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What is Bach, the Universe & Everything? If this is your first Bach, the Universe & Everything (BUE), welcome! We like to think of the series as a community, similar to the one Bach enjoyed in Leipzig where he produced cantatas at an extraordinary rate, providing innovative music for the weekly services at the church where he worked from 1723 until his death in 1750. At that time, the congregation was as open to science and new ideas as it was united by faith. It is in that spirit that we come together for a thought-provoking cantata and a talk from a leading scientist. Professor Jon Chapman from the University of Oxford invites us to ponder the fleeting moment when sound waves reach our ears before they disappear. Using some careful calculations, Jon suggests that we might even be able to hear the shape of a drum.
A note from our Principal Keyboard, Steven Devine, about today’s programme: The Cantata being performed today is BWV 26 – Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig. The chorale of this name forms the linchpin of the outer movements and it is the only time Bach used this chorale in his cantatas. The melody of the chorale, written by Michael Franck in 1652, is used by others and the organ prelude today is a movement for manuals only (that is, no organ pedals!) from a set of variations on this tune by Georg Böhm (1661 – 1733), an organist whom J S Bach hugely admired and who may even have been his teacher. The irresistible combination of three oboes brought a wealth of different repertoire to mind, but I have been enjoying digging into lesser-known works by Georg-Philipp Telemann this season and this movement from his “Darmstadt” Ouverture (the title of which roughly translates as “boasting”!) is a witty interplay between the wind and string teams.
CAN YOU HEAR THE
SHAPE OF A DRUM? Speaker Professor Jon Chapman University of Oxford
Orchestra Margaret Faultless director, violin Dominika Fehér violin Annette Isserlis viola Jonathan Manson cello Kate Brooke bass Lisa Beznosiuk flute Katharina Spreckelsen oboe Alexandra Bellamy oboe Sarah Humphrys oboe Sally Jackson bassoon Satoko Doi-Luck organ Chorus Zoë Brookshaw soprano*+ Amy Carson soprano David Clegg alto/choir director Bethany Horak-Hallett alto*+ Jeremy Budd tenor* Edward Ross tenor Jonathan Brown bass* Philip Tebb bass
Welcome Prelude
Georg Böhm Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig
Polyphony
William Byrd Haec Dies
Reading
Walt Whitman Beat! Beat! Drums!
Cantata
JS Bach Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig BWV 26
Science
Professor Jon Chapman Can you hear the shape of a drum?
Closing Postlude
Telemann Darmstadt Ouverture TWV 55:g4 ‘Gasconnade’
* Soloists +Present singers of the Rising Stars of the Enlightenment Scheme.
Thank you to our friends at Kings Place, Oxford Mathematics and Oxford Botanic Gardens
Polyphony Haec Dies by William Byrd (1543-1623) Haec Dies quam fecit Dominus; exsultemus, et laetemur in ea. Alleluia.
This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Reading Beat! Beat! Drums! by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Into the school where the scholar is studying, Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride, Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain, So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Make no parley—stop for no expostulation, Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer, Mind not the old man beseeching the young man, Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties, Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow! Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets; Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds, No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would they continue? Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing? Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.
Read by Lisa Beznosiuk, Principal Flute
Cantata
BWV 26 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (‘Ah, how fleeting, ah how insubstantial’) JS Bach 1685-1750 Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig ist der Menschen Leben! Wie ein nebel bald enstehet und auch wie der bald vergehet so ist unser leben sehet!
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s life! As a mist soon arises and soon also vanishes again, so is our life see!
Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig sind der Menschen Tage! Wie ein Strom beginnt zu rinnen und mit Laufen nicht hält innen, so fährt unsre Zeit von hinnen.
Ah how insubstantial ah how fleeting are man’s days! As a stream begins to flow and in its course is not kept together, so our time goes away from us here!
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig ist der Menschen Freude! Wie sich wechseln Stund und Zeiten, Licht und Dunkel, Fried und Streiten, so sind unsre Fröhlichkeiten.
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial are man’s joys! As there is change in hours and times, light and darkness, peace and strife, so are our times of happiness.
Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig ist der Menschen Schöne! Wie em Blümlein bald vergehet, wenn ein rauhes Luftlein wehet, so ist unsre Schöne, sehet!
Ah how insubstantial ah how fleeting is man’s beauty! As a flower soon perishes when a cold breeze blows, so is our beauty, see!
Ach wie flüchtig, Ach wie nichtig Ist der Menschen Stärke! Der sich wie ein Löw erwiesen, Überworffen mit den Riesen, Den wirfft eine kleine Drüsen!
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s strength! Someone who proved himself a lion, contended with giants, is overthrown by a small abscess.
Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig ist der Menschen Glücke! Wie sich eine Kugel drehet, die bald da, bald dorten stehet, so ist unser Glücke, sehet!
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s luck! Just as a ball spins, one moment here, next moment there, so is our luck, see!
Ach wie flüchtig, Ach wie nichtig Ist der Menschen Ehre! Über den, dem man hat müssen Heüt die Hände höflich küssen, Geht man morgen gar mit Füssen!
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s honour! Someone whose hand people had to politely kiss today is on the next day trodden beneath their feet.
Ach wie nichtig, Ach wie flüchtig Ist der Menschen Wissen! Der das Wort konnt prächtig führen Und vernünfftig discurriren, Muß bald alle Witz verlieren!
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s knowledge! Someone who can make a splendid speech and discourse intelligently must soon lose all his wits!
Ach wie flüchtig, Ach wie nichtig Ist der Menschen Dichten! Der, so Kunst hat lieb gewonnen Und manch schönes Werck ersonnen, Wird zu letzt vom Todt erronnen !
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial are man’s creations! Someone who has dearly acquired skill and thought out many a beautiful work is in the end overtaken by death.
Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig sind der Menschen Schätze! Es kann Glut und Flut entstehen, dadurch, eh wir es versehen, alles muß zu Trümmern gehen.
Ah how insubstantial ah how fleeting are man’s treasures. Fire and flood may come whereby,before we can take care, everything is ruined.
Ach wie flüchtig, Ach wie nichtig Ist der Menschen Herrschen! Der durch Macht ist hoch gestiegen, Muß zu letzt aus unvermügen In dem Grab erniedrigt ligen! Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig ist der Menschen Prangen! Der in Purpur hoch vermessen ist als wie em Gott gesessen, dessen wird im Tod vergessen.
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s rule. Someone who through might has ascended on high must in the end as powerless lie low in the grave.
Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig sind der Menschen Sachen! Alles, alles, was wir sehen, das muß fallen und vergehen. Wer Gott fürcht’, wird ewig stehen.
Ah how insubstantial ah how fleeting are mankind’s affairs. All, all that we see must fall and vanish. The person who fears God stands firm for ever.
Ah how fleeting, ah how insubstantial is man’s splendour! Someone who most presumptuously in purple took his seat like a god is forgotten in death.
Translation by Francis Browne
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Biographies Zoë Brookshaw British soprano Zoë Brookshaw read Theology at Cambridge University where she was a choral Scholar at Trinity College. She was a member of the Monteverdi Choir Apprentice Scheme and is currently a Rising Star of the Enlightenment. Her opera engagements include Euridice and La Musica L’Orfeo with I Fagiolini; Aerial Spirit The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée / Emmanuelle Haïm, roles in The Fairy Queen with The Gabrieli Consort / Paul McCreesh and Rameau Pygmalion with The Dunedin Consort / John Butt. On the concert platform Zoë has sung Bach and Handel with the Monteverdi Choir / John Eliot Gardiner, Handel Israel in Egypt at the BBC Proms with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / William Christie plus Bach and Vivaldi with the group and Steven Devine as well as Monteverdi Ball dell’Ingrate with Christian Curnyn; Handel with the Gabrieli Consort / Paul McCreesh, Monteverdi & Vivaldi with Arcangelo / Jonathan Cohen, the St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia / Eamonn Dougan and Dixit Dominus with Collegium Vocale Gent / Pieter-Jan Belder. She is a member of the baroque ensemble Solomon’s Knot with whom she performs and records widely. Zoë has recorded Bach, Blow, Lennox & Michael Berkeley, Charpentier, on the Delphian, Hyperion, Resonus, Signum Classics, Soli dei Gloria and Sony labels. Soon to be released on OAE Player is the video of Zoë singing Strozzi Che si puo fare. Her plans include Purcell and Blow with the OAE / Steven Devine in London and Oslo and Galatea in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with the same forces in London and Malta. Bethany Horak-Hallett British mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett read Music at Leeds University and went on to gain a Masters in Music Performance followed by a Masters in Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. She is a Rising Star of the Enlightenment and was a finalist in the 2020 Cesti Competition at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. Bethany’s opera engagements have included Kitchen Boy Rusalka for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester / Robin Ticciati; Cupid Venus and Adonis, Venere Il Ballo delle Ingrate and Enchanted Lady in Caccini La Liberazione di Ruggiero at the Brighton Early Music Festival; Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro with the Merry Opera Company, Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte with London Young Sinfonia, Second Witch Dido & Aeneas at the Milton Abbey International Music Festival, Taa in Lewis Coenen-Rowe Collision at the Grimebourne Festival and Nerone L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. On the concert platform Bethany has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment singing Bach cantatas directed by Steven Devine and Elijah with Masaaki Suzuki. She has performed and recorded Cupid in John Eccles Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music / Julian Perkins. Her recent and future engagements include a tour with Holland Baroque, Bach and Handel with the Academy of Ancient Music plus Bach Cantatas and Aci in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with the OAE.
Biographies Jeremy Budd Born in Hertfordshire, Jeremy started out as a Chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral in London before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Since finishing his studies he has been a much in demand soloist on the concert platform particularly for his Baroque repertoire. Jeremy has worked with many of the foremost conductors in this field including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Harry Christophers CBE, Masaaki Suzuki, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Charles Mackerras, Paul McCreesh, John Butt, Bernard Labadie, Jeffrey Skidmore and David Clegg. Notable performances have included a tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, a tour of the USA with Tenebrae and Nigel Short performing Joby Talbots Path of Miracles, an abridged performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in collaboration with Streetwise Opera and The Sixteen, the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, Monteverdi’s Madrigals with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo in Saffron Hall, Purcell’s King Arthur and Fairy Queen with Paul McCreesh and also a programme of Purcell Odes in the Wigmore Hall. Recently Jeremy has also performed Gibbons’ Verse Anthems with Fretwork and toured Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Masaaki Suzuki and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Future engagements include trips to the USA with Harry Christophers and the Handel & Haydn society, Purcell’s King Arthur and Fairy Queen with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort, St Matthew Passion with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo and a Wigmore Hall performance with Nigel Short and Tenebrae.
Jonathan Brown Jonathan Brown was born in Toronto and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Western Ontario. After moving to England he continued his studies at the University of Cambridge as well as the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh with Sir Thomas Allen and Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Operatic roles include Marcello (La Boheme, Royal Albert Hall), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), Count Almaviva, Yamadori (Madam Butterfly), Giove (La Calisto), Orestes (Giasone), Garibaldo (Rodelinda), Ariodate (Xerxes), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Shepherd (Venus and Adonis) and Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas). He performed the role of Trojan (Idomeneo) for Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Salzburg Easter Festival. He has performed Orfeo (Pastore) at Lille Opera, Le Chatêlet, Paris and Opera du Rhin with Emmanuelle Haim. Last year he created the role of Leon in a new production of Tom Smail’s opera Blue Electric in London. He made his debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Holland as the baritone soloist in a concert of Bach cantatas and thereafter was a regular soloist with performances in Zurich, Brussels and Paris. These performances formed part of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and the subsequent CD release of all the cantatas on the Soli Deo Gloria label. He features as a soloist in Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia and Dido and Aeneas for Harmonia Mundi. He has recorded the baritone solos in the Fauré Requiem with the London Festival Orchestra for BMG and appears in the role of the Forester in Sullivan’s The Golden Legend for Hyperion. Recent recordings have included world premieres of Wesley’s cantata Confitebor tibi (Priory) and Eccles’ Semele (AAM).
Biographies Margaret Faultless Violinist Margaret Faultless performs music from Monteverdi to the present day, but is best known as a specialist in historical performance practice. She is co-leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has led the Orchestra at Glyndebourne, the Salzburg Festival and in many performances at the Southbank. She has guest-led the LPO (London), the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston) and the Russian National Orchestra. Margaret led the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in their ten-year Bach cantata project, performing and recording every cantata. Her research interests include Haydn and social interactions, and Bach’s notation for performers. A graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, she is now Director of Performance at the Faculty of Music, Head of Historical Performance at The Royal Academy of Music and a Professor of the University of London. Professor Jon Chapman Jon Chapman is Chair in Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Oxford. His research interests centre on mathematical modelling and asymptotic analysis, with applications in industry and the physical and biological sciences (and drums of course). Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Three decades ago, a group of inquisitive London musicians took a long hard look at that curious institution we call the Orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. They began by throwing out the rulebook. Put a single conductor in charge? No way. Specialise in repertoire of a particular era? Too restricting. Perfect a work and then move on? Too lazy. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was born. Please visit oae.co.uk for more information, videos, podcasts and blogs.
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UP NEXT INFANT MUSICALITY
Sunday 12 December 2021, 11.30am, Kings Place, London
The Music: BWV 62 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Savior of the Heathens) "Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child" This Advent Cantata is a joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus, the miracle child. The Bach buffs among us may recognise elements of this festive cantata from the aria "Großer Herr und starker König" from Bach's Christmas Oratorio. The Science: Research on the sounds that caregivers exchange with infants has profound implications for the way we understand classical music; how we sing and play these scores and how music moves us. In this talk, Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson of King’s College London invites us to consider how we can use musical performance to empathise with others.
SCHOOLED BY RANDOMNESS
Sunday 30 January 2022, 11.30am, Kings Place, London and 5.30pm, Oxford Mathematics, Oxford The Music: BWV 81 Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen? (Jesus sleeps, what shall I hope for?) Today's cantata draws upon those moments in life when confusing and random obstacles in our path make us fear for the future and we turn to God to show us the way. The music was written to accompany the Gospel of Matthew about Jesus calming the storm. Listen out for the third movement especially; its frantic singing and lively tempo pulls you into the eye of the storm and spits you back out again, all the wiser for it. The Science: There’s been a mistake. The venue has provided the wrong piano. The black notes are sticking, the white notes are out of tune, the pedals don’t work and the instrument itself is just too small. What do you do? Tim Harford talks about how random obstacles and frustrations can inspire us to be more creative.