Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe (Merciful heart of eternal love), BWV 185, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Weimar for the fourth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 14 July 1715.
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In Weimar, Bach was the Konzertmeister of Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar. It was part of his duty to perform a monthly church cantata. He wrote this cantata for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 14 July 1715. He dated this cantata himself "1715".[1]
The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Romans, Romans 8:18–23, "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." and from the Sermon on the Mount: Luke 6:36–42, the admonition "be merciful", "judge not". The cantata text was written by the court poet Salomon Franck for the occasion and published in 1715 in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer. Franck stays close to the Gospel, recalling the admonitions and the images of the "mote that is in thy brother's eye" and the blind who wants to lead another blind. The last aria summarizes the admonitions as "Das ist der Christen Kunst" (This is the Christians' art). The cantata is closed by the first stanza of Johann Agricola's chorale Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ (ca. 1530).[1]
When Bach performed the cantata again in Leipzig on 20 June 1723, he transposed it from F sharp minor to G minor. In that service, his fourth in Leipzig, he performed it together with a new cantata Ein ungefärbt Gemüte, BWV 24, after he had started his tenure as cantor with cantatas in two parts, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, and Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes, BWV 76.[2] He treated the chorale to the chorale cantata Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 177, for the same occasion in 1724.
As in several other cantatas on words of Franck, the cantata is scored for a small ensemble, here soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, oboe, two violins, viola and basso continuo. A choir is only needed for the chorale, if at all. In Leipzig the oboe was replaced by a trumpet for the cantus firmus of the chorale in movement 1.[1]
The opening duet is in two ways connected to the chorale which closes the work.[1] The melody is played line by line as a cantus firmus by the oboe, embellished and in a dancing 6/4 time instead of 4/4.[2] The first interval in the voices and the continuo is the same as in the chorale. The countersubject is the "Spiegelung" of the theme, it mirrors the theme, as human mercy should mirror divine mercy.[1]
The alto recitative is first accompanied by the strings, but ends as an arioso with continuo. The alto aria shows the richest instrumentation, with figurative oboe solos. The text of the bass aria with continuo summarizes all admonitions in one long sentence, but Bach splits it in parts, all introduced by the keywords "Das ist der Christen Kunst". The bass as the Vox Christi delivers the "sermon".[1] In Leipzig, the continuo of cello and bass in octaves was doubled by the strings, another octave higher. The closing chorale is illuminated by a soaring violin as a fifth part.[2]
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