Cantata 80, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"
Listening Guide
Movement 1
Final Movement
Listen on YouTube:
Performed by Betreft uitvoering van Musica Amphion. Leo van Doeselaar, organ.
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Composition: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is Our God), from Bach Cantata 80 (BWV 80)
Date: 1730
Genre: First-movement polyphonic chorus and final movement chorale from a church cantata
Form: sectional, divided by statements of Luther's original melody line in sustained notes in the trumpets, oboes, and cellos.
Nature of Text: View text and translation
Performing Forces: choir and orchestra (vocal soloists appear elsewhere in the cantata)
What we want you to remember about this composition:
- This is representative of Bach's mastery of taking a Martin Luther hymn and arranging it in imitative polyphony for all four voice parts and instrumental parts
Other things to listen for:
- Listen to the first verse or strophe of the hymn. He weaves these new melody lines into a beautiful polyphonic choral work.
- Most of the time the instruments double (or play the same music as) the four voice parts.
- He also has the trumpets, oboes, and cellos divide up Luther's exact melody into nine phrases. They present the first phrase after the first section of the chorus and then subsequent phrases throughout the chorus. When they play the original melody, they do so in canon: the trumpets and oboes begin and then the cellos enter after about a measure.
- Also listen to see if you can hear the augmentation in the work. The original tune is performed in this order of the voices: Tenors, Sopranos, Tenors, Sopranos, Basses, Altos, Tenors, Sopranos, and then the Tenors.
The following analysis was written by Michael Sundblad and was not provided by the authors:
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Text and Form:
Movement 1; Polyphonic chorus and orchestra
A mighty fortress is our God
A sure defense and armor;
He helps us free from ev'ry need
Which us till now hath stricken.
The ancient wicked foe,
Grim is his intent,
Vast might and deceit
His cruel weapons are,
On earth is not his equal.
Final chorale movement
That word they must allow to stand,
No thanks to all their efforts.
He is with us by his own plan,
With his own gifts and Spirit.
Our body let them take,
Wealth, rank, child and wife,
Let them all be lost,
And still they cannot win;
His realm is ours forever.