# My encounter with Bach's BWV 143 cantata 'Praise the Lord, my Soul'



## Muse Wanderer (Feb 16, 2014)

My encounter with Bach's BWV 143 cantata 'Praise the Lord, my Soul'

I absolutely love Bach's cantatas but during my cantata 'pilgrimage', that is still ongoing, I encountered what can only be described as a dud..






BWV 143, 'Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele' on volume 5 of the Suzuki cycle.

The opening chorus has none of the charm and prowess associated with Bach. It is repetitive, short and boring with a mix-up of horns and drums that just give me a headache.

The following soprano choral has no qualities to write about.

The tenor recitative lasts 23 seconds... enough said!

Then, oh my, the tenor aria starts..... beautiful... this is the Sebastian I adore!

Next, the bass aria - not again! :scold: The bombastic horns and drums first heard in the opening chor are awful. This can't be dear old Sebastian!

Second tenor aria / choral has a nice bassoon and acceptable tenor lines. Nothing to be excited of but this is Bachian in nature.

The closing Chor und Choral, oh how much I miss Handel's 'Alleluia'. This is just plain boring!

This closing cantata on Suzuki's Volume 5 was completely unexpected when I heard it first. You have masterpieces BWV 18, BWV 152, BWV 155 and BWV 161.

Then you close with BWV 143 and you hear mediocrity apart from the two tenor arias that are fine.

Well, I had to delve deeper into the why...Jsbachcantatas.com: Chapter-65 BWV 143

Julian Mincham wrote the following:

"This is a difficult work to write about. Its authenticity is extremely doubtful (Dürr p 160-161) and internal evidence drawn from the musical construction gives rise to additional uncertainty. For one thing, nowhere else in the cantatas does Bach employ the combination of three horns and drums. It is, of course, dangerous to assume, particularly with a composer as daring and adventurous as Bach, that a unique event is evidence of lack of authenticity. But it is a rousing and effective sound and having used and heard it once, why not again? However, the most telling evidence comes from the quality of some of the writing or, indeed, the lack of it."

His movement by movement analysis is, as usual, very informative.

This may well have been completed by someone else with two nice arias by Bach incorporated within it.

Or just maybe, even though unlikely, Bach had a bit of a migraine at the time and couldn't care less!

Anyway there you have it, from a JS Bach fanatic! :tiphat:


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