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Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet, BWV 212

Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (We have a new governor), 212, is a secular cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was entitled the "Cantate burlesque" by Bach himself, but is now popularly known as the Peasant Cantata. It is the last definitely dated Bach cantata.

History and text

This cantata's libretto was written by Christian Friedrich Henrici, known as Picander, and was written for performance on 30 August 1742 at near Leipzig. On that day the hereditary feudal lord and Kreishauptmann, , chamberlain to the Elector of Saxony, celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday with a huge fireworks display and, as was customary, took homage from the peasants on the same occasion. It is thought that Picander asked Bach to set his poetry to music.

The text describes how an unnamed farmer laughs with the farmer's wife Mieke about the tax collector's machinations while praising the economy of Dieskau's wife, ending by especially cheering on Dieskau. In places it uses the dialect of Upper Saxon German ("Guschel" for mouth, "Dahlen" for love-games, "Ranzen" for belly and "Neu-Schock" for a 60 Groschen piece).

Scoring and structure

The cantata is scored for two voices: the farmer (bass) and Mieke (soprano). The instrumentation includes a string trio of violin, viola and basso continuo, accompanied by a flute, horn and second violin respectively.

The piece has 24 movements, more than any other Bach cantata:

  1. Overture (A major- A minor- A major)
  2. Duet aria: ' (A major)
  3. Duet recitative: ' (A major)
  4. Aria (soprano): ' (A major)
  5. Recitative (bass): ' (D major)
  6. Aria (bass): ' (D major)
  7. Recitative (soprano): ' (B minor)
  8. Aria (soprano): ' (B minor)
  9. Duet recitative: '
  10. Aria (soprano): ' (G major)
  11. Recitative (bass): '
  12. Aria (bass): ' (B-flat major)
  13. Recitative (soprano): '
  14. Aria (soprano): ' (A major)
  15. Recitative (bass): '
  16. Aria (bass): ' (G major)
  17. Recitative (soprano): '
  18. Aria (soprano): ' (D major)
  19. Recitative (bass): '
  20. Aria (bass): ' (A major)
  21. Duet recitative: '
  22. Aria (soprano): ' (B minor)
  23. Duet recitative: '
  24. Chorus: ' (F major)

Music

In accordance with the nature of the text, Bach kept the musical phrases short and the accompaniment mostly simple. He repeatedly drew on popular dance forms, folk and popular melodies (such as La Folia); for the duet recitative "Nu, Mieke, gib dein Guschel immer her" (Saxon dialect for "Now, Mary, give me your mouth"), he quoted the fast part of the tune of "Großvatertanz" for the orchestra following the girl's words, "If it were only that! I know you already, you ruffian, you want always more after that." knowing that the audience was aware of the omitted words, "with you and me into the featherbed". He also used excerpts from his own pieces (BWV Anh. 11 and BWV 201, No. 7).

Recordings

References

Further reading

  • Alfred Dürr: Johann Sebastian Bach: Die Kantaten. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999.
  • Werner Neumann: Handbuch der Kantaten J. S. Bachs. 1947, 5th ed. 1984.
  • Hans-Joachim Schulze: Die Bach-Kantaten: Einführungen zu sämtlichen Kantaten Johann Sebastian Bachs. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt; Stuttgart: Carus-Verlag 2006. (Edition Bach-Archiv Leipzig) (Evang. Verl.-Anst.), (Carus-Verl.)
  • Christoph Wolff, Ton Koopman: Die Welt der Bach-Kantaten. Stuttgart; Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 2006.

External links