- Date: September 08, 1726
- Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
- Period: Baroque (1600-1749)
Review
J. S. Bach composed the cantata Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35 (Cantata No. 35) in 1726 for use on Trinity XII (the 12th Sunday after Trinity): September 8 that year. It is one of a handful of cantatas composed during the summer and autumn of 1726 for alto soloist and instrumental ensemble (Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170 is probably the most famous of these alto cantatas). The text of Geist und Seele wird verwirret was authored in 1711 by Georg Christian Lehms of Darmstadt, a librarian whose work Bach used in several other cantatas of the mid-1720s and also in a few of Bach's Weimar cantatas. The Scripture for Trinity XII is from Mark 7:31-37, and relates the tale of Jesus healing the deaf man; the cantata text is closely-knit with the story, reflecting on and responding to it in two Parts.The alto soloist of Cantata No. 35 is supported by an ensemble made up of the usual strings and basso continuo, a pair of oboes, oboe da caccia, and the kind of organ obbligato that starts creeping into Bach's cantatas during the mid-1720s. The organ obbligato of BWV 35 is particularly interesting, in that it allows us to draw a connection between the cantata and a work that, were it not for the cantata, would be hopelessly lost to us: the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1059. Just a few measures of that harpsichord concerto survive; they happen, however, to be identical with the opening measures of the Sinfonia that begins Part I of Cantata No. 35, and that has allowed scholars to make reconstructions of that first movement of the harpsichord concerto. Furthermore, some musicologists believe that the Sinfonia at the opening of Part II is really the finale of the lost concerto in disguised form, and that the second aria might be the second movement.
There are three arias for the alto to sing: No. 2 "Geist und Seele wird verwirret" (Spirit and soul are bewildered), No. 4. "Gott hat alles wohl gemacht!" (God has crafted everything so well!), and No. 7 "Ich wünsche mir, bei Gott zu leben" (I wish now only to live by God). ~ Blair Johnston, All Music Guide
