Bach Cantata No 48

This is a work comprising of 7 movements; a chorus, and two recitatives, arias and chorales. It is written for Alto and Tennor soloists and SATB chorus. The title of this cantata is Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlsen which translates to O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me. The first movement, the chorus is in binary form and in a minor key. Firstly like most baroque choral works, this movement is based entirely upon the one line, Ich elender Mensch wer wird mich erlsen vom Leibe dieses Todes. It also features the very common imitative counterpoint between the four sections of the choir, firstly between the Soprano and Alto, then the Tenor and Bass. There are also moments of homophony. However, unlike most choruses there is a cantus firmus in a solo trombone and oboe 1 and 2. The first section of this binary form is the instrumental and the second part is the choir response. The melody is made up of a melodic sequence is also very common in baroque choruses, although this one is not rising in a set pattern. As always the orchestra used in the chorus is the full orchestra, with a wind section and a string section with a basso continuo underneath all of that. The second movement, the recitative, is written for a solo Alto, and like all recitatives tells a story, and is comprised of many more lines of lyrics than the chorus, helping to move the story on. In this the scoring of the orchestra, unlike the chorus, is kept simple and keeps to the string section and a very simple slow moving basso continuo. The words in this recitative are very quick, comprised of quaver dotted rhythms. The third movement, the chorale, is all homophonic, disobeying a few rules that Bach himself set, to make the hymn seem more discordant and fit the word setting. It is comprised of very short phrases, less than one bar long in some cases, but others are several bars long. This is very common in baroque music, where symmetrical phrases only came in during the classical period. This again is for the whole orchestra that was involved in the chorus at the beginning. The word setting in this chorale is really met with the chromaticism, especially at the end of the movement. The fourth movement, the aria, is for a solo alto. The alto has the melody with the oboe playing a counter melody over the top, and also playing the accompaniment into the movement. All the way through the movement there is a basso continuo accompaniment to it all.