Cantatas Over Coffee - J. S. Bach Cantata 75, “The Poor Shall Eat and be Satisfied”

June 8, 2023 - Pastor Brian Hamer

The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek him will praise the Lord!
Let your heart live forever!
​- Psalm 22:26 (NKJV)

On Saturday, 22 May 1723, the newly elected Cantor of Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) arrived in Leipzig, along with his wife, Anna Magdalena, their five children, their household goods, and one sister-in-law. After the relatively short trip from Cöthen, they made their way to the south wing of the St. Thomas School to move into the Cantor’s three-floor apartment. Bach and his growing family would need the free space as well as his stipends for weddings and funerals;  his fixed salary at Leipzig was a quarter of what he had been paid in Cöthen. The next day, Trinity Sunday, Bach and his family probably attended services at St. Thomas or St. Nicholas Church, where they might have sat together for the first and last time as a family in Leipzig. Starting the following Sunday he would serve the city with what John Eliot Gardiner rightly calls a “white-knuckled energy” (BACH: Music in the Castle of Heaven, p. 297), managing the music of multiple churches, teaching music and Latin at the St. Thomas School, raising a large family, directing the Collegium Musicum, and much more until his death in 1750. His Leipzig heritage began on 30 May 1723 with Cantata 75, “The Poor Shall Eat and be Satisfied.”
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The anonymous text of Cantata 75 develops several themes from the Gospel for Trinity 1, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (St. Luke 16:19–31), with chorale stanzas by Samuel Rodigast concluding Part 1 and Part 2. As you survey the text below, be sure to keep the governing parable in the Gospel lesson in mind. “The Early Music Show” on BBC 3 Radio, for instance, interprets the royal music (think of coronation music) in the opening movement as Bach—who often signed even his secular compositions “Glory to God alone”—self-heralding his arrival in Leipzig. A glance at the Gospel Lesson, however, easily solves the apparent riddle. The royal music in the orchestra depicts the rich man in Luke 15, “clothed in purple and fine linen” (v. 19). This is juxtaposed against the plaintive cry of the choir from Psalm 22 that the “poor [in this life] shall eat and be satisfied” with the fatness of God’s house. Movements 2–6 continue the theological and musical progression of this Great Reversal, that is, God casting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly. The chorale (Movement 7) is especially striking. Stephen Crist writes:

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​The vocal parts of the chorale [Movements 7 & 14] that concludes both halves of the cantata are similar to a normal four-part harmonization. What is novel, though, is the brief, catchy ritornello heard at the beginning and end, and between phrases. Played by the oboe, strings, and continuo no fewer than seven times (all but once in the same key!), it gives the setting an unmistakably joyous quality. – Oxford Composers Companion: J. S. Bach, p. 139

​Now grab a cup of coffee for “Cantatas Over Coffee,” picture yourself in Leipzig 300 years ago, and meditate on the first half of Bach’s first musical offering in Leipzig.

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PART I

1.

0:07 - Choir: The poor shall eat and be satisfied
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
Let your heart live forever! Psalm 22:26 (NKJV)

2.

4:16 - Bass Recitative: Of what use is majesty’s purple robe?
Of what use is majesty’s purple robe since it passes away?
Of what use is vast accumulation, for everything that we see
  must pass away?
Of what use are the fancies of an idle mind
  for our bodies themselves will expire?
Oh, how quickly it does occur that riches,
  lusts and pomp send our spirits to hell!

3.

5:17 - Tenor Aria: My Jesus shall be my all
​My Jesus shall be my all!
His purple [robe] is His costly blood,
  he himself my most precious possession,
    and the burning ember of his Spirit’s love
      my sweetest wine of joy.

4.

9:58 - Tenor Recitative: God overthrows and raises up
God overthrows and raises up
  in time and eternity.
Whoever seeks heaven here on earth
  will there be cursed.
Who, however, resists hell
  will there be gladdened.

5.

10:36 - Soprano Aira: I accept my affliction with joy
I accept my affliction with joy.
Whoever can patiently endure
  the misery of Lazarus
    will be received by the angels.

6.

15:32 - Soprano Recitative: Meanwhile God imparts a good conscience
Meanwhile God imparts a good conscience
  whereby a Christian can
    enjoy modest possessions with great pleasure.
Yes, though he be led
  through long adversity toward death,
    it is still well done at the last.

7.

16:13 - Chorale: What God ordains is always good
 What God ordains is always good: His will is just and holy.
As He directs my life for me, I follow meek and lowly.
My God indeed / In ev’ry need / Knows well how He will shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me. – LSB 760.1 (public domain)

​Following the forty-five or so minute sermon, Part II of Cantata 75 begins with a sinfonia, i.e., an instrumental introduction. Notice the addition of the trumpet, its first appearance in this cantata, playing the melody associated with the chorale text, “What God Ordains is Always Good.” It is also significant that Leipzigers often arrived at church just in time for the sermon, so Movement 8 would have been the first music of Bach to be heard by many of them. The intervening movements (9–13) continue to unfold the mystery of the Great Reversal, encouraging the believer to forsake inordinate love of earthly wealth and to cling to Jesus, come what may, knowing that “after grief, God gives relief” (Movement 14). The following movement presents the chorale text “not in a conventional four-part arrangement, but with the voice lines loosened in polyphony and placed in an independent orchestral fabric” (Gardiner, BACH, p. 296). 

PART II

8.

17:46 - Sinfonia 

9.

20:12 - Alto Recitative: Only one thing afflicts the Christian soul
Only one thing afflicts the Christian soul:
when it considers its spiritual poverty.
It believes of course in God’s godliness
  which makes all things new;
yet it lacks strength to the spiritual life
  to make the spiritual life produce growth and fruit.

10.

20:58 - Alto Aria: Jesus makes me spiritually rich
Jesus makes me spiritually rich.
  If I can receive his Spirit
    I will require nothing more;
  for thereby my life grows.
Jesus makes me spiritually rich.

11.

23:11 - Bass Recitative: Whoever abides in Jesus
Whoever abides in Jesus,
  practices self-denial
    that he might faithfully practice God’s love,
  has, when the temporal has passed away,
found himself and God.

12.

23:41 - Bass Aria: My heart believes
My heart believes and loves.
For Jesus’ sweet flames,
  from which mine spring,
    consume me altogether,
      for He devotes himself to me.

13.

27:26 - Tenor Recitative: O poverty, which no wealth can fill
O poverty, which no wealth can fill!
When the entire world
  withdraws from the heart
    and Jesus alone therein reigns,
  thus a Christian is led to God.
Grant, God, that we do not squander this!

14.

28:03    Chorale: What God ordains is always good
What God ordains is always good: This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, I shall not be forsaken.
I fear no harm, for with His arm, He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me. – LSB 760.6 (public domain)

Bach’s first cantata in Leipzig, though beyond the scope of importance that Leipzigers would have known or even could have imagined at the time, was nevertheless heralded in the local papers for its importance for Leipzig, following a year-long vacancy in the Cantorate. One press release reported that Bach’s music was received “with good applause,” a metaphor for saying well received or finding general approval.
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On the Monday or Tuesday after Trinity 1 (there is a discrepancy in the primary source material), Bach was formally introduced at the St. Thomas School by the chairman of the school board. On this occasion Bach was admonished “to discharge the duties of his office, show the authorities his respect and willingness, cultivate good relations and friendship with his colleagues, conscientiously instruct the youth in the fear of God and other useful studies, and thus keep the School in good repute” (Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, p. 245).

To say that Bach fulfilled his charge in Leipzig is an understatement. Over the next twenty-seven years, Bach produced a few hundred cantatas, a handful of passions and oratorios, numerous organ works, and much, much more. Somehow it seems fitting (albeit coincidental) that his first Leipzig cantata dealt with God’s promise from Psalm 22 that the poor shall eat and be satisfied. On that same Sunday, the following words were heard in the Introit: “I will sing unto the Lord for He hath dealt bountifully with me.” Taken together, these two texts preach the good news that those who are poor in spirit are given to sing of Christ. In and through the sacred music of J. S. Bach, the faithful continue to sing the gospel and to be satisfied with the word of Jesus’ cross and resurrection, to the greater glory of God. 

Note: The historical chronology, quotes, and facts contained herein are dependent on
Christoph Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Norton, 2000), pp. 243–245.