Scan 71
Oratorios and masses (The American history and encyclopedia of music), 1910
10 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 47. See the scan on archive.org.
1The form in which we now hear the tune is that given to it by Bach in his cantata. He is said to have changed it only slightly from the fashion in which it had come down to him from Luther's day. Some difference of opinion exists as to the exact date of Bach's labors on Luther's hymn. A few writers claim that it was written for the bicentenary Reformation Festival in the fall of 1717, just before Bach went to Cothen. But Spitta declares that it was either 1730 or 1739, both jubilee years in the Protestant Church of Germany.
3Says this biographer, "The bold spirit of native vigor which called the German Reformation into being, and which still stirred and moved in Bach's art, has never found any artistic expression which could even remotely compare with this stupendous creation."
5Bach wrote two hundred and ninety-seven cantatas, but "Ein' Feste Burg" is probably the most famous of these. It affords striking instance of his effective use of the Lutheran chorale, which directly connects him with the Reformation. It had been part of Luther's campaign to encourage the use of hymns or chorales expressive of the new doctrine, and in Bach's time they were still of great moment in the church. With "Ein' Feste Burg" in this cantata Bach had merged the cantata composed at Weimar to "Alles was von Gott Geboren" ("All that is of God's creation"), all of it in fact being from that composition with the exception of the first and fifth numbers.
7The work consists of eight numbers, five of which are solos and three choruses. Each of the numbers is in the form of an elaborate contrapuntal setting of the Lutheran hymn-tune, thus following through an entire work the method which Bach so often uses in single numbers of his cantatas.
9The orchestral score calls for three trumpets, one flute, two oboes, one oboe di caccia, two violins, one viola, one violoncello, and an organ. The first number is a massive chorus with bold counterpoint, set to the first verse of the hymn. There is an independent orchestral accompaniment.
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