Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort (Settle account! Word of thunder), BWV 168, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the ninth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 29 July 1725.
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Bach composed the cantata in Leipzig for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 29 July 1725,[1] as the first cantata of his third cantata cycle.[2]
The prescribed readings for the Sunday are from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 10:6–13, a warning of false gods and consolation in temptation, and from the Gospel of Luke, Luke 16:1–9, the parable of the Unjust Steward.
The text of the cantata was published by Salomon Franck in Weimar in 1715 in Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer. Bach had not been able to set it then because of a period of mourning for the Duke of Saxe-Weimar Johann Ernst III.[2] The text is closely related to the Gospel, beginning with a paraphrase of verse 2 in the opening aria. The situation of the unjust servant is generalized, he is seen wanting mountains and hills to fall on his back, as mentioned in Luke 23:30. Franck uses explicit monetary terms to speak about the debt, such as "Kapital und Interessen" (capital and interest). A turning point is reached in movement 4, referring to the death of Jesus which "crossed out the debt". The cantata is concluded by the eighth stanza of Bartholomäus Ringwaldt's chorale Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut (1588).[1][3] Bach had treated the complete chorale a year before in his chorale cantata Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut, BWV 113, for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity.
The cantata is scored intimately, as many of Franck's works, for four soloists, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, a four-part choir only in the chorale, two oboe d'amore, two violins, viola and basso continuo.[2]
Christoph Wolff notes:
Bach translates Franck’s baroque poetry into an extraordinarily gripping musical form. The virtuoso string writing in the opening aria prepares and then underscores the emphatically articulated “word of thunder, that can shatter even the rocks” (“Donnerwort, das die Felsen selbst zerspaltet”), and which causes the blood to “run cold” (“Blut erkaltet”).[2]
The recitative is the first movement with the full orchestra.[2] The oboes first play long chords, but finally illustrate figuratively the text, speaking of toppling mountains and "the flash of His countenance". The closing chorale[4] is a four-part setting.[1]
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