is a soprano; and there is a tenor narrator. The orchestra is made up of strings, basso continuo and a single flute. The narrator sets the stage with a few brief measures of recitative (No. 1), and then Schlendrian grumbles his way through a D major aria, the strings twitching happily, the bass plodding steadily (No. 2). Schlendrian confronts his "naughty daughter" in No. 3. Lieschen sings lovingly of her favorite beverage in her first aria (No. 4), but tension arises between father and daughter again in No. 5. Then Schlendrian seems to get an idea (No. 6), and in the recitative of No. 7 he unleashes his secret weapon: she's grounded from going on any more dates until she gives up coffee forever. Lieschen, excited at the prospect of really getting a husband, sings a bouncing G major aria (No. 8); and then comes the punch line: the tenor narrator tells, in recitative (No. 9), that Lieschen is only playing a game with her father. An absurd final "chorus" (really just the three singers) in G major comments that if all the old maids and mothers and grandmas drink coffee, how can the daughters refuse it?

~ All Music Guide

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title Date
Bach 2000 Light: The Complete Bach Edition (without Sacred Cantatas) (includes Commemorative Book) (Box Set) 1999
Bach 2000: The Complete Bach Edition (Includes Commemorative Book) (Box Set) 1999
Bach Cantatas [DVD Video] 2007
Bach Edition: Complete Works [Box Set]
Bach Edition: Complete Works [Box Set] 2006
Bach Edition: Secular Cantatas BWV 211 & 212
Bach Edition: Secular Cantatas BWV 211 & 212
Bach Edition: Vocal Works [Box Set]
Bach Edition: Vol. 5 [Box Set]
Bach, Scarlatti, Telemann: Cantatas 1998
Bach: Bauern Kantate; Kaffee Kantate
Bach: Cantatas 1996
Bach: Cantatas BWV 211 & 212 2001
Bach: Cantatas and Motets
Bach: Coffee Canata & Peasant Cantatas 2000
Bach: Coffee Cantata, BWV 211; Peasant Cantata, BWV 212 1992
Bach: Coffee Cantata; Peasant Cantata
Bach: Jagd-Kantate; Kaffee-Kantate 1997
Bach: Kafee-Kantate 2006
Bach: Peasant Cantata; Coffee Cantata
Bach: Secular Cantatas 1994
Bach: Secular Cantatas 1999
Bach: Secular Cantatas 2004
Bach: Secular Cantatas [Box Set]
Bach: Secular Cantatas, BWV 210-211 1997
Bach: Secular Cantatas, BWV 211 & 212
Bach: The Coffee Cantata 1999
Bach: The Complete Sonatas
Bach: Weltliche Kantaten 1996
J.S. Bach: Cantatas, Vol. 4 2003
J.S. Bach: Weltliche Kantaten [Box Set] 2008
John Sebastian Bach: Four Secular Cantatas 1990

Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work

Title Date
ABC (Albinoni, Bach, Caccini) 2001
Ameling: The Early Recordings (Box Set) 1995
Aventure Baroque Adventure
Bach Edition Introduction: Highlights from the Bach Edition 1999
Bach: Cantatas Nos. 10 & 47 (Includes Bonus Baroque Sampler) 2004
Baroque Delights
Baroque Journey 2006
Belle Voci: Arias 2003
Breakfast with Bach 1999
Celebration 2003
Christine Schäfer
Complete Works of Johann Sebastian Bach (Sampler) 1999
Das Originals als Klangerlebnis 1992
Dinner Classics 1995
Elly Ameling: The Early Recordings, Vol. 2 1995
Emma Kirkby: A Portrait 1994
Encore! Les Violons du Roy 1998
Experiencing Choral Music: Tenor/Bass - Proficient [Rehearsal/Performance Pak] [Box Set] 2005
For Coffee Lovers 2004
Gardening Classics: 16 Perennial Favorites for All Seasons 1994
Johann Sebastian Bach: Edition Bachakademie 1998
The Life and Works of Johann Sebastian Bach 2002
The Radiant Voice of Barbara Bonney 2001
The Story of Bach 1993
Thomas Quasthoff sings Händel & Bach
Unforgettable Classics: Bach 1995
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