Week 3
Christus, der uns selig macht (Christ, Who Makes Us Blessed), BWV 620
Christ, who makes us blessed
Committed no evil,
Was captured like a thief
At midnight for our sake,
Led before godless people
And falsely accused,
Mocked, scorned, and spat upon,
As the scripture says.
–Michael Weiße, trans. NDK
Bach is never afraid to depict ugliness in his music. While we are regularly attracted to the beauty of his compositions, such as the Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites, Bach’s church music never shies away from dissonance or instability. In contrast to last week’s piece, the words of this chorale are rather uncomfortable. They tell the story of Jesus’ capture and trial, using harsh-sounding alliterative German words: “fälschlich verklaget, verlacht, verhöhnt…” (falsely accused, laughed at, mocked). Bach depicts these words through music that was, at the time, borderline shocking. Music has evolved so that this piece may not sound too harsh to our modern ears. Still, the dissonance and voice leading Bach employs break many compositional “rules” established throughout counterpoint development in the seventeenth century. Usually I would use a very thick, heavy registration using many organ reeds and mixtures. Since this is a prelude for worship, I will slightly pull this back while hopefully maintaining the “snarl” necessary to depict the chorale properly