Chorale Architecture: From Expectation to Fulfillment

Our season opens with four cantatas that display Bach’s artful inventiveness with the chorale melody, evinced in the carefully wrought musical architecture he builds within and around each. Together they lead us on a musical odyssey—from anticipation to plea, vigilance to fulfilled joy. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, begins with a regal Advent invocation, shaped by an introductory French‑overture movement. At the program’s center stands the rarely heard Nimm von uns, Herr, BWV 101, a strict chorale‑cantata whose unusually sharp dissonances make Bach’s “Vater unser” plea strikingly intense. Wachet auf, BWV 140, offers both animated and serene readiness in its similar chorale-based approach. Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, concludes the program with joyful assurance, framing each part with the same chorale melody now cherished as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”